Red's Army

Recap: Celtics Lose A Nail Biter in San Antonio

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Alan Draper
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Sports Editor
8 min read

Earlier in the season the Celtics snapped an 11 game losing streak to the Spurs. Tonight they were tasked with breaking a 5 game skid in San Antonio’s building, specifically. Unfortunately the clutch shooting of Manu Ginobli and the sheer strength of LaMarcus Aldridge proved to be too much for the Celtics to handle tonight, as they fell to the Spurs by a score of 105-102 despite another valiant effort from Kyrie Irving (36 points while making 13 of 21 shots from the field).

The Game Flow

Much of the first half proved to be a battle of the stars. Kyrie and LaMarcus would exchange offensive blows eventually, but Mr. Aldridge didn’t have such a hot start facing the staunch defense of Al Horford. The Spurs made it clear that they intended to feed their man early and often, as they fed Aldridge on the left side of the rim on consecutive plays to begin the game. They’d clear his entire side of the floor, Aldridge would attempt to back Al down, and promptly get denied by Horford’s positioning. These misses allowed the Celtics to get out and run, which led to a Kyrie 3, followed by a Jaylen coast-to-coaster finished at the rim. The Spurs went nearly 4 minutes without scoring a point to begin the game, and the Celtics had built themselves an 11-0 cushion in the meantime.

Eventually Pop’s complaints to the refs had worked in their favor, though, (he’s earned it) and the Spurs ended their drought with a couple of FTA. Likewise, Aldridge eventually snapped out of his early funk and his advantage in height/weight began to win-out versus the comparatively smaller Horford and undersized Baynes. Aldridge finished with 12 points and 3 rebounds in the quarter. As for the Celtics star, Kyrie Irving finished the first with 17 points on an efficient 6 of 8 shooting in 10 minutes of game time, much of which consisted of the Celtics leading by as many as 12 points. The only other players in Green that managed to score more than 2 points in the quarter were Tatum and Rozier, a sure sign of things to come for the youngsters in this game. The Celtics brought a 59% field goal percentage and 31-26 lead into the second quarter.

Perhaps due to the Celtics strong shooting and hot start to tonight’s game, Stevens elected to play the bench for the entire first half of Q2. A lineup of Theis, Morris, Rozier, Ojeyele and Smart started the quarter and a stretch of ugly offensive basketball that we all saw coming transpired. First Smart missed an open 3, then Ojeyele got the offensive rebound(!) but missed the easy tip-slam as his dunk clanked off of the rim. When the Celtics found an open Theis the following play, a trailing Rudy Gay blocked Theis’ seemingly easy dunk from behind. It got ugly fast. Mercifully, Rozier eventually turned on that trademark aggressiveness of his and built upon his 4 point first quarter. Aside from when Theis made a slam and-one earlier in the quarter, Rozier fired off the Celtics next 7 points until Morris made a 3 with 7:30 left on the clock in the quarter to effectively break the spell. Stevens finally brought the starters in with about 6 minutes left in the half, at which point the lead was down to 5 points. The Celtics were unable to recapture their hot shooting and conversely couldn’t slow the Spurs offensive train. Patty Mills eventually brought the Spurs within 2 towards the end of Q2 (he had 8 at the half but wouldn’t score again on the night), and the Celtics looked to either dribble out the half or take one final shot. That wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, a rare bad pass by Horford allowed San Antonio to regain possession and Manu Ginobli hit a 3 at the buzzer (as he has so many times in the past because his blood is ICE). The Celtics now found themselves trailing 56-55 at half.

The Celtics began Q3 cold as the ice in Manu’s veins until Jaylen Brown became the fuel needed to light the fire in the second half. The Spurs first stretched their lead to a game high 6 points after Tony Parker, apparently rejuvenated from the halftime break, facilitated a couple of baskets and made a 20-foot jumper of his own. The Celtics then went on 11-0 run book-ended with Jaylen Brown dunks and a sweet deep ball sandwiched in between (Jaylen scored 13 of his 15 points during the second half, perhaps due to adjusting to his newly acquired medically-prescribed goggles). This run brought Boston from down 67-73 to now up 78-73. In total, the team went on a 15-4 run over the last 4:50 of the third quarter and regained the lead heading into the final frame. The score was 82-77, but the game had felt even tighter than that, as evidenced by some of the stats: Boston led by just 1 rebound, 33-32; the teams had made the same amount of free throws, 12; and Boston’s FG% was only one percentage point higher, 48-47.

You didn’t need the stats to see this one was coming down to the wire, though. The Spurs and Celtics exchanged jabs through out the fourth quarter and right up until the final buzzer. Tatum continued his streak of scoring in clutch situations (he also scored in double figures for his 15th straight game) after he drilled an open corner 3 to give the Celtics the lead 99-98 with under 5 minutes to go. The young rook finished with an impressive 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting along with 8 rebounds and 2 steals.

A Rudy Gay tip-slam followed by a DEEP Kyrie 3 made the game 102-100. Of course, San Antonio’s star had to answer and he chose to back Horford down into the low-post to tie the game. Aldridge now had 27 points on 11 of 20 shooting from the field. The game remained tied at 102, but on San Antonio’s next possession Tatum came up clutch once more after he stuck his hand in to a driving Aldridge and caused him to lose the ball. Rozier picked up the loose ball (he had 4 steals of his own in addition to 13 points and 4 rebounds – another strong showing off of the bench) but Kyrie missed his step back 3 attempt on the other end. San Antonio took a chance on a 2-for-1 opportunity, missed their shot, but The Clutch King Manu Ginobli scooped up the rebound to give the Spurs a fresh clock. Manu dribbled until 5 seconds remained then spotted up and made his second 3 on the night, both of which occurred at the end of the half and gave his team the lead. Stevens called a timeout (twice) and drew up a beautiful play that entailed Brown setting a baseline screen to get Irving running towards the corner for a 3 to tie the game. Irving received the ball and was open as planned, he pump faked Gay out of his shoes but the attempt rimmed in-and-out like a fast food restaurant (shouts to NBA Street for that line). The Celtics lost their 6th straight in San Antonio and fell to 22-5 on the year. Final Score, 105-102.

The Hot and the Not

Hot: Kyrie Irving in San Antonio. The last time there he had a career high (and Cavs franchise record setting) 57 points in March of 2015. Tonight he shot over 50% from the field yet again (13 of 21) and had 36 points. Maybe it’s the heat?

Not: Marcus Smart fouled out and only managed 4 points in 22 minutes tonight. Even the defenders of the beloved plus/minus stat will have to concede it was ugly for him, as he was a -9.
Honorable Mention: Ball Handling. The Celtics managed just 14 assists tonight as a team, their 3rd lowest of the Stevens era, and they equaled that ugly total in turnovers. That’s not a recipe for success, to say the least.

What the Hell Just Happened?

Jaylen Brown drove home his best dunk of the season over Pau Gasol tonight and IT. WAS. GLORIOUS. I’m counting this as “what the hell just happened?” because if you watch closely you can clearly see Pau had NO idea where Jaylen came from:

 

Highlights

Obviously Kyrie went off for 17 points during the 1st quarter, but this finish by Tatum was the real highlight of Q1 if you ask me. The ball movement and up-and-under finish are just too pretty to go unappreciated:

I don’t care I have to show this again – JAYLEN BROWN YOU’RE CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF:

These would serve as just the warm-up to Jaylen’s REAL highlight of the night, but check out these clips and remember why Stevens has emphasized defense since he’s been here:

Turnovers and defensive rebounds allow for the Celtics to get into transition and more often than not score some easy baskets:

Tweet of the Night

Masked Kyrie is done, whether we like it or not. Here were his numbers:

Box Score

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Alan Draper

Alan is a vastly experienced sports and gambling writer who is the Chief Editor of The Sports Daily.
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Alan Draper

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Alan is a vastly experienced sports and gambling writer who is the Chief Editor of The Sports Daily.
View All Posts By Alan Draper
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