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Celtics-Hornets takeaways: Richardson plays the hero in C's win

NBC SPORTS BOSTON BY JUSTIN LEGER


The Boston Celtics earned a big win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night for their fifth victory in their last six games.

It came down to the final minute as ex-Celtic Terry Rozier drilled the game-tying 3 with 1:02 on the clock. Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart were able to knock down their free throws in crunch time to seal the 113-107 victory.

The win brings the C's three games above .500 (28-25) for the first time this season. They're now only a half-game behind Charlotte (28-24) for seventh-place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Here are our instant takeaways from the Celtics' win. They'll look to keep it going Friday night when they visit the Detroit Pistons.

Celtics bench saves the day
With Tatum and Jaylen Brown double-teamed and unable to make their usual impact for most of the night, the Celtics needed their supporting cast to step up. The second unit answered the call.

Josh Richardson played the hero with a team-high 23 points. The first-year Celtic was on fire from beyond the arc with six made 3s on eight attempts.

Also making his presence felt off the bench was Grant Williams, who shot 3-for-6 from 3-point range. He notched 12 points to go with three rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes.

Dennis Schroder added six points, three assists, and two steals in 17 minutes. Altogether, the Celtics' second unit outscored Charlotte's, 41-19.

Marcus Smart's playmaking sets the tone
The Celtics are now 5-1 since Smart returned to the lineup. The veteran point guard shined again with 22 points (7-11 FG) and six assists in Wednesday night's win.

Smart entered Wednesday's action as a league-best +118 over the last five games. He was a +5 vs. Charlotte.

The longest-tenured Celtic's playmaking has been a game-changer, and it had a noticeable ripple effect on the rest of the team in this victory. Tatum had a game-high nine assists and is averaging 6.3 assists per game since Smart slotted back in at point guard. Brown added six assists of his own.

The Celtics finished with 31 assists on 42 field goals, making the third time in their last five games that they've reached the 30-assist mark. They had accomplished that feat only three times all season before that, twice in overtime. Their season-high for assists is 34.

Jaylen Brown: Not a headband guy
Jaylen Brown decided to rock the headband for Wednesday night's game. It's an uncommon look for the Celtics' All-Star wing and one we probably won't see again any time soon.

Brown struggled mightily in the first half with seven points and five turnovers in 18 minutes. He had no choice but to ditch the headband in the second half.

That proved to be a wise decision as Brown finished with 15 points (7-15 FG), six assists, and a clutch shot when the C's needed him most late in the fourth quarter.

It wasn't Brown's best performance, but we'll simply blame it on the fashion choice. He's been playing well enough as of late (29.0 ppg over last four games) to earn the benefit of the doubt.

112288

In a terrible puzzling game for him for the most part, Jaylen still hit some key shots and a key midrange shot and great defensive pressure at the end. Great that he could put the mistakes behind him and still make some key plays at a crucial stretch for us. Marcus Smart has been lights out great for us recently and JRich had his best game of the year. The formula of 2 J’s attacking and carrying us didn’t exactly play out, as our key role players carried the team instead. Al and GWill also hit some key shots and the Timelord had the biggest play of the game, the great block on the perimeter!!

Total team effort as we built up an early lead and they made runs and we came right back at them. This Hornets team has a lot of talent, a great backcourt with Melo and Rozier and a future stud all star in Bridges. Jordan has done a great job drafting in the last 2 years finally, this should be a great match up for years as they have a great young point guard and foundation. I actually like the way we defended Melo with waves of our best defenders and he still went off for 38, kid is gifted. Most important I love the way we handled adversity even with our 2 stars having off nights.

This is our first 3 game winning streak of the 2021-2022 season.  It's easy to look at that as being weak (it is February, after all), it's easy to see that as being great (who doesn't love 3 game winning streaks?) but let's also remember that it's our first 3-game winning streak and it's happening as we head into the All-Star break.  If you're going to start to pull your heads out of your collective asses now is a good time to begin.  I'd rather be surging heading into the playoffs than in the first month of the season, wouldn't you?

This was a game of runs.  Those types of games giveth hope and then taketh away, at least until the next run when it giveth again.  They are frustrating games to watch, to me, because I wonder why we can score and/or defend for these few minutes but then just can't the next few minutes after those.

Lomelo Ball is the real deal.

Jaylen with 7 turnovers, most of them ugly.  Overdribbling, dribbling into traffic (again!).  On the other hand, he ended up 7-15 and with 6 assists.  That's a pattern I've recognized with Jaylen Brown.  Even when he's struggling it doesn't last.  He had 7 points on 3-7, 3 assists and 5 turnovers at the half.  That means he went into the locker room at halftime, centered himself, and came out and had a 4-8, 9 point, 3 assist and only 2 turnover 2nd half.  Not a massive turnaround, but not a liability either.  I believe a huge amount of credit should be given to Kelly Oubre for his defense on Jaylen.  He got inside of Jaylen's head.  Jaylen was passing out a lot faster when he had Oubre on him than he would do if anybody else was on him.  Oubre is a good match up for Charlotte vs Jaylen.

Tatum with a 6-16 night.  He had 9 assist, 3 turnover night too.  That's really good.  Now do it again.  He was also 1-7 from 3.  Simple math, Jayson, you were 5-9 from 2.  Stop playing for the applause and start playing for what's working.  He is now shooting 32.7% from 3 for the year.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 1 hour ago
Smart, 11/2: “Everybody’s scouting report is to make (the Jays) pass the ball. They don’t want to pass the ball.” Feb 2: “(Everybody’s gameplan) is to make the Jays pass the ball. They have to do a good job at it & they’re doing a phenomenal job at it.”


Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
yesterday
15 assists by Tatum (9) and Brown (6) led to … 37 total points 7 3-pointers (4 corner) 6 layups


Our saviors last night were Marcus Smart and Josh Richardson.  

Smart was everywhere, both ends.  If this is how he plays so that he doesn't get traded out of Boston then Brad should give him the stink eye everyday.  He has been nothing less than spectacular the last week.  In addition to his 22 points on 7-11 he had 6 assists and only 2 turnovers.  His chemistry with RWill is one of the reasons why The Time Lord has risen towards the top of the league for centers.  His defensive play was spectacular as well.  It's sad that we've become so used to him making great defensive plays that we just take them for granted.  His one-man stop on a breakaway at about 1:22 of this highlight film is absolute Sportcenter stuff.



Josh is in the news as a possible trade.  I would miss him.  He plays hard, on both ends, and when he has offensive nights like last night he is as good as any 6th man in the league.  Celtic high scorer with 23 on 8-12, 6-8 from 3.  He had a brain fart, saving a ball he should have let go out and it cost us, but the fact that I'm even mentioning that should tell you how rare that is.  He doesn't beat himself often.  Just don't give him away, ok Brad?  Give away Schroder, if you have to in order to get under the luxury tax, but don't give away Josh.




Grant with another solid game.  12 on 4-7, 3-6 from 3.  He'll never be a superstar, never an All-Star but he's become a solid NBA rotation player.  He's shooting 42.8% from 3 on the year on 166 3pt fgas.  He's 9th in the league.  Some of the players ahead of him are Cory Joseph (94 3pt fgas, 43%), Ayo Dosonmu (95, 43.2%) and Joe Harris (88, 46.6%).  If those players took as many 3pt fgas as Grant their numbers might come down and Grant would move up.  My point is that Grant's 42.8% is more believable than their higher numbers because it's based upon more shots.

Schroder with another useless appearance.

Ime playing an 8-man squad again.  This tells me he doesn't have much confidence in 9-15 and that's not good.

Horford with a weak offensive night, as usual, but 12 rebounds.  He played 33 minutes, which brings me back to what playing an 8-man squad says.  He'd rather have a 35 year old out there.

RWill with another solid game, 10 and 8 with 2 steals and 3 blocks.  He had 3 assists.  We should run more high post offensive sets through him.

Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
about 6 minutes ago
Because @Sean Grande asked (on a soon-to-drop Celtics Talk pod): Robert Williams now has 9 3-point blocks this season. His 8 above-break blocks are tied for 2nd in NBA (Thybulle, 13) Rob has equal or more 3-point blocks as 8 teams (CLE, UTH, CHI, PHX, DAL, MIL, WAS, DET)

How many centers will even go out to the arc, much less commit to it enough to block 3pt fgas? We have something special in The Time Lord.




Hornet fans will talk about how they'd have beaten us if Gordon had played (we've seen him play games, when he was healthy, and he couldn't do a damn thing right too) but they cannot complain about the refs.  27-17 ftas in favor of the visitors is a gift to anybody who took Charlotte +/- any points because of Hayward.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
yesterday
With tonight's victory, Celtics have now won five of their last six games and 10 of 14 overall.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
9 hours ago
Nets lost their sixth straight game to Kings tonight and are now just two games ahead of the Celtics. Their next two games are in Utah and Denver. C's face Detroit and Orlando before heading to Brooklyn. Decent chance they could have the same record as BKN for that matchup.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
MOST LOSSES - NBA EAST (Last five weeks) Orlando - 13 Indiana - 13 Brooklyn - 12 Detroit - 10 The Celtics next seven road games? Detroit, Orlando, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Detroit, Indiana NBA - NET RATING (Same five weeks) 1. BOSTON +9.6 2. Phoenix +9.2

Sean Grande
@SeanGrandePBP
The Celtics were already 6 games out of the Eastern Conference lead by mid-December.

They're closer now than they were then.

Boston has clinched tie breakers with Miami and Cleveland, and are now up 2-1 on Milwaukee, Toronto and Charlotte.



Despite everything, the injuries and COVID and lackluster play just two games between us and 6th place, and we're experiencing a mini-surge.

Sam used to say "Talk to me in April".  Indeed.


Bob


.

Many good things to address, JR being one of them along with the rest of the 3-man bench GW and even Menace gets a favorable nod for a change.  A little difference scoring balance line than we are used to seeing with typically 95% of points and ISO's coming from two of our guys.  Nice to know the bench can and will show up when Ime cuts the bench players to only 3.  

75% Assists/FGM.  That is nothing to sneeze at.

MS can score when needed.  It's up to him to find the balance.  We needed that when JT went back into his 3-point brick laying flashback.  Game balls go to MS and JR.  Hands down.  No one close.    

FT's priceless.  16-17.  

3-ball coming in at 38% despite JT massive efforts to sabotage.  If he'd been hitting, that number would have easily been over 40%, more like 45%.  I'll take the league average any day.  

Hornets are a good team with Ball and Rozier.  They are no match for a fully operational Death Star in the making!  

We managed to win with 18 TO's.  It didn't feel like that many.  May have to go back and watch the game again.  I finally found a channel that had the Hornets on it and wasn't blacked out!!

Now for the game Friday @ Detroit that has trap/crap game written all over it and twice on Sunday.  Let's hope we don't read the headlines on ourselves and have passed that stage.  

5-1 looks and sounds good.  Congratulations Celtics!! But 6-1 is even better.  Back facing the glass ceiling yet again.  At some point we need to not only break through the glass ceiling but smash it to smithereens.

If my math is right, and it is, for us to gain any movement in the standings of the East, we're going to have to win 90% of our games from here on out, BAM of 80%.  Tall order but doable.  If the teams above you are winning at least 6 out of 10 and you're 7 games behind in the loss column with approx 30 games left in the season, you'll pick up 2 games in the loss column every 10 games.  With some help we can be looking at 3-4th.  Maybe better is we start scaring everyone.    

Momentum is a fickle be-ahtch.  I'm not asking us to finish in 1st place but any loss now thanks to our bumbling around all season will be devastating.  TOR is already putting up a long jam and is still the first 2 games ahead of us.  If feels like they have been there in front of us forever.  We brought CHA down a peg last night.  Fantastic.  The Nets look like they want out of the playoffs altogether.  Fantastic.  Couldn't happen to a more deserving team and coach.  You've earned it, BKN.  Remember, SN has never coached in his life.  It's really starting to show.  Now you have to begin prefacing things with IF the Nets make the playoffs.  I'll be positive but once they bow out of the playoffs far earlier than expected, get ready for the nuclear option.  That experiment is done and long overdue for reset.  I said last season.  Everyone jumped on me.  Still time to change your mind.  Everybody in the pool with the Lakers.

db

I've been puzzled by Brown's sloppy passing and just plain stupid turnovers all season. He's got to expect to be doubled and tripled in the paint and he has to pass. I don't understand it. Focus!!!

dbrown's Bulpett thread about Brown doesn't surprise me. I hope Brown stays, but I hope he wakes up to and deals with his turnover issue. It's not something new but a recurring feature all season, IMHO.

This was a great win for the team.  I am recording it under the signature game category.

It is hard to pick a player of the game because both Josh and Marcus were spectacular.

Let me back up a bit.

Ime has gone to an 8 man rotation.  9-12 is not getting any run in absence of a blowout.

Those 8 guys are establishing a bond.  The chemistry is working.  However the 8 man rotation looks more in line with a playoff shortened rotation.  

Ime knows that his team needs a surge in wins and that leaves fewer opportunities for the young guys to play.  

The Hornets also ran with an 8 man rotation and 3 of their guys played more minutes than our top minutes guy, Jaylen Brown (38 Minutes)

The Hornets are a very well coached team.  There is one thing that they do better than us.  They run off of turnovers and missed baskets.  (24-10 fast break points)

LaMelo is really good.  

Terry Rozier should still be wearing green.

We could see them in the play in round.  

However, I think we will scratch our way up the standings and avoid that qualifying tournament.

It is not often that the Jays have subpar games in scoring and we still come away with a win against a really good team.  Jaylen had way more than his share of turnovers (7 out of 18 total) Their poor shooting from deep (1 for 10) was offset because they combined for 15 of our 31 assists.  

This win was as much of a team effort as we have witnessed all year.  Grant Williams shot well and scored 12 points.  Al Horford had 12 rebounds and made serial key baskets.  

In the end, this game came down to defensive stops. Marcus would not let Terry get the ball and both Rob and Jaylen shut the door on the Hornets.

Robert Williams block of PJ Washington's 3 point attempt with 28 seconds remaining and Boston holding a 2 point lead was phenomenal.  Rob had another great game with 10 points, 8 boards, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals.  He was also 2nd on the team in minutes played at 36.  More and more he looks like that 3rd star on this team.

In fairness to JB (2.9 turnovers), Durant has 3.0, Giannis has 3.5, Trae Young 4.2, Tatum has 3.0. I guess asking for something like DeRozan, 2.2 is asking too much.

dboss,

I'll give you the signature game.  The only reason(s) I personally would hesitate is because of the TO's, sub par games by our Big 2 and JT's bricklaying/not changing up by driving to the basket.  But then I realized that we're never really going to see a perfect game.  We won in spite of all those glaring demerits and as you pointed out against a team above us.  And given where this game landed and the recent gelling and turnaround, I'm cool with putting this game in the elite category.  I'll even throw in for free the long awaited for major inflection point if they don't lay an egg or two in the two games over the weekend.  It's at least a memorable game!  That work for you?

db

P.S. I hope RWIII becomes Russell, Jr.!!

Too bad they did not count block shots back when Russell was playing.  There is no statistical way to measure any Celtics player against BR.

What we do know is that Robert Parish leads the team in total blocks at 1,703 with McHale a close second at 1,690.  McHale also holds the team record for BPG at 1.74.

If the current trajectory for Rob continues, he is very likely to set the record for most BPG.

However he will be competing against guys who played in 82 games in the years that they recorded their best single season block totals.

Comparing players from different eras will always be problematic.  Parish and Mchale were a great shot blocking tandem at a time when neither would defend out to the 3 point line.  They made their bones in the paint and at the rim.