Celtics Accomplish "Special" Feat on the Road

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/post-012615-celtics-accomplish-special-feat-on-road


Celtics Accomplish "Special" Feat on the Road

Posted: Jan 27, 2015


By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com
January 27, 2015






SALT LAKE CITY – This wasn’t supposed to happen.

The odds couldn’t have been much more stacked against the Boston Celtics on Monday night, save for playing against a juggernaut of an opponent.
They were instead playing against the sub-.500 Utah Jazz, but in a juggernaut of a game.

Take all of this into consideration:

Boston just wrapped up a back-to-back Monday night in Utah.

It also just played its fourth game in five nights after traveling a total of 2,552 miles since Game 1 of the stretch came to an end.

Two of those four games just so happened to be played in the two highest-altitude cities in the league, and the other two were played against two of the NBA’s top three teams.

The Celtics also lost two key players during the stretch, Marcus Smart for one game and and Kelly Olyny for the foreseeable future.

Daunting a list, you might say. Enough to leave 13-year veteran Tayshaun Prince wondering if he had ever faced a more difficult stretch.

“It stacks up pretty tough,” Prince said of the road trip, quickly comparing it to others he had taken throughout his career. “Whenever you play in Denver and in Utah on the second part of a back-to-back, those are tough games and tough atmospheres.”

Games that, according to Prince, even championship contenders struggle to win.

“I’ve been on some great ball clubs throughout my career,” he said, “and we come to Denver and Utah and we can’t get a win.”

But these Celtics could.

They marched on into the Mile High City on Friday and played their tails off against the Nuggets, notching a 100-99 victory in the thin air of Denver. Oh, and that just so happened to take place one night after the C’s notched another thrilling victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, who at the time owned the third-best record in the NBA.

Boston then moved on to Golden State, where it took on the top team in the NBA on Sunday. The Warriors had won 18 straight home games by an average of 18.9 points per game. They upped that streak to 19 with a win over the Celtics, but it didn’t come easily.

The C’s fought tooth-and-nail with the Warriors, down to the very last second of the game. Golden State never led by more than 14 points and Boston nearly forced overtime before coming up three points shy, at 114-111.

We now know that Sunday’s slim and encouraging defeat is as low as Boston would fall during this four-games-in-five-nights stretch, because Monday night wasn’t even close.

The Celtics blasted the Jazz from the opening tip of this game. They made it look easy as they cruised to a 24-point halftime lead, shooting 54.1 percent from the field over the first 24 minutes of the game. Utah did make its run, as every team in the league does, but Boston thwarted the home team’s momentum and held on for a comfortable 99-90 victory.

Count ‘em up. That’s a 3-1 record – an improbable 3-1 record – that was racked up during the most challenging four-game travel schedule an NBA team will face this season.

“That’s what makes this special,” said Prince, “to go through this with a young team and pull out some wins in this situation.”

Did you hear that? Special. That’s coming from a former NBA champion, a guy who has been to the Conference Finals seven times in his career.

He knows as well as anyone that this wasn’t supposed to happen.

But it did.



bob
MY NOTE:  Does "character" and "grit" on a trip like this qualify as a "glimmer"? How about winning?  Even if we lose against Minny we will still go home with a winning, 3-2, road trip where we played 4 games in 5 days. Say what you will about Brad's lineups and substitutions and love of the 3-ball, he and his staff have done a spectacular job of getting this team to focus through some serious turbulence. Remember when Perk got traded, how we went into a little swoon? That was with a bunch of old "seen it all" veterans and future HOFers. Brad has kindergarteners (except for Prince) playing winning basketball, losing so far only to the best team in basketball by 3 points (and they got a 3 point gift at the half from the refs).


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It qualifies as a glimmer if you put it on the Glimmer Thread, Bob. Seems legitimate to me, which is a welcome occurrence in a season bereft of a lot of glimmers.

I recall asking, on the Game-on Thread, about Salt Lake City's altitude. I've skied both places, and I believe SLC is closer to the mountains than Denver is. I recall running about 150 feet downhill to our lodge at Alta, and I seriously thought I was going to die. And I was in pretty good shape at that time, courtesy of the Army.

Sam

Sam

Per Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City

Salt Lake City has a total area of 110.4 square miles (286 km2) and an average elevation of 4,327 feet (1,319 m) above sea level. The lowest point within the boundaries of the city is 4,210 feet (1,280 m) near the Jordan River and the Great Salt Lake, and the highest is Grandview Peak, at 9,410 feet (2,868 m).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver

Although Denver's nickname is the "Mile-High City" because its official elevation is one mile above sea level, defined by the elevation of the spot of a benchmark on the steps of the State Capitol building, the elevation of the entire city ranges from 5,130 to 5,690 feet (1,560 to 1,730 m). According to Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and the National Elevation Dataset, the city's elevation is 5,278 feet (1,609 m), which is reflected on various websites such as that of the National Weather Service.

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_feet_are_there_in_a_statute_mile

There are 5,280 feet in a statute mile.
_______________________________________________________________

So now we know.

My oldest sister used to live in SLC.  My oldest niece still does.  In the late 90's I visited them for a week in April.  We drove up to a lake to fish, Strawberry Reservoir I think it was called.  It took us about 45 minutes to get there.  It was at (or about) 8,000 feet above sea level.  The boat we rented had frost on the seats when we started but soon it was warm enough to shed our jackets.  There were no trees, camps or any kind of development around the lake, but there were aspins off in the distance.  It seemed to me to be odd since all the lakes in northern New England have wall to wall development (ie: camps) and trees around them.

gyso

Beautiful country out there, gyso. Thankfully, the developers haven't hit all the beautiful areas. I expect a lot of them are protected, although one problem they have out there is deforestation, which we don't have as much of here because—duh—we don't have as many forests. I used to be fond of saying, when we got off the ski life and prepared to go down, "God, it's beautiful. Takes your breath away." Thanks for the info.

Sam