POST GAME PHX SUNS - HOME

Celtics Wrap: Kemba Walker Ties Season-High 32 Points In Win Vs. Suns
Walker looked as good as he ever has in a Boston uniform


NESN by Alexandra Francisco

For everything that went wrong for the Boston Celtics on Thursday, whether it be the 20 turnovers or the unbalanced offense, all the bad was outshined by Kemba Walker’s performance.

The starting point guard looked perhaps as good as he ever has in a Celtics uniform, tying a season-high 32 points with four rebounds and four assists. He got the team going again after every Phoenix run and led the way to a 99-86 win.

Everyone else barely reached double-digit scoring, though, with Payton Pritchard reaching the 10-point mark in the fourth quarter and Smart finishing with 11 points, five assists, seven rebounds and a steal with some clutch defense.

Tatum looked like he needed a break, with a strong start facilitating flattening out before a fourth-quarter surge. He managed a 15-points, 11-rebound double-double with six assists and a steal. Tristan Thompson (nine points, 12 rebounds) flirted with a double-double as well.

Chris Paul (22 points, eight assists) did veteran All-Star point guard things for the Suns, but a poor game from Devin Booker and a worse 3-point percentage from Phoenix allowed the Celtics to maintain a semi-comfortable lead.

Boston improves to 32-27 with the win. Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Romeo Langford
C: Tristan Thompson
PG: Kemba Walker
SG: Marcus Smart

WALKER CAME READY
Coming off the first triple-double of his career in a loss Monday, Tatum looked like he wanted his second in short order.

He came out of the game with an assist on Thompson for the Celtics’ first points of the game and had an early four points with five rebounds and four assists in the opening quarter.


Kemba Walker led the scoring effort, though, seeming to shake that illness that kept him out against Chicago. The point guard was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field (with three 3-pointers) for 11 points and an assist after one.


Boston and Phoenix were neck-and-neck half the frame until Walker lifted the team by as many as 10 points, but the Suns ate that up to tie things up with two minutes to play.

But Smart hit a triple after that to create some separation. He had five points in the quarter, three rebounds and this awesome assist:


Boston closed out the quarter up 26-21.

TURNOVER TROUBLE
Ball movement was great, with the Celtics making the extra pass time and time again. But on two occasions in the first half, that led to shot clock violations. And turnovers in general (they had 14 in the first two quarters alone) plagued Boston as Phoenix’s pesky defense pressured it.

Semi Ojeleye hit an early three, put points were difficult to come by most of the quarter.


That is, until Walker started looking like an All-Star again.

The Celtics closed out the half on a 16-4 run, and the point guard seemed to have a hand in all of it, going head-to-head with Chris Paul to enter the break with 19 points (7-for-8 from the field), three assists and two rebounds.

Boston was up 53-37 at the half.

DON’T GET SLOPPY
Walker remained consistent in the third, but the Celtics couldn’t shake that sloppiness starting the second half.


And through the third, no Celtic but Walker managed hit double-digit scoring.

A Phoenix zone defense was hard for Boston to penetrate as Paul created balanced opportunities for himself, Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges. But with Booker on the bench, the Suns managed a 10-2 run and cut the Celtics lead down to eight points with three minutes left.


But someway, somehow, despite their 20 (!!!!) turnovers, Boston closed it out 77-65.

JUST HOLD ON
Smart and Walker were crucial down the stretch facilitating the ball, but offense still was hard to come by. They found Pritchard on the arch for this beauty, though.


Not long after that, Walker provided more insurance with yet another triple.


Tatum got back into the mix in the fourth with a 26-foot step back jumper over Paul, and the with that, the Celtics essentially got back into the win column.

PLAY OF THE GAME
We can’t not mention this. Marcus Smart stole Devin Booker’s lunch.


UP NEXT
Quick turnaround with a back-to-back, and Boston heads to Brooklyn for a Saturday night tilt at 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Thank the basketball gods that Kemba is BACK!

Kemba Walker is in a four way tie for first in the league in charges taken.

Kemba has really been playing with heart. Marcus style.

We got lucky with them being on a SEGABABA, and with the first game being such an emotional win.  We also got lucky with the refs, in my opinion.  I thought we got our shares of marginal calls, for a change.  They got lucky because we're down Jaylen, RWill and Fournier (who's he?  I've heard the name but am having a problem putting it together with a face).  All in all, what should have been a fairly easy win for a very good team was a dogfight that they lost.  

Not that we didn't give them a chance with our 20 turnovers.  If there's one thing we need to clean up before the playoffs it's our turnovers.  Our bench, who only played a total 68 minutes out of 240, were responsible for 7 of them.  Grant had 3, but Tatum had 5, Kemba had 4 and Thompson had 4.  So there's 13 just from those 3 players.  Too many.  Tatum had 6 assists but those 5 turnovers all but wipe out the benefits of the assists.  Mike Gorman said that Phoenix has a great point guard and, when you have a great point guard, you can go far into the playoffs.  This is something Danny should be aware of, but it seems like he's confusing a high-scoring guard (e.g. Kyrie, Kemba) with an elite point guard.  Marcus is the only floor really competent, reliable floor general we have.  The rest are either scorers who think they're floor generals or rookies (PP) or a two-way (TW).  Zero depth at floor general.

It's been a long time since I've said "Thank God for Kemba!", maybe never since I didn't care what he did in Charlotte, but last night one.  32 points on 11-17, 5-11 from 3.  This was vintage All-Star Kemba, he had it all going for him last night.  As was mentioned by another poster, with the 3 charges he took last night, he is now in a league-wide 4-way tie for most charges taken.  That's quite a sacrifice for an undersized guard since the players running over him are almost always much bigger, heavier and coming harder.



Tatum 3-17.  That makes him 6-34 in his last two games.  He's not taking what the defense is giving him and they're throwing double teams at him all the time now, especially last night when his running mate, Jaylen Brown, wasn't playing.

His 4 turnovers notwithstanding, Tristan Thompson was in full beast mode last night.  This is what we signed him for.  12 rebounds, 5 of them offensive.

Langford got the start and played ok.  Made some nice defensive plays and had to defend against Booker.  He doesn't deserve all the credit for Booker's off night but he deserves some (all 3 of Kemba's 3 charges taken were against Booker, who ended up fouling out).  Booker only played 26 minutes, a large part due to his foul trouble and that was Kemba and Romeo and, of course, Marcus Smart.  Smart defended Booker a lot.

Here's our defensive highlights.  They shot 41% for the game.  Not all of that was due to SEGABABA.  Some really good defense by Jabari Parker, who is not known for that.  Kemba taking charges and Smart just driving Booker crazy.  However much credit we deserve for winning this game, as a team and not just because of individual (read 'Kemba Walker') performance because of our defense, and what Celtic fan doesn't love smothering defense?  This is fun film.



Parker with another good game.  Only 6 points, but on an efficient 3-5.  He had 4 rebounds, 4 assists and only 2 turnovers in 15 minutes.  I'm ok with all that.  Clearly this was an excellent signing by Danny, especially since he only had to give up the unappreciated Mo Wagner.  Next year Parker should be even better.  More time in Brad's system, more time playing with the same teammates and he will also know that next year is his showcase year.  If he wants to resurrect his career it begins now but ends next year.

We only took 77 fgas.  We only took 77 fgas because we turned the ball over 20 times and they got 10 steals.  That's 30 loss of possessions, along with the accompanying loss of shots.  They got 24 points off of our turnovers.  We made up for our offensive ineptness by winning the frito battle 24-9.  They also bailed us out by shooting 17% from 3, which has nothing to do with the refs, but which we cannot count on.  In sum, I feel like they outplayed us, but it's hard to make a definitive statement because of our depleted roster.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307691


Bob


.

Jabari did play good defense, in the right match up, without covering guys with a speed advantage, Jabari has length and can defend somewhat. Kemba with his best 2 way game of the season. We did defend surprisingly well, considering we were without Jaylen and RWill, the teams defense carried this victory, very good team effort on Booker. Their shots aren’t falling yet, but seeing good things on the floor from Romeo and Nesmith. Nesmith actually knocked down a few and liking seeing how well Romeo defends, both players can find a niche/role on this team. Tatum showed up, playing in a fog somewhat, but credit to the team for winning with his game off and key players off too.

Kemba Walker produced his best two-way game this season.

The Celtics won this game because they were the more physical team and the Suns were coming off an exhilarating win over the Sixers the night before.  They wilted under the heavy duty on the ball pressure that the Celtics put on them.  

Marcus Smart's defense against Booker was on an elite level.  

Some bits and pieces

TT had 12 rebounds

PP with 10 points off the bench

JP with a solid 6 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assist game and a little D

Nesmith nailing two 3 pointers while displaying great form and structure.

The Green Kornet on the DNP list.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Jabari did play good defense, in the right match up, without covering guys with a speed advantage, Jabari has length and can defend somewhat. Kemba with his best 2 way game of the season. We did defend surprisingly well, considering we were without Jaylen and RWill, the teams defense carried this victory, very good team effort on Booker. Their shots aren’t falling yet, but seeing good things on the floor from Romeo and Nesmith. Nesmith actually knocked down a few and liking seeing how well Romeo defends, both players can find a niche/role on this team. Tatum showed up, playing in a fog somewhat, but credit to the team for winning with his game off and key players off too.

"Kemba with his best 2 way game of the season."

EXACTLY

dboss wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Jabari did play good defense, in the right match up, without covering guys with a speed advantage, Jabari has length and can defend somewhat. Kemba with his best 2 way game of the season. We did defend surprisingly well, considering we were without Jaylen and RWill, the teams defense carried this victory, very good team effort on Booker. Their shots aren’t falling yet, but seeing good things on the floor from Romeo and Nesmith. Nesmith actually knocked down a few and liking seeing how well Romeo defends, both players can find a niche/role on this team. Tatum showed up, playing in a fog somewhat, but credit to the team for winning with his game off and key players off too.

"Kemba with his best 2 way game of the season."

EXACTLY

Healthy this team can go places IMHO

The load management/rest rehab was good for Kemba, hopefully it will be as good for Frenchy, Jaylen and RWill.