Jae Crowder says he will be with the first unit for Sunday’s Game 4 closeout matchup with Cleveland, likely replacing rookie Marcus Smart or Evan Turner in the starting lineup.
“That’s the plan,” Crowder said when asked about whether he was starting. “I just have to come out the gate, hit first and withstand their runs early. We’ll be fine.”
I love the move… I hate that we know about it already. I mean, it’s not like David Blatt just read this and said “OH SHIT!!! THANK GOD I HAVE ALL NIGHT TO GAME PLAN FOR THIS,” but it’d still be nice for him to be a little surprised.
I had just typed that I think I wanted Smart on Kyrie Irving to start the game, but having thought about it a little longer, I think Turner has been doing a decent job on Irving (as well as can be expected) and Irving vs. a rookie could get ugly fast. Then we’d still have Turner vs. Irving and Smart playing tentatively with foul trouble.
OR….
It doesn’t really matter because these guys are going to get theirs and the guy who’s been killing us, really, has been Tristan Thompson late in games with his offensive rebounding. But it’s a nice adjustment that probably should have come in Game 2. The Celtics aren’t just going to roll over and die because they’re down 0-3.
They’ll probably lose tomorrow or in Game 5 if they manage a win. But there’s no way in hell the Celtics will give up.
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