A year ago, I’d have stormed onto this site and ranted about the ridiculous way the Celtics lost by seven when the game was tied with about a minute left.
Now?
Let that sink in for a second though. The Celtics had the ball in a tie game with 1:20 left. They let a rookie get a 3-point play off a tip in with :54 left and then proceeded to disintegrate from there. It’s a little disheartening, but in the end, they managed to not win a game, which we’re all ok with, and a team on the fringe of the lottery won, keeping them further at bay.
On the plus side, I think we’ve found our saturation point for this season. We endured 65 games while remaining mostly calm and rational. These last 17 are the part of the season where we pull the plug on the patient and we just have to wait around for the inevitable.
ON TO THE GAME ACTION!
The first quarter was almost like watching a tennis match the way these guys went up and down the floor. The Celtics took 24 shots in the first. Unfortunately, they only made 9 of them. That let the Suns fly out on the break and make 12 of their 21 shots. 20 of the Suns 29 first quarter points came in the paint.
The fast pace continued into the second, but the Celtics managed to put a nice quarter together and get the halftime lead down to 2. A 6-20 shooting effort from the Suns helped that in a big way. Kelly Olynyk’s progression continued to be a bright spot in the second quarter. He had 4 points, 7 rebounds, a steal and a block in the second alone.
The third quarter was kind of ugly with both teams combining to shoot 11-41. Aside from Kelly Olynyk’s short jumper to beat the buzzer, there wasn’t a ton to get excited about here… so… let’s move on
The C’s came out of the break on a 7-0 run to take 5 point lead (9-0 run if you count that Olynyk hoop at the end of the 3rd). They couldn’t add to it, though, thanks to one of the worst possible shooting nights a team could have. Honestly. They took 94 shots. They made 29 of them. That’s hard to do.
The Green
Kelly Olynyk and Kris Humphries were good in this game. Hump had an 11 point/13 rebound double-double and Olynyk was 2 points shy of a 10/10 night. His rebounding has been a nice revelation over the past couple of months. The kid can board. He’s always in the mix.
The Gross
Imperial Stormtroopers displayed better shooting than the Celtics tonight. When your shooting looks like a batting average, you’ve got problems.
Brad Stevens: “We probably lost the game as much in the third quarter. Our offense was just incredibly stagnant… We didn’t take good shots.”
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 15, 2014
The final minute of the game was the type of shit that would make me talk if I was a captured CIA operative and it was shown to me on a loop. I’d probably get to the third repeat of it before giving away state secrets.
The Greenlights
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RheC1AHj1HA?feature=player_embedded]The Grid
- Phoenix scored 52 of its 87 points in the paint.
- The Celtics bench scored 39 of the Celtics 80 points.
- Humphries & Olynyk: 9-16 fg (56.3%). The rest of the Celtics: 20-78 (25.6%)
16 games left.
16 games left.
16 games left.
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