POST GAME JAZZ

Rapid Reaction: Celtics 97, Jazz 87

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Utah Jazz 97-87 on Wednesday night at TD Garden:

The nitty gritty
Slow out of the gates, the Celtics spotted the Jazz a 13-point lead, but made it a one-possession game before the end of the first quarter and used a dominating second-quarter effort to lead by 16 at halftime. Boston found a much-needed bench spark from the trio of Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger and Gerald Wallace (who was shuffled to the second unit Wednesday with Jordan Crawford moving to a starter's role). The Celtics pushed their lead as high as 25 and needed most of it to fend off the winless Jazz in the fourth frame. It was the first NBA victory for coach Brad Stevens. Gordon Hayward, Stevens' sidekick at Butler, scored a game-high 28 points to go along with nine rebounds, five assists and a steal in 40 minutes. Bass finished with a team-high 20 points, Wallace had nine points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench and Olynyk added 14 points and eight rebounds over 29:25.

Turning point
The Celtics opened the second half on a 13-4 burst that culminated with a Green 3-pointer for a 63-38 lead with 20 minutes to play in the game. The Celtics' fumbling away another 20-plus point lead seemed improbable, but Boston needed that little burst. As Boston snoozed for a stretch at the start of the fourth quarter, the Jazz rallied within six with 4:29 to go. Bass came up with a couple big shots (and a block on Hayward) to keep Utah at arm's length at the finish line.

Sellout streak ends
So it went out with a whimper compared to the hoopla of when the Red Sox's "sellout" streak ended. But with an attendance of 17,130, the Celtics' sellout streak ended at 289 games. Even still, Boston had a nice turnout (capacity 18,624) for a Wednesday night battle of winless teams.

Loose balls
Stevens loosened up his rotation, finding floor time for both Phil Pressey (2 points, 3 assists over 16:54) and Kris Humphries (2 points over 5:42). Those minutes came at the expense of Vitor Faverani, who had a painful start to the game (0 points, 3 rebounds, minus-8 in plus/minus over 6:04) and never saw the floor again. ... Keith Bogans and MarShon Brooks logged DNPs.

What it means
Well, the Celtics looked like they might kick another one away during a lethargic fourth quarter, but they recovered in time to taste victory for the first time in the 2013-14 season. The Celtics get a rare practice day Thursday before embarking on a Floridian back-to-back (Friday in Orlando, Saturday in Miami) to close out a stretch of five games in seven days in five cities.
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FAST BREAK: CELTICS AVOID WORST START IN FRANCHISE HISTORY

WEEI

By Ben Rohrbach

The Celtics avoided starting 0-5 for the first time since 1946-47 — the organization’s inaugural season — and delivered coach Brad Stevens his first NBA victory in the process, a 97-87 beating of the winless Jazz.

Brandon Bass (20 points), Jeff Green (18 points), Kelly Olynyk (14 points, 8 rebounds) and Jared Sullinger (12 points) all reached double figures, and Gerald Wallace contributed nine points and nine boards off the bench.

Here’s all that went right and wrong in the C’s first win in five tries to start the season.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Full-court Pressey: The former Waltham star didn’t score a point in his 12 first-half minutes, but at least the Celtics had a point guard. With the C’s trailing 20-10, Stevens yanked Jordan Crawford in favor of Pressey 8:17 into the first quarter. In his first four minutes, Pressey served up three assists — halving Crawford’s total for the entire season — and ignited a 13-6 run to finish the quarter trailing by just three.

A couple 3′s: By bringing Wallace off the bench for the first time this season and somewhat staggering the small forward minutes between he and Green, Stevens was able to ensure that one of his two best options was on the floor for the entire first half. Of course, the duo still saw the court together in spurts, too, combining for 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in leading the Celtics to a 50-34 halftime lead.

Getting possessive: The Celtics committed an average of 19.8 turnovers and allowed 15.0 offensive rebounds per game in their first four losses. That’s a whole lot of extra possessions. Against the Jazz, the C’s respectively limited those numbers to 10 and six through three quarters. Hence, a 22-point lead on their way to victory.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Worst first: Facing a starting frontcourt of Bass and Vitor Faverani, the Jazz dominated the interior from the start — just as the C’s first four foes did this fall. Enes Kanter scored eight of Utah’s first 14 points, including a trio of buckets within 3 feet of the basket, as the Jazz opened up a 13-point advantage to start the game. As a result, Stevens started Olynyk over Faverani in the third quarter, Sullinger’s minutes increased and Kris Humphries even saw the floor. Just like we drew it up.

Flash Gordon: The Celtics had few answers for Stevens’ protege, Gordon Hayward, who amassed 28 points (12-20 FG), nine boards and five assists. Keep in mind, he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. Just saying.

So on and so fourth: The C’s fourth-quarter struggles continued, accentuated by an 11-0 Jazz run midway through the fourth quarter that helped slash what was once a 25-point Celtics lead down to eight with 6:26 to play.

112288

Congratulations on the win

Three assists halved Crawford's total for the season (prior to game 5)? I don't believe 3 assists = 1/2 of 11 assists, but I guess this guy has a distaste for Crawford as do many others. I do credit Phil Pressey with upping the pace and helping to put the Celtics back in the game in the second quarter. But Phil was also on the floor when the Jazz came from way back in the fourth quarter, and Brad reinserted Crawford as the Celtics regained their composure and stemmed the tide.

In the absence of Rondo, I think there is room for both Phil and Jordan in the rotation. Phil seems better at setting a fast pace, and that would be a good attribute at the beginning of games. Jordan is obviously a more dynamic scorer, and his ability to create shots for himself as well as for others is valuable in crunch time. In between those two extremes, at least Brad has his choice between two PGs with very different skill sets.

I really like Gerald Wallace as a 6th man. He has great energy; he can be a defensive stopper; he's not a bad point forward; and he's the most versatile scorer on the team. What better credentials could a sixth man have? He entered the game around the time that Pressey; in fact, the entire second team entered the game at that point. I could make an argument that Wallace, Olynyk and Sully contributed more than Pressey to the comeback.

I've listed, on the Glimmer Thread, a number of positive developments that could suggest real improvement. The team approach to both defending the rim and grabbing rebounds would be tied at #1 in importance. The abilities of both Crawford and Pressey to put teammates in positions to succeed offensively would be a close third in my book.

Go Celtics!

Sam

The hoop gods served up the cupcake JAZZ, just when all hope seemed lost.

There were a lot of good things that happened in this game.  Most notably was Pressey playing 17 minutes at the point.  The Celtics offense all of a sudden became quite fluid.  At the time Crawford was playing pretty poorly.

When I look at both players Pressey is clearly the better quarterback on the team.  It is difficult to get too excited about Crawford who averages 3 assist per game.  But he does bring the ability to score.  But he is no PG.  He is a shooter that occasionally makes a pass to some guy that is open.

The sooner Brad inserts Pressey into the strating  lineup, the sooner the team will develop more continuity.

Was that a Kris Humphries sighting!

Kelley played extended minutes last night and spent more time rotating into the post and scoring.  The big surprise for some is that Kelley is not a proven jump shooter let along a stretch 4.  In college he only averaged 1.9 jumpers per game.  He is 0 for 8 from behind the arc.  He does his damage as a slashing center.  He may develop a reliable mid range jump shot but he does not have that shot now.  

So he needs to play the 5 spot and yes he is going to ge the shi..t kicked out of him at times but as he learns to identify opportunities in the post he can provide some offense and hopefully a few rebounds and assists.    

But it is time for him to cut that mop.  I'm tired of watching him with the girly push my hair back routine at the end of every play.  Cut the hair, get a tat or two and hit the weight room.  

Brandon Bass is playing very well for the Celtics.  His handle looks better than last year and he plays very good defense.

My last comment concerns the offensive production from our guards.  They need to score more.

dboss

As Dboss mentioned....Utah arrived when we needed them.

Victor guess it was nice to know ya, I suppose he will still get minutes and perhaps and even start but his interior defense is poor. Our front line will be tiny compared to others but we went on a nice run after the big V found the pine. When I'm sitting several hundred miles away and am closer to his man than he is something is amiss. He can get better and will but stepping out on the pick and getting back to cover is not in him, just not quick enough.

89 field goal attempts. NICE made 40 of them OK. shot 7-20 from three which is over a point a shot, acceptable but nothing great. Of course we held our own on the boards and only had 14 turnovers. Big factor in getting more shots is actually getting the shot off, there was a stretch in the second half where we got multiple shots just by challenging for the offensive boards as the ball went out of bounds off Utah. Suppose statistically that goes as a "team" rebound.

KO looked a lot more comfortable, made some nice passes inside 2 to Sully for layins. Overall better D too.

Only got 14 foul shot attempts. But Utah only had 18, refs let um play.

Pressey did OK considering there were cobwebs on him. Looks so small out there but once Rondo comes back I see no reason why when RR sits Pressey can't run the show.

Again we slowed down and let the pace slide. What got our lead was uptempo but we just don't sustain it. Walked the ball up multiple times in the 4th and as been mentioned thats 5-6 seconds the other team doesn't need to work on defense.

Hopefully we can get a split in Florida....and get at least a crooked number on the left side of the ledger.

Tommy's line of the night came early regarding the Jazz Center, Enes Kanter, " He's from Turkey.... but he isn't playing like one."


beat

It was a win which should help take pressure off the team and some players. I think Pressey played well in his brief time on the court with little time in prior games. Without a true point guard and a size center we are looking at a team that is very much challenged. I like the up beat attitude (minus Wallace) of the players in general. The test will come if they experience a prolonged losing streak in January/February.



112288

The seal has been broken. Halle-freaking-lujah!

Another 4th quarter swoon, we scored only 13 points, made this more interesting than it needed to be and kept Gino in the closet for another day.  

Matt Harpring was the Jazz color commentator.  He just couldn't stop going on and on about Olynyk's hair.  How long it must take to wash it, dry it, condition it.  I guess when you're the color commentator for the Utah Jazz this year you have to find something to make fun of, that isn't about your own team.


1.  I liked that Goldilocks was calling for the ball inside.  He's starting to settle in a bit and developing some confidence.  His scoring is up, 14 points last night, and his rebounding is WAY up, 8 last night with 4 of them offensive.  Him and Sully are really good offensive rebounders and, for a team that lacks height and bulk, that is a big plus.  If you can't ram it or shoot it down their throats on the first try, the second try counts for just as many points, if not more.  This is the second game that I'm sure of that he secured another possession for the Celtics by battling for the offensive board and getting it out of bounds off them.  He's starting to figure out what works and what doesn't work for him and he's starting to play like a #13 pick.  While I've never really doubted he'd figure it out, it's good that it's happening after just a week of regular season play.  A month from now we won't even remember the first few games of his career.

2.  I agree with the already expressed opinion of Wallace coming off the bench.  Sure, he's a ridiculously overpaid bench player, that's what is going to happen when you have two highly paid SFs, but he's steady, he works hard, and sets a good example (on the court).  9 rebounds last night for Crash.  He brings the ball upcourt a lot too.  If I have one problem here, and maybe I'm nitpicking here, it's that both Crash and Green were bringing the ball up court at a leisurely (Green more so than Wallace) when Pressey was on the floor.  I don't want to hit this too hard, since I know that Phil's presence in the game is unusual, but they should give up the ball to Pressey and run, not jog, without the ball.  That's the whole idea of having a point guard on the floor.  I think, and hope, that the more minutes Pressey gets (Hope #1) the more they'll look to outlet to him quickly and return to their more normal roles of running the floor and finishing the break (Hope #2).  Wallace needs to shut up, especially to the press, and ball but when he does, he's doing well.

3.  Another "Good Twin" Jeff night.  He took us from a deficit to a lead by just taking and making almost any shot he wanted, including a "what the hell" 30'er.  His impact was less in the second half, but that wasn't his fault so much as it was the emergence of

4.  Bass-o-matic.  He decided to score last night and score he did.  Inside, outside, clutch, he didn't care.  He's mentioned in a lot of trade rumors, I've offered him up in several, but that's not because I want him to be traded, I just think he's the one other teams would be most likely to bite on.  I was pissed when he went from Dallas to Orlando and was thrilled when he came here (although I didn't see it as a steal, since I thought Big Baby was good too) and have been a supporter of his since.  Last night, he took it to Derrick Favors, who might have the dubious honor of replacing Kenyon Martin as the dumbest player in the league.  It's rare for Bass to take 15fgas, but he did last night and made 9.  He also completely frustrated Favors.  If Crawford and Brooks get into trouble because they try to do too much and play outside themselves, then Brandon Bass is the anti-Crawford/Brooks.  He is almost always doing exactly what he should be doing and not trying to be someone he's not.



5.  Vitor and Rudy Gobert, the rookie 7'2" french toothpick with the almost 7'9" wingspan, both played 6 minutes.  In Vitor's case, he was on the floor for the first 6 minutes, when we went down by 9 points (16-7).  He was blocked twice, by Gobert and Favors.  It has been pointed out, on other threads, that our defense is worse with Vitor on the court.  I'd have to say last night bore that out.  His opposite, Enes Canter, had 12 of those first 16 Jazz points.  Canter ended up with 22 points in 38 minutes, meaning that he scored 10 points in the rest of the 32 minutes he was on the floor and Vitor was not.  Vitor's a rookie, he has a lot to learn like most rookies, and one of the first things he needs to learn is that you cannot let your man get position and the ball where he wants it.  In Canter's case, he wants it in the low block. Canter did and scored at will against him, and Canter is NOT an outside threat, nor a threat to put the ball on the floor and dribble past Vitor.  He's a Pekovic, a sausage grinder, a wrecking ball, a pounder.  Stopping players like that should be right up El Hombre Indestructible's alley, you would think.

6.  Crawford was a mixed bag last night.  3-9 shooting, but 4 assists and only 1 turnover.  I suppose I should accept the fact that he's a 10th man, at best, on a good team and now he's being thrown into the starting lineup playing a position he's not really meant to play and just be happy for whatever we get.  

7.  Pressey did a better job of playing point than Crawford, but his shot wasn't dropping.  I'm ok with that, as long as the offense becomes more coherent and less schoolyard, which it did.  We started to lose it when Pressey was on the floor, but he still made a good showing.  He's a pest on defense and is a pass-first guard on a team that has a lot of players that need to be set up for their shots.  I hope Brad Stevens liked what he saw.

8.  We were able to drop our turnovers down to 14.  If we can stay there, we'll be in ok shape.  We won't be a great team, we're too unbalanced, but we'll win a decent number and be competitive in a lot more.  20 turnovers?  No chance.

9.  Sully's a beast.  I could live a few less 3 pt attempts though.

I feel soooooooo much better today.  Stevens has to fix our 4th quarter problems, continue to keep turnovers down to a reasonable number and we'll look a lot better because we're scrapping and we're making games competitive now that probably shouldn't be given those issues.  If we become a decent team, with the roster as unbalanced as it is today, then we'll take a nice bump up when Danny fixes that.

We have to understand, however, that might not happen until next season, the trading deadline at the earliest.  The trading deadline, this season, is March 1st.  That, plus Rondo's absence and probable awkward re-integration when he is ready, is going to make this a very hard first 3-4 months to watch.

November would be a brutal month even if Pierce and KG were still here.  We play 12 games in December, which is a lot better than the 19 in November, and 9 of those December games are at home.  We shake the kinks out in November and we could make some noise in December with all that home cooking.


bob


.

Pressey looked like a natural out there despite the lack of minutes before. He throws bullet passes and sets the pace well. I would rather have play most of the time at PG, and then bring Crawford in to rotate for him. This kid truly looks like a proper fill-in.

Speaking of Crawford, he had a pretty solid game. He hit some big shots down the stretch despite having his moments of playing a little out of control.

Bradley plays better when he isn't running the offense. He hit some shots and his defense was tenacious as usual. However, late in the game when Utah turned on the pressure, he made a few TOs. He really has to cut that habit of throwing errant backwards passes. But at the end, he redeemed himself and saved the game with a timely steal.

Jeff Green had a nice game as well. He scored 18 pts and had a decent FG%, was able to hit multiple 3s and attacked the lane a bit. Late in the game, they weren't going to him as much, but I think it was because he wasn't fully aggressive but also because they ran a bad offense with guys standing around and turning the ball over.

Vitor didn't really get a whole lot done, but those are the growing pains for a rookie. He'll get better.

Bass had the best game in my opinion. He knocked down some huge shots to kill Utah's momentum when it appeared the game was slipping away. Bass has truly worked on his game from last year. His ball handling is much better, he's hitting his jumpers with ease, and his physical defense has been vital.

Sully played pretty well. He hit a couple 3s I think and he also made a shot late in the game to help seal the deal.

I was shocked Humphries played. And he had a solid performance off the bench. What are the odds of two guys that have been collecting splinters both getting a shot on the same night?

Olynyk's night was up and down. He's still getting dominated and pushed around. Guys much shorter than him are still shooting over him with success. But he is out there fighting and trying to elevate his aggression. He's getting more physical from what I can tell. Also, Olynyk was able to score on some easy looks. The only thing that I don't like is that he often stands around just watching the ball.

Courtney Lee was 2-3 and scored 5 points in 11 minutes. Not a spectacular night but he didn't exactly screw anything up either.

Gerald Wallace is a strange guy. He's a very hard worker on the court and I respect him for it, I just wish that some of his comments didn't sound quite as divisive as they did. But otherwise, he had a pretty productive night. He isn't the scorer that Green is, but his contributions are still very much crucial. I just hope he buys into the team more and keeps some things from the media instead of putting everything out there.

Overall, a win is a win. They needed it.


KJ

KJ you wrote....

Sully played pretty well. He hit a couple 3s I think and he also made a shot late in the game to help seal the deal.

KJ he was 0-2 from 3

beat

beat wrote:KJ you wrote....

Sully played pretty well. He hit a couple 3s I think and he also made a shot late in the game to help seal the deal.

KJ he was 0-2 from 3

beat

oh? Maybe those were just deep 2s. Lol.



KJ

Beat

I really liked the triangular inside passing between KO and Sully and I forget the other guy. But it was pretty neat.

A win can do a lot of things for the confidence of he Celts. I thought the team really shared the basketball.

dboss

dboss wrote:Beat

I really liked the triangular inside passing between KO and Sully and I forget the other guy.  But it was pretty neat.

A win can do a lot of things for the confidence of he Celts.  I thought the team really shared the basketball.

dboss

Think the one time there were 3 passes with NO hesitation and a layup by Sully

We are going to need that cause we are not gonna win with brute force.

beat

Dboss, I agree that Pressey should be starting while Rondo is out because he's better than Crawford at setting pace and rhythm, which the Celtics really need at the outset of a game.  But I'll take Crawford down the stretch because (1) he's more of a triple offensive threat (scoring, distributing, and bailing out a stalled halfcourt offense) and (2) Pressey's diminutive height presents a vulnerability that opponents can target when they really need a basket. As influential Pressey was as a catalyst for the team's second quarter comeback, he was on the floor when the Jazz absolutely blitzed the Celtics' 4th quarter lead. Crawford came in and the Celtics suddenly drew a line and wouldn't let the Jazz cross it.

If Crawford's average of 3.0 assists per game represent a perceived weakness, what does that say about Pressey's average of 1.5 assists per game?  Actually, assists per game do not represent a valid comparison because these two guys play varying numbers of minutes per game.  If you put both of them on the same basis by examining their number of assists per 36 minutes, they're virtually identical (5.2 for Crawford and 5.1 for Pressey).

Crawford if far from "a shooter that occasionally makes a pass to some guy that is open."  Perhaps you've missed a lot of games, but Crawford has made a number of beautifully timed interior passes to create baskets for teammates.  Moreover, if a PG can spread the floor because of his 42% shooting from beyond (sometimes WAY beyond) the arc, that's a very valuable offensive weapon that (1) prevents defenses from sagging as they have done for so long in the case of Rondo and (2) opens up passing and penetration lanes.  Moreover, the Celtics have struggled more on offense than on defense, and Crawford scores at a 16.1 clip per 36 minutes compared to Pressey's 3.4 clip.  If you give each player two points for each assist and one point for each point he scores, Crawford is instrumental in 26.5 points per game to Pressey's 13.6 (per 36 minutes).

Sam

I think Crawford was helped by not having to run the point the entire night. The change of pace meant that Utah couldn't get too used to Crawford's tendencies.

Pressey was part of the spark that built the lead. Then towards the end of the game, Crawford made some key plays. However, the offense in general ground to a halt in the 4th. They almost lost because of their tendencies to become complacent on offense (standing around, lazy passing, settling for outside and contested shots).

As the PG, Crawford needs to get the guys moving more. He's much more likely to make a bad pass if he's the only guy in motion. But that situation is probably falls a bit more on Stevens' coaching and getting his guys to focus more.

I thought what helped them most was defensive intensity and getting the necessary stops to keep Utah at bay.



KJ