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Rapid Reaction: C's 113, Wizards 111 (OT)

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Washington Wizards 113-111 on Wednesday night at the Verizon Center:

THE NITTY GRITTY
A shorthanded Celtics squad leaned heavily on Jeff Green (season-high 39 points on 14-of-26 shooting, including 8-of-16 beyond the arc; finally he shines in the solo spotlight), while rookie Phil Pressey scored a career-high 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting while connecting on five 3-pointers (nearly doubling his season total). Gerald Wallace, starting in place of injured Avery Bradley, handed out a team-high nine assists, then called his own number while driving for the winning layup with 2.5 seconds to play in overtime. John Wall posted a triple-double (28 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) to pace Washington, while Marcin Gortat (10 points, 13 rebounds) added a double-double but the Wizards failed to get above .500 for the fifth time this season.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics led by as much as 19 (and 18 at the intermission), but Wall and the Wizards dominated the third quarter while rallying within a possession. Boston didn't trail for the first 41-plus minutes of the game, but the final 11:37 (6:37 of regulation and overtime) featured four lead changes and 10 ties before Wallace muscled his way to the rim and put home the winner late in the extra session. Wall's 3-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark allowing Boston to escape with only its second win of the month.

LOOSE BALLS
This was Boston's first overtime game of the season. The Celtics set a franchise record with a whopping 11 overtime games last season. ... The Celtics connected on 15 triples, shooting 44.1 percent beyond the 3-point arc. ... Rookie Vitor Faverani was the only available player that did not see floor time. ... Rajon Rondo did not dress as a precaution on the second night of a back-to-back, while Jerryd Bayless (sprained toe), Bradley (sprained right ankle) and Keith Bogans (excused from team) all were inactive.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (15-29) snapped a three-game losing streak while winning for only the second time in their last 14 games (all while playing with a depleted roster that saw minutes for recent D-League additions in Chris Johnson and Vander Blue). Boston will take Thursday off coming off this back-to-back before hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night at TD Garden. A reunion visit from old friends Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce looms on Sunday.
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ESPNBOSTON.COM

Stevens: Bradley out 'a couple of weeks'

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Wednesday that shooting guard Avery Bradley is "probably out a couple weeks" after spraining his right ankle during Tuesday's loss to the Miami Heat.

Avery Bradley arrives at the Verizon Center on Wednesday night.
Bradley planted awkwardly trying to defend Mario Chalmers near halfcourt early in the second quarter of Tuesday's game. He arrived for Wednesday's game in Washington wearing a walking boot and utilizing crutches.

Bradley had started Boston's first 43 games of the season, averaging a career-high 14.5 points on 43.9 percent shooting over 31 minutes per game. Just three games after Rajon Rondo returned to game action, Boston will again be without its preferred starting tandem as Bradley recovers.

The Celtics were without both Bradley and Rondo (precautionary night off due to back-to-back) on Wednesday in Washington. Gerald Wallace took Bradley's spot in the starting lineup.

Boston also signed guard Vander Blue to a 10-day contract out of the D-League in order to add emergency depth to the roster. The Celtics previously signed D-League swingman Chris Johnson to a 10-day contract on Friday.

The Celtics have seen their backcourt depth eroded recently. Last week the team traded MarShon Brooks and Jordan Crawford to Golden State and excused Keith Bogans from the team due to his frustration with a lack of playing time. Jerryd Bayless, acquired earlier this month in another trade, is expected to miss more than a week after spraining a toe in his left foot in Sunday's loss in Orlando.
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JEFF GREEN’S 39 POINTS LEAD SHORTHANDED CELTICS PAST WIZARDS IN OT

WEEI

By Jackson Alexander 
 
Gerald Wallace jogged out at tip-off as one of the starting guards –€” yes, the same defensive-minded Wallace who’€™s averaging 4.3 points per game. Phil Pressey orchestrated the offense as the starting point guard –€” yes, the same undrafted rookie who entered Wednesday night’€™s game shooting 23.5 percent from the field.

Wallace and Pressey’s promotions came after news that the Celtics‘ top-three guards Rajon Rondo, Avery Bradley and Jerryd Bayless were all unavailable.

But instead of folding given the stacked odds against Boston, the team upset the Wizards in overtime, 113-111, on the road Wednesday night to snap a three-game losing streak, and a 10-game road slide.

Wallace eventually played the roll of hero as he banked in a layup with 2.5 seconds left to give the Celtics (15-29) the win.

Jeff Green erupted for a game-high and season-high 39 points, Pressey poured in 20 points — including a huge 3-pointer in the final minute of overtime to give Boston the lead — and Jared Sullinger added 14 points and 10 rebounds.

John Wall completed a triple-double with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Five other Wizards (20-21) scored double digits, with Nene (17 points) leading the way.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE CELTICS

Green start, Green finish: The aggressive, electric version of the enigmatic Green appeared in the first half. With Rondo and Bradley absent, Green shouldered the scoring load for the Celtics. He collected 19 first-half points, on four 3-pointers to go along with three rebounds, and Boston held a 61′€“43 lead at the break. Green’s hot start did not peter out either as he went for a game-high 34, including two huge shots with less than minutes left, in a homecoming game for the Georgetown graduate.

Pressey: The Missouri product has proven this season that he’€™s capable of running the point in a past-first, low-turnover capacity. But many Boston fans want to see at least an iota of offensive prowess. He showed some rare offensive chops against Washington with a career-high 17 points. Pressey made six of first seven shots — including four 3-pointers — and dished out four assists as well. Pressey averaged 1.3 points per game and shot 6-for-38 from 3-point range before the game.

Hot half: Boston’€™s rag-tag lineup torched the Verizon Center in the first half. The C’€™s shot 51.2 percent over all in the first half and also finished 9-for-19 on 3-pointers, with Pressey and Green notching eight of those. 14 of their 22 made baskets were assisted. Their dominance was not restricted to the offensive end; Boston held Washington to 37.2 percent shooting from the field and 18.2 percent from beyond the arc, and pickpocketed the Wizards seven times.

Wall/Beal D: The recipe to success against the Wizards superb guard combination,  Wall and Bradley Beal seems easy enough: keep Wall out of the paint, and Beal inside the 3-point line. Entering Wednesday’€™s game, Wall was shooting 63.2 percent on shots from less than five feet. From outside five feet, his percentage drops to 34.2 percent. Beal, conversely, thrives from long range, as evidenced by his 3-point percentage. But that figure drops to just 37.9 on mid-range shots (5-to-23 feet). Beal and Wall scored 42 points, but on an inefficient 46 shots. Wall struggled in particular, shooting 9-for-29 from the field. Boston followed the scouting report, forcing Wall into 16 jump shots and he made just three of them. Additionally, he finished the game with as many blocked layups (six) as made layups (six). The game aptly ended with a Wall missed 3-pointer. Beal did not make any 3-pointers.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE CELTICS

No Rondo: Celtics coach Brad Stevens opted to rest Rajon Rondo on Wednesday, and avoid playing him in back-to-back games. Rondo played a season-high 26 minutes in Boston’€™s 93-86 loss against the Heat Tuesday. In his third game back from ACL surgery, Rondo shot 0-for-8 from the field and scored one point in Miami. He’€™s averaging 5 points (on 25.9 percent shooting), 4.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game. Prior to Rondo’€™s return, Stevens made it clear that he wanted to avoid playing his point guard in back-to-back games. Rondo is expected back versus the Thunder on Friday.

Third quarter: It would be unrealistic for Boston to maintain its torrid shooting pace, and 18-point halftime lead considering its personnel compared to Washington’€™s. But in one quarter, the Celtics massive lead had dwindled to just three points. The Wizards reduced the deficit with scorching shooting and stingy defense. Washington made 60 percent of its field goals, while forcing Boston into 27.3 percent shooting. Wall bounced back after a tough first half to score seven points in the quarter.


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I have read a lot of negativity directed toward Gerald Wallace as a player (and I'm not counting the complaints about his pop-offs). I've pretty consistently felt that negativity was vastly overstated. When give a job, he attacks it rather ferociously, and I don't buy the trite "false hustle" stuff at all. Tonight, he started at guard, played 40 minutes, and was—in my estimation—the pivotal factor in the game despite Jeff Green's MVP 39 points, Phil Pressey's great all-around game, and important contributions from others.

Forget the fact that he scored the end-to-end, slow-motion "fast break" layup that won the game. He hung in for 40 minutes, handed out 9 of the Celtics' 21 assists (no one else had more than Pressey's 4) and recorded six rebounds and four steals to go along with a very efficient 0 points. If Green gets my MVP award, Gerald gets my Sammie Award for efforts beyond the call.

This game produced a higher proportion of successful Celtics "hero shots" than any other two games combined. (That's my impression, not an official stat on hero shots.) Jeff, Sully and Phil accounted for most, if not all, of them. All-in-all, it was the most unorthodox and improbable Celtics win I've seen for a long, long time. And quite likely the most satisfying!

Unfortunately, other the than the exhilaration of the win and the rather incredible grit and staying power the Celtics displayed (I was really proud of that), familiar problems once again arose. Once they got a large lead, the Celtics stopped moving the ball and their bodies on offense. It appeared that their high percentage of success with shooting threes influenced them to depend on the long ball increasingly as the game wore on, while Washington was slicing through the Celtics porous defense for layup after short jumper.

I do believe the Celtics had every justification for tiring in the second half, after last night's rough game in Miami and the team's 3:00 a.m. arrival in D.C. So I have no strong conviction in my criticisms of tonight's performance. There were so many glimmers:

• Pressey showed he can be a confident and proficient shooter under certain conditions. Condition #1 is avoiding the long ball unless he's open and well-squared to the basket. Being in the game for long stretches seemed to give him a rhythm that helped his accuracy. I'm not sure how well that bodes for his shooting when he has to come off the bench to spell Rondo for relatively short periods of time. In addition, he ran the team well although Wallace (with his 9 assists and energy) may have run it even better.

• Obviously, Green had an accomplice in the rafters, scooping up Jeff's shot with a net and dropping another ball straight through the basket. One leg, wrong foot, falling out of bounds, with a hand in his face; none of it seemed to matter to Jeff. And yet, one of his most important clutch shots was a running hook as he took it to the hoop. Jeff also had an important block and played what I thought was pretty good defense in general. If he could produce 80% of tonight's output every game, we wouldn't be conversations about trading him. Instead, we'd be looking at him as a critical cog in the Celtics' future plans.

• Sully started slowly but built up a head of steam as he progressed, winding up with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He was a figurative and literal bear on the offensive boards in particular, grabbing only three offensive rebounds but—in other situations—occupying opponents long enough to slow down their transition game. He was another one who was making circus shots. I swear that, when Sully made one jumper, some Wizard was picking Sully's nose.

• While Humph had a sub-par shooting game, he had 6 rebounds and three crushing and absolutely crucial blocks without which the game would have been lost.

• The rather zany marksmanship of the Celtics seemed to exacerbate their tendency to play more iso ball than I'm usually comfortable with, as they assisted on only 51% of their made field goals.

• My point of view is that tonight we got a glimpse of how this team must play in order to win while still in the throes of development. Guys have to play their roles, sacrifice their bodies, generally overachieve, and not get down in adversity. It doesn't hurt to have a leprechaun on your side either.

Go Celtics!

Sam

No Rondo, no Bradley (meaning we're even more depleted at guard with the departures of Crawford and Brooks)?  No problem.  The moral here?  Scrapping pays off.  We almost pulled off a coup the night before in Miami and beat a better team (than us) last night.

Congratulations to the Celtics for playing, and winning, their first OT game of the year.  The fact that they gave up a 19 point lead to produce the OT is the subject of discussion.  I think Sam summed it up well and it is something we have seen so many times this year.  They just stop moving.  They just stop doing the things they were doing that got them the lead.  They stop playing with energy.  Last night, though, they rallied.  That, I would say, is the best part of last night's game, more than Sully and Green and Pressey and Wallace's games, it's that we didn't allow ourselves to finish the implode.  We rallied and scrapped and that is a big, big lesson learned.  You can turn it around, starting with clearing your head and playing with energy and ganas and pride.

After the insufferable hotair balloon I had to listen to in the Heat game, the guys doing the Wiz broadcast were an absolute joy.  I rarely know the name of the play-by-play guy (except for Mike Gorman, of course!), and I don't know this one's either, but he was extremely fair in his patter.  He called the game like a fan, who fell out of his seat when a great play was made regardless of what color jersey he was wearing.  He ooohed and ahhed over Sully and, obviously, local boy Jeff Green.  The color guy was Baltimore Bullet and world champion Phil Chenier.  I could listen to these guys every night I couldn't listen to Mike & Tommy, they are calling the game and not just hyping their teams.  They even copped to when Wiz players got away with fouls and got the benefits of the doubt from the refs.

1.  I'm going to spend more time on the "The Celtics are looking to trade Jeff Green" thread to talk about him, but obviously this was a monster game for Jeff.  The biggest single difference?  He demanded the ball last night.  Ariza was playing great deny defense and was all over him after he got the ball, but Jeff just would not allow himself to be denied.  Please, sir, may I have some more?

2.  The Wiz picking Sully's nose was Marcin Gortat.  Sully was throwing up fadeaway base line jumpers with Gortat falling all over him with his index finger caught in Sully's sinus cavity.  Not a great first 3 quarters for Sully but a great 4th.  9 points on 3-4 shooting (one 3 and 2fts), 4 rebounds in the 4th.  We scored a total of 23 in the 4th, so Sully was the force there.

3.  I absolutely concur with Sam's view of Wallace's game.  He pretty much did it all.  He was the point forward, he played defense with 4 steals (including a great one off of the MUCH quicker John Wall).  Sam talked about the "slow motion drive" that sealed the win.  The game slows down for all the better players, it's the rookies and fringe players that think the game is about going fast, faster, fastest.  Crash moved exactly as fast as he needed to get his man behind his shoulder, exactly as fast as he needed to move to freeze the baseline defender into thinking a pass was coming (a reasonable assumption given Crash's 9 assists) and no faster.  

4.  Pressey has been written up as always putting in an extra hour or so a day, working on his shooting.  We saw the fruits of that last night.  His confidence, certainly, isn't lacking.  Phil is Brad's type of player.  Based upon comments made by Brad, I'm starting to see him as the "underdog's coach".  He likes players with chips on their shoulders, with something to prove.  He said that once about Phil, he made a comment about Chris Johnson after his big game about "staying hungry", he likes players with a grudge against the world.  Pressey didn't have the passing game he usually has, Crash had that covered, but he earned his minutes last night.  A career-high 20 points on 7-10, 5-6 from 3.  His 5 TOs were way, way out of character, but his points were eye-poppers.  He also has very quick hands.  He gets in front of the offensive player just enough to be able to reach the ball but not so much as to create a blocking foul and then goes for it.  I saw him do that the other night (against Miami, I think) and again last night he got a jump ball on John Wall, singlehandedly frustrating a 2-on-1 fast break with Nene on the wing.  And then he wins the jump, salvaging the possession.  I believe Sully then scored on the subsequent sequence, so that's a 4 point turnaround starting with Pressey's transition defense. Go Phil!

5.  Chris Johnson is back to earth, shooting just 3-9 and 1-6 from 3.  He's not going to stop shooting, he just has that look about him, the question will be "what's his norm?  The 4-7 he shot in Miami or the 3-9?".  30 minutes?  That's starter minutes for a guy who showed up with the raindrop just previous to the one that brought eVander holyBlue.  He had 4 steals, tying him with Wallace for Celtics high, and seemed to be in the middle of a lot of stuff.  He has a nose for the ball.

6.  Hump with 3 blocks, at least one spectacular one on Wall's layup with 3 1/2 minutes left in OT with the score tied at 101.  Not a good scoring night for him, I've never seen him short-arm a shot as badly as the one he took with 3 1/2 minutes left in OT, it barely nicked the front of the rim but he was our baseline defender.  When the season started, and he was told he might be playing center due to our lack of depth there, he said "I've never played center before, but I'm willing to do whatever I need to to help the team".  Well, he's not the designated banger, that's Sully, but he has been our primary baseline defender for most of the season.  Bass did a good job when he was starting and now Hump is taking over that job.

7.  89 fgas is pretty good, can't complain about the pace, but live by the 3 and you'll die by the 3.  Last night, we were 15-34 from 3, riding Jeff Green's smoking hot hand.  Next time we might not be so lucky.  When 38% of your fgas are coming from beyond the arc, you're really betting the ranch on your shooting more than your execution.  I suppose that makes sense for a young, new team still finding its way, huh?  You can shoot, but you don't know how to execute together well.  I've been as big a vocal critic of Vitor's unwillingness/inability to recognize that playing center in the NBA is a contact sport as anyone, but I'd love to know what else is going on that Brad won't put him in against teams with two big starters like Nene and Gortat.

Almost rallying from 18 down in Miami to win.  Almost losing after losing a 19 point lead, but then rallying to win in OT.  This team is turning into an exciting enigma.

Now, it gets hard.  Here comes Durantula and OKC.  We'll need another monster game from Green.


bob


.

It just feels good to win a game, no?

Berlin, I've never seen you as animated as you have been lately. I think you're getting TOO MUCH sleep. (Obviously only kidding. You were only registering strength of conviction, which is a good thing.)

Sam

Wallace "walks" in the game winner.  Great job sealing Gortat inside and away from the ball by Sully, btw, to create the final spacing for Wallace to finish. The little things...





Pressey breaks John Wall's ankles

Bob,

It's true that Sully sealed off Gortat for most of the possession. But, at the moment Walace finally went up with the shot, he had just backed Webster into a position the briefly blocked out Gortat at the precise moment when Gortat had a chance to block the shot. Webster fell, but he screened Gortat at the beginning of the fall.

Sam

What a scrappy game.

Rather than repeating things. One thing I am going to miss is knowing that some of these scrappers will most likely be packing bags and moving on. Although we are not a good team right now, we brawl ( not ball ) with anyone. Bunker mode mentality I guess.

Just trying to figure out who we keep and who we move and realizing to obtain talent you have to give up some too. Picks are nice but they are just picks not veterans and even a high pick doesn't always pan out as we all know.

beat

sam wrote:Berlin, I've never seen you as animated as you have been lately.  I think you're getting TOO MUCH sleep.  (Obviously only kidding.  You were only registering strength of conviction, which is a good thing.)

Sam

Sam,

Sorry if it appears that I'm going over the top, but when I see a coach make a move that I'm almost 100% certain will lead to a loss - and when I'm certain that that coach must also know it - then I get angry. I understand that we're building and experimenting this year, but my idea of a good experiment is to try something in the expectation or at least in hope that it's going to lead to a win. Losing inevitably is one thing. Losing by design - for whatever reason is just not Celtics Basketball. I am not trying to offend anyone - it's just my opinion.

Berlin-T

P.S. A good night's sleep helps clear the mind and gives one energy.  

Berlin-T,

I agree that Steven's should be making decisions that would give the team the best chance to win. That's why, for the time being, I don't think Rondo should be the one in late in the 4th. He just isn't ready and its too soon to expect him to be.




KJ

Berlin,

I don't think it was over the top at all. Nice to see enthusiasm from such a distance.

Sam