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Nets 109, Celtics 107: Jack of all trades

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- Jarrett Jack, one of the players acquired by the Brooklyn Nets as part of a three-team swap that included the Boston Celtics in July, hit a pull-up free-throw line jumper over a chasing Marcus Smart with 27.5 seconds to play as the Nets rallied for a 109-107 triumph on Friday afternoon at TD Garden.

The Celtics led by 11 with under nine minutes to play, but the Nets rallied to tie the game with 4:15 to go. Brooklyn didn't get its first lead of the second half until Jack's jumper.

The Celtics acquired Marcus Thornton, Tyler Zeller, and a Cleveland Cavaliers' future first-round pick as part of a three-team swap that landed Jack in Brooklyn in July. Primarily a bench weapon during his career, Jack started and thrived on Friday. He added some late free throws to cap his game-high 27 points.

Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger -- two players that spent noteworthy time on the bench in the second half of Tuesday's loss in Orlando -- responded with solid efforts to lead the Celtics. Green scored a team-high 22 points on 10-of-18 shooting, while Sullinger added 19 points with eight rebounds.

Sullinger nearly forced overtime when he hauled in a full-court inbounds feed from Gerald Wallace with 1.5 seconds to go, but his turnaround baseline jumper rimmed out.

• Smart's start: Celtics rookie point guard Marcus Smart is struggling with his shot, he's still learning how to be a distributor at the NBA level, but his defense and grit have already made him an impact player. Midway through the third quarter, Smart went hard to the floor to corral a loose ball and had the presence of mind to quickly advance the ball to a streaking Jeff Green for an easy bucket that helped Boston open a double-digit lead in the third quarter.

• Green Day: Green, who was not on the floor late in the fourth quarter when the Celtics nearly rallied out of a monster hole on Tuesday in Orlando, scored 12 first-quarter points on Friday. His most noteworthy bucket was this nifty reverse alley-oop off a feed from Avery Bradley.

• Loose balls: The Celtics initially ran with a nine-man rotation, but Brandon Bass made a fourth-quarter appearance. Gerald Wallace came in late for the full-court heave to Sullinger. Phil Pressey was a healthy DNP. ... The Celtic shot 51.7 percent from the floor; the Nets finished at 49.4 percent.

• What it means: The Celtics fall to 10-17 overall, while the Nets move to 13-15. One day after playing old friend Kevin Garnett, it's off to Washington for the Celtics who meet old friend Paul Pierce in the tail end of this back-to-back on Saturday night.

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Celtics come up short at end again vs. Nets, 109-107

CSNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON — The Celtics have had their share of end-of-game, one-possession-to-win-it-all kind of games this season. Friday afternoon against Brooklyn was the latest.

Far too often Boston has come up short in such games. Friday was no exception as the Celtics fell 109-107 to the Nets.

Boston had one last gasp at forcing overtime, but Jared Sullinger's fadeaway jumper - after a perfect full-court baseball pass from Gerald Wallace - rattled in and out of the rim as time expired.

Brooklyn's Jarrett Jack, who led all scorers with 27 points, made the go-ahead basket with 27.5 seconds to play and followed that up with a pair of free throws with 5.4 seconds remaining with the latter free throw proving to be the game-winner.

The Celtics went into the fourth quarter with an 86-79 lead after having been up by as many as 12 points in the quarter. But the Nets gradually chipped away at Boston's lead with one big shot after another coming from Joe Johnson or Alan Anderson.

Sullinger, scoreless in Boston's loss at Orlando on Tuesday, was carrying the Celtics down the stretch on Friday.

It was a Sullinger basket that put the Celtics up 101-99 and later a 3-pointer which gave them a 104-101 lead.

That would be as good as things would get for the Celtics who were outscored 8-3 the remainder of the game.

Jeff Green and Sullinger, Boston's top two scorers, bounced back from a couple of sub-par performances recently.

Green, who had 11 points total in his last two games, had 12 in the first quarter alone on Friday. He would finish with a team-high 22 points.

And Sullinger, scoreless in Boston's loss at Orlando on Tuesday, had seven of his 19 points in the first quarter.

WHAT WORKED

Ball Movement

The Celtics had the ball popping all game which led to lots of good looks at the basket and a ton of team assists. Of the 45 made field goals by Boston, 32 came via an assist.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

Defense on Jarrett Jack

Brooklyn's pick-and-roll with Jack gave Boston fits the entire game. It was especially impactful in the final moments of play which included a go-ahead jumper from 13-feet by Jack that made it a 106-104 game.

KEY PLAY/STRETCH

With the score tied at 104, Jack gets a pick from Mason Plumlee which creates just enough space for him to shoot over Marcus Smart. Jack's 13-foot jumper went down which gave Brooklyn a 106-104 lead with 27.5 seconds to play. Boston spent the remainder of the game playing from behind.
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Jack carries Nets past Celtics, 109-107

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) Jarrett Jack nailed a tiebreaking jumper in the lane with 28 seconds to play and finished with 27 points Friday, lifting the Brooklyn Nets to a 109-107 win over the Boston Celtics.
Alan Anderson scored 15 points, Mason Plumlee 14 with 12 rebounds and Mirza Teletovic had 11 points for the Nets, who won their third straight and improved to 12-2 against sub-.500 teams.

Jeff Green had 22 points and Jared Sullinger had 19 with eight rebounds for Boston, which lost its third in a row.
The Celtics had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but Sullinger's fallaway from the left baseline rimmed out.
The Nets trailed by 11 early in the final quarter before scoring 15 of the next 19 points over a 4:08 stretch to tie it at 99 on Jack's jumper from the left wing with just over 4 minutes left.

Sullinger then nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to move the Celtics ahead 104-101 with 2 minutes left, but Anderson hit a 3 from the left wing to tie it 23-seconds later.

Jack dribbled into the key and hit his go-ahead shot from just inside the foul line and hit two free throws.
Boston entered the final quarter with a seven-point lead and increased it to 95-84 on Brandon Bass' reverse layup with just under 9 minutes to play.

The Celtics used a 13-2 run over a 2 1-2 minute span midway into the third quarter to turn a one-point lead to 76-64. Bradley had a 3-pointer from the left corner and a fastbreak dunk. The highlight play was when Marcus Smart went to the floor for a steal against Jack. While sitting on the floor, Smart made an over the shoulder pass to Jeff Green for a breakaway jam.

The teams traded then 8-0 runs before Deron Williams' fallaway at the buzzer closed Boston's lead to 86-79 after three.
The lead changed hands eight times in the opening half before the teams entered intermission tied at 56.

TIP-INS

Nets: Williams returned to action after missing the last two games with a strained right calf. Coach Lionel Hollins said about 2 hours before the game that he'd have to wait until after warmups to see Williams was ready to play. He didn't start, but came in during the second quarter and finished with eight points in 22 minutes.

Celtics: Rookie G Marcus Smart made his second career start. Coach Brad Stevens said he "wanted to be able to match up defensively a little bit differently." ... Stevens said rookie F James Young was healthy enough to return to action after a right shoulder injury, but he was inactive because the Celtics had too many active players.

THAT IS WHY TOP TALENT WILL NOT COME TO THE CELTICS WHEN YOU HAVE AN INEXPERIENCED COACH!

Why do you go small with 5 minutes to play when your big (Zeller) owned the paint and Plumlee all game. You keep him in for rebounding and attacking the paint and the basket................so what does Stevens do..........goes small with Sully as your center who cannot jump.

You may argue that you want to speed the pace up? I did not see the pace pick up nor the Celtics push the ball up the floor. Oh by the way, Zeller can out run the floor on Plumlee and Sully so what the fx!k!

I also saw this so called small unit for speed stand around without anyone cutting or doing pick and pops on the offensive end. Just iso 1 on 1 plays.

Where was KO.....except for the last 30 seconds!

The whole coaching thing the last 7 minutes was Bull Shxt!

As I said in an earlier post, Stevens coaching and strategy is still unproven on an NBA level.

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Jarrett Jack is probably the top back up point guard in the NBA (although Phoenix's back court is really impressive).. I have been watching him for years on numerous teams.



bob



.

Yes he is good, but that is not what beat us. Besides, how about changing it up on defense and blitz Jack with 2 guys to see if you get a turnover or do a full court press once in a while to throw the other team off.

Just some more sophomoric mistakes by Stevens.

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I missed the game as I was in my office today.

the box score looks like we played a better game than the last couple, is that true?

Sully and Green both looked like they had pretty good games.

KDP,

We attacked the paint and had at 1 time in the 3rd/4th a 12 point lead.

Zeller owned the paint and was scoring on Plumlee and then Jack heated up and we went int a ridiculous small man rotation without Plumlee and the rest was as you see it.

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Just watched the game recording.  I would say the game, especially the last 5 or so minutes, is kind of a mystery to me.  I use mystery for lack of a better term.

The strategy, or lack of a changing strategy in the 4th, is the most mysterious. You have Zeller and Wright a combined 8 for 12 with the length and ability needed to defend, sitting in favor of Sully and Bass.  Wright can defend and rebound, so you go with Sully up against Plumlee?  Really? Without the benefit of a pair of stilts?  With time running down, we have the ball and a time-out left (by my count, correct me if I'm wrong) you don't call a time out and draw up a play?

We settled for too many jump shots again, in situations where penetrating and driving to the rim, and at the worst getting more chances from the stripe, were readily available.

I know it's easy to be an arm-chair coach from in front of the TV, but I'm not getting this one on several fronts.

NY
I am glad you noticed the same thing! Zeller came out in the 4th quarter with the Celtics leading by 11 pts......he never saw the court again!

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thanks for the insights.

As I see others are now questioning the coaching staff now, lets hope Stevens can start to get up to speed soon.

Though I think it may not be until after the trade deadline when Stevens and staff can see what the lineup will be like.

he does seem to not be able to adjust his roster quickly right now or set his rotations with the new players.

tonight's game will be one of the few I get to watch on a real sized screen being at Washington, so I hope that we play well.

Stevens had for sure the wrong lineup playing in the last minutes. That is, if winning is the first priority. If seeing what players can or cannot do in clutch time is the priority then what are we to call it. Building for the future? Tanking for the future?
Me, I'm in favor of winning now. There is no substitute for a winning culture and breaking out of a losing culture can be very difficult.

Like NYCelt, I'm confused about what is going on here. Maybe disturbed is a better term.

Berlin-T

I think the number of fairly "equally" talented players on the Celtics roster is very much a part of the problem with Stevens developing what I like to call a "closing group" that is basically used to end games that are on the line.

The addition of the three new guys has made choices for playing time even more murky since the Rondo trade.

There is also an important need to showcase some of the older guys for possible trade purposes. I kind of cringe when typing that last sentence because I am big fan of "winning" every game even in a rebuild situation.

So, I can sympathize with Stevens in most cases with his playing time decisions, but I do have an issue with Zeller not playing at all last night in the fourth quarter and also with him doing any sitting during any crunch time. This guy has clearly become the team's most reliable and most consistent big man in the last six weeks to where he needs to be rested properly so that he can play the last 6 minutes in every game that is even remotely close.