2022 - 2023 POST GAME MEMPHIS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Holds Off Late Grizzlies Rally To Net Win
Marcus Smart had his best game of the season

NESN by Greg Dudek

The Boston Celtics recorded their third straight win on Monday night by holding off the Memphis Grizzlies, 109-106, at FedExForum.

The Celtics improved to 7-3 while the Grizzlies went to 7-4 after losing on their home floor for the first time this season.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics showed what happens when they play at their apex and did so for a large portion of the second quarter.

Boston blitzed the Grizzlies by going on a game-altering 20-0 run with superstar Jayson Tatum at the center of it. The run turned a nine-point deficit into a double-digit lead as the Celtics played to practically their maximum potential. The Celtics got it done on both ends during the stretch and showed just how dominant they can be with all the talent they can put on floor.

But the Celtics couldn’t sustain that level of play in the second half, which is something they are still working on as consistency has been a small issue so far at the beginning of the season. Boston actually trailed by a point heading into the fourth quarter.

The Celtics used another run, though, this time a 14-2 spurt in the final frame to seize control and put the Grizzlies away for good.

Jets Kicker Goes Full Charlie Brown On Embarrassing Opening Kickoff

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tatum got it going after getting called for a technical foul at the end of the first quarter. He spearheaded the massive 20-0 tear and finished with a game-high 39 points on 12-for-25 shooting. He did struggle from deep though, going 3-for-11 from beyond the arc, but helped himself out by going 12-for-16 from the free-throw line.


— Marcus Smart’s passing was on another level against the Grizzlies as he continuously set up his teammates. He handed out 12 helpers along with 15 points to notch a double-double. He also had seven rebounds.


— Ja Morant is an electrifying catalyst for the Grizzlies and he displayed why again against the Celtics. Morant tallied a team-high 30 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. He showed off an improved 3-point jumper, too, hitting 5-of-12 attempts from deep.


WAGER WATCH
DraftKings Sportsbook thought there wasn’t a great chance of Smart registering a double-double with odds of him obtaining the feat at +1100. But he secured his second straight double-double by the third quarter, and a $100 wager on the prop bet would have netted out a total of $1,200.

UP NEXT
The Celtics return home Wednesday to take on the 3-8 Detroit Pistons. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Barring the brain-fart 4 missed free throws in a row at the end by Tatum and Smart to make it close, I'm pretty impressed again. That'll never happen again.
Yeah, a couple of defensive lapses but with RWIII in the game, none of that would be happening. That's what we are asking ourselves all the time. If RWIII were there, would we be 7-3? Would we have lost to CLE twice? No. We'd be tied with the Bucks or better. Not even close.

But the good news is this team as currently constructed and playing needs to figure a few things out. I'm glad CJ doesn't call time outs. Something challenging. New way of thinking. Basketball is brawn and brains. Nobody bails me out at work. I don't get a time out when I'm effing up. Basketball is a game of runs. Get used to it. Figure it out. Act As If.

db

One of the best games ever by Smart, he keeps playing like this, we could have 3 all stars in AS game. Tatum taking his game to new heights, he’s still only 24; if he finally gets calls, we will be giddy and on to 60 plus wins. Al looks great, like giving him load management. This team is gonna be really scary if the Timelord can come back healthy….

cowens/oldschool wrote:One of the best games ever by Smart, he keeps playing like this, we could have 3 all stars in AS game. Tatum taking his game to new heights, he’s still only 24; if he finally gets calls, we will be giddy and on to 60 plus wins. Al looks great, like giving him load management. This team is gonna be really scary if the Timelord can come back healthy….

Agree Cow. Smart's passing last night was amazing, when he plays like that we are very difficult to beat. The defense also seems to be getting better, and I think it will continue to improve until Timelord returns. Jaylen, Al, Grant, JT, Brogdon and of course Smart are all good on ball defenders, and I think they will become more connected over the next month. Brogdon finally had an off game, but he still does so many good things you can live with him when he's off.

I liked this W.  Coming into the game we were 6-3 and they were 7-3, 4-0 at home.  They were the top offensive rebounding team in the league, thanks to Steven Adams who didn't play, but we are without RWill.  I love Mountain Man Memphis Grizzly Adams, he's my kind of throwback center, but RWill fills a very important defensive role for us too.  An excellent test for us, especially since we're on a 2 game road trip.  I wanted to see what we had in the tank after the Knick game.  Were we going to have an emotional letdown after we kicked the snot out of the Knickerbockers?  Apparently not, and that's a good step towards professional maturity.

I also liked it because it wasn't a 133-118 score like we had against the Knicks.  We shot a healthy 46% but only 32% from 3.  37 3pt fgas out of a total of 82.  Under half.  Good, Joe, good.  Nevertheless, we won.  We won despite shooting horribly from 3, which has been the driver behind our #1 offense.  We only gave up 106 points.  I am very happy with that, our defense season-to-date has driven me a bit crazy.  I'm very happy winning a game where our offense was turbocharged.  HOWEVER, we were up 11 with 3:21 left and hung on to win by only 3.  There's something for Joe to talk about on the flight back to Boston.

Clearly the star of the game for us was Tatum.  Our offense was awful when he sat.  Luckily he didn't sit much, playing 40 minutes.  But he went 3-12 from 3.  This is a shooter's short-term memory loss, the next one's always going in even when they're not.  Drives me crazy but I think we've all seen this phenomenon too many times to make believe it doesn't exist.  Jayson's idol, Kobe Bryant, had this in spades.  He kept shooting no matter what his boxscore or shot chart looked like, and so does his Celtic prodigy.  Tatum took 16 ftas.  He's averaging 8.9 ftas/game this year.  That is the highest of his career, by far.  Every year his ftas have increased.  His previous high was last year and it was 6.2 ftas/game.  2.7 more ftas/game, shooting 87.6% from the line (also his career high) is good for 2.4 more ppg.  They also provide more opportunities for +1s.  His scoring average last year was 26.9ppg.  His average so far, through 10 games, is 31.2ppg.

28-14.  That's the fta discrepancy last night.  This game, otherwise very close statistically, was won by Boston at the frito line and Jayson Tatum took 16 of those 28.




Last night was the Jayson Tatum and Ja Morant show and Temetrius Jamel (his real first and middle names) didn't disappoint either.  No wonder he goes by 'Ja', I would too.  What a fun player to watch.  30 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists.  The knock on him was that he couldn't shoot from range.  Great point guard, great floor general and finisher around the rim, but not a shooter.  Well, he shot 5-9 from 3 last night and is shooting 45.7% from 3 so far this year.  As we've said many times on this board, shooting can be learned if you're a willing and dedicated student.  Ja obviously is (and Ben Simmons isn't, obviously).

Smart with a 15 and 12 double-double.  7 ribbies too.  He was slicing and dicing them up.  A great game by Smart on both ends.  He was 2-6 from 3 (which actually improved his %) but he was 6-11 from the field (therefore he was 4-5 from 2).  When Smart plays like this we are much harder to beat, because he's not a drag on the offense.  This is his second straight double-double, averaging over 10 apg.  He's averaging a career high 6.6apg.

Cameron Tabatabaie @CTabatabaie
yesterday
Just now on the Grizzlies broadcast: "Tatum may be the best player on the floor, but Smart may be the most valuable"

I listened to the Memphis announcers last night.  They were talking about what a great game Smart was having all game.  We get frustrated with him sometimes when he has his 4-15 shooting nights but people who know basketball, and sports announcers sure see enough of it, appreciate what he does.  At about the 1:00 mark of this highlight film you hear them say that "Marcus Smart has his fingerprints all over this game" and how he's "dominating every facet of this game".  Most of us listen to Mike and Scal and not the other team's announcers.  It's interesting to hear how the other side sees us.




Brogdon was 3-12, so not a good shooting night for him, but he had 10 rebounds and 4 assists.

Only a grand total of 56 bench minutes.  Joe stuck with the starters last night.  I was wondering if Kabengele was going to get some minutes, with Luke being out but neither he nor Blake got in the game.  I realize Joe has to play the hand that Brad gave him but I did not have Luke Kornet being the undisputed #3 center on this team on my bingo card starting the season.  Still can't really believe it.

Jaylen was 8-20 and struggled all night, but he got 9 rebounds.  7 turnovers.  7.  We had 15 as a team.  Let that settle a bit.  I love Jaylen and I'm not yelling "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!" but DAMN.  I've never seen a player regress like this.  His TO/game are at a career high 3.2/game.

15 fast break points for us vs 11 for them.  Joe has done a very good job of instilling the mindset of uptempo basketball into the players, because we haven't had many games where we didn't run.  Anytime you're over 12 fast break points/game you're doing pretty well there, it seems to me.

Now back home for the 3-8 Pistons.  They're 0-5 on the road so far.


Bob


.

Tough road win against a very competitive opponent.

We saw an uptick in our defense last night however without their bigs we did not have to deal with playing defense in the post against Adams or Jared Jackson (remember he was out too)

Great floor game by Smart.  I cannot recall seeing B2B games from him with those many assists.  

Last night the rotations were very different and it seemed to effect the team.  Grant started and looked lost most of the game.  I was surprised that our starters played that many minutes.

Anyways we won on the road.  Take the win!

Hi,
I agree with others - there is some progress on the defensive side. I hope they will keep this trend going.
Yes, JB was awful last night despite 21 points and 9 rebounds. And he was utterly frustrated and disgusted with himself. I'm sure he learns out of this.

AK

Smart with one his best games evah. Love to see more of that.
Memphis color analyst Brevin Knight knows a little bit about playing the point as he himself played 10 NBA years and he was an outstanding college player. Pretty good analyst as well.

Ktron wrote:Smart with one his best games evah. Love to see more of that.
Memphis color analyst Brevin Knight knows a little bit about playing the point as he himself played 10 NBA years and he was an outstanding college player. Pretty good analyst as well.

ktron,

That was Brevin Knight? I was listening to that broadcast team and didn't know it was him. I haven't heard him speak enough to recognize his voice and I must have missed their personal introductions. Thanks.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

Ktron wrote:Smart with one his best games evah. Love to see more of that.
Memphis color analyst Brevin Knight knows a little bit about playing the point as he himself played 10 NBA years and he was an outstanding college player. Pretty good analyst as well.

ktron,

That was Brevin Knight?  I was listening to that broadcast team and didn't know it was him.  I haven't heard him speak enough to recognize his voice and I must have missed their personal introductions.  Thanks.  


Bob


.

Yes. He’s been a color analyst for the Grizz since 2010. I think he does a good job.

Funny side story, I’m not sure if you remember but they used to have a very colorful PA announcer who got league wide attention as being one of the best..until he got busted for snapping under the skirt pictures of women without their permission at a Church where he was also employed!! He ended up doing 60 days behind bars. Bizarre huh?