Twenty four minutes into last night’s game, the Celtics looked like they were going to blow another game to the Magic. But fueled by an expletive laced Brad Stevens halftime speech, the Celtics went on to win the game, 95-88. Here’s some things I liked and didn’t like.
UP
1. Evan Turner
Evan Turner had his best game as a Celtic, and it was pretty fun to watch. After starting the game off 0-5, Turner went 12-16 including a 16 point 4th quarter where he went 6-6 from the field. Turner was able to get to his sweet spots all game, and the only difference between this game and the others is his shots were actually falling. Brad Stevens talked about Evan Turner needing to be a scoring threat for the Celtics to win without Isaiah Thomas, and last night he showed why. Turner finished with 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.
2. Phil “Stay Ready” Pressey
Since the Isaiah Thomas acquisition we haven’t seen much of him except for a few garbage time minutes, but time after time he’s proven that when called on he can make his presence felt. Playing in place of Isaiah Thomas, Pressey did an excellent job of defending, pushing the pace, and finding open teammates all over the court with some fancy passes. I was skeptical about how he would fare against Elfrid Payton because of the way his size has effected him in the past, but it didn’t seem to matter who was on him, he executed well. Pressey finished the game with 10 points, 10 assists, and 4 big rebounds. He’ll end up returning to the bench once Thomas gets back, but he’s definitely not a guy that Stevens won’t hesitate to call when things aren’t going well.
3. Kelly Olynyk
Statistically, Olynyk didn’t have as good a game as he had against Memphis, but he seemed more aggressive and went on a personal 8-0 run to cut a 72-63 deficit to one point. He did a great job of exposing Nikola Vucevic’s unwillingness or inability to come out of the paint to defend. Olynyk finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds.
4. Team rebounding
Though the Magic out rebounded the Celtics, 50-47, six Celtics had 5 or more rebounds, and nine of them had at least 3. A team effort attacking the boards is great for neutralizing size disadvantages, something Boston will face often down the stretch.
DOWN
1. Containing Elfrid Payton
What a good-looking rookie. Payton knows how to defend, push the pace, get to the paint at will, and find his teammates from anywhere on the court. If it wasn’t for the fact that he can’t hit free throws to save his life (4-15 FT), this game could have gone an entirely different route. Thankfully Brad Stevens realized the best way to guard Payton was to give him the perimeter jump shot and force him to beat you that way which seemed to neutralize his effectiveness down the stretch. Nonetheless he finished with an impressive 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists.
2. The First Half
It was horrendous, and probably the worst display of basketball I have seen from this team in a long, long time. The ball wasn’t moving, shots were going off the backboard, the defense was lackadaisical, and we somehow turned a 2-on-1 opportunity into a 5-o run by the Magic to the end the half. Though we were only down by 10, it had the feeling of a game we were losing by 30. Thank God nobody wins games in the first half.
3. Points in the Paint
For the second straight game the Magic had their way with us in the paint (42-34). Most of the damage was done by Payton and Oladipo.
4. Marcus Smart
It’s really hard to critique Marcus because he does a great job defensively, and he really doesn’t have the freedom that other top rookies have where they can put up as many shots as they want and make as many mistakes as they can without the fear of being benched. Saying that, Smart really seems to have regressed a bit on the offensive side on the ball. Forget the fact that he’s shooting worse from the field, he just seems completely passive, and doesn’t seem to look for his shot often, if at all. He never presses the issue on the pick and roll, he doesn’t take advantage when he gets a switch onto a bigger defender. He settles for jumpers instead of getting to the rim way too often. Maybe his ankle is still nagging him a bit, but there seems to be a whole lot more thinking than reacting which tells me that maybe his shooting regression is causing him to lose his way in other facets of his offensive game. Hopefully, this is a problem he can overcome with continued reps and more games. Otherwise, Stevens might have to make a change to the starting lineup.
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