Rapid Recap is designed for the busiest of Celtics fans. Whether you can’t stay awake to read 10 paragraphs or your hangover is just too much, Rapid Recap tells the timeline of the game in only a minute or two.
Celtics fans were dead-set on the Cs winning the penultimate game of this strange regular season for draft-pick reasons. Grizzlies fans wanted their squad better positioned for the all-but-inevitable play-in game(s?) and also just really needed a win. As far as stakes go, they were far higher for the Grizzlies—but without Jaren Jackson Jr. available, Memphis was in no shape to pull an upset. Aside from a few surges of Grizz team offense and Ja Morant playing one of his best games in recent memory, the Cs often merely toyed with them en route to a 122-107 win.
Jayson Tatum was a nigh-unstoppable offensive force, racking up 29-6-2-1. Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward were no slouches, both scoring 19 while the former added 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, the latter 5 rebounds and assists plus a steal. Off the bench, Marcus Smart and Robert Williams both made the most of their minutes: SMARF with 11-3-9-1, Timelord with 10-7-1 plus 3 blocks.
JT gets going early 👌🏾 pic.twitter.com/OmZqVGy0K6
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 11, 2020
It was a pretty slow game at the start, from both teams, until Jaylen decided to drop a bomb on ’em:
Jaylen Brown with the impressive slam: pic.twitter.com/fNhE1Z4Or1
— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) August 11, 2020
This young Grizzlies squad is rather different from the Grit & Grind era teams in most aspects, but they worked to keep this game’s pace fairly slow and in the half court. Doing so kept them from falling too far behind…but it also wasn’t their natural style.
Oh ya know, just Marcus Smart #Celtics
pic.twitter.com/WVa6tzLIfe— Celtics Lead (12-2) (@CelticsLead) August 11, 2020
The Memphis offense was also not unlike Grit & Grind, and not in a good way.
Celtics limiting Grizzlies to 21.7 percent shooting (5-of-23) in the first quarter.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) August 11, 2020
🔘⚪️⚪️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/OwKH6iyFIM
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 11, 2020
The margin at the end of 12 wasn’t gigantic…so the Celtics immediately got to work at making it gigantic.
.@jaytatum0's in his bag early 🔥 https://t.co/NcWXZRgXCw
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 11, 2020
And while Tatum was definitely leading the charge for the Cs, he also got plenty of help from starters and bench dudes alike:
Just a ridiculous pass from Jaylen Brown: pic.twitter.com/cCRkh30uIY
— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) August 11, 2020
Robert Williams out here blocking jump shots he’s a menace #Celtics #Grizzlies #timelord pic.twitter.com/I1a3PooOCt
— 🚫 No Baseball Podcast (@nobaseballpod) August 11, 2020
Rob Williams being the first big off the bench in the playoffs is a very real possibility it feels like given how good he's looked in past week.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) August 11, 2020
Celtics on a 22-4 run .
They put a 66-21 run on them in the first meeting in January.
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) August 11, 2020
Though Memphis started to show some fight in the final five minutes of the first half, there was only so much they could put up without Jackson Jr. in the ballgame to add a scoring punch.
This is what good basketball looks like: pic.twitter.com/QcHnci0PNh
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) August 11, 2020
With the Celtics turning defense into offense in such slick fashion (the Rob Williams block! the Western Gunfighter Hayward dunk!), it’s surprising the Celtics only led by 16 at the half—56-40 Boston. (Especially nice to see Kemba with double figures early. I have faith that he’ll be back to Cardiac mode in the playoffs, but the bubble games have not exactly been the easiest on him thus far.)
Celtics lead 56-40 at half. Tatum with game-high 17 points, Kemba with 11 points. C's hold Grizz to 33 percent shooting.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) August 11, 2020
Boston kept their lead pretty firmly through the first half of the third quarter, but some alarming tendencies were on display:
I am concerned by how easily our opponents find open corner 3s
— CelticsBlog (@celticsblog) August 11, 2020
And suddenly giant letters appeared in the air reading, “TRAP GAME?”
Memphis has cut Boston's lead to 8. 11-0 Grizzlies run.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 11, 2020
The Celtics let teams back in the game because they settle for outside shots & when they drop they KEEP shooting them. You have to keep working inside because if the other team is scoring PLUS getting to the line & stopping the clock? They'll creep right back into it. Stay on it.
— Dart_Adams (@Dart_Adams) August 11, 2020
Good perspective from Dart. It also didn’t help that Jaylen was having his only bona fide meh performance of the bubble season thus far, and Hayward wasn’t looking too hot after his first-half highlights. But this and other issues weren’t enough to seriously endanger the Cs lead.
https://twitter.com/maxacarlin/status/1293318744979189760?s=20
Not with ball movement like that, anyway, and with Williams playing with more controlled fury and less raw chaos:
Timelord making dunks a casual thing he does 20 times a game now#Celtics Rewind is Presented by @TMobile
Watch on @NBCSBoston or stream: https://t.co/Xmx7Whh8Zt pic.twitter.com/fMPP1piy1y— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) August 11, 2020
Tatum was quietly On One again as well.
i would not say memphis is anywhere near their usual strength on D tonight, mostly bc of the JJJ absence and extra JV minutes https://t.co/666MHtKjKd
— we came back haunted 🕸️🍉☘️ (@senddeadfIowers) August 11, 2020
End of 3Q: Celtics 83, Grizzlies 73
☘️ Tatum: 29 PTS (10-12, 4-5, 5-5)
☘️ Smart & Walker: 11 PTS apiece
🐻 Morant: 19 PTS, 10 AST— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) August 11, 2020
Enes Kanter coming back in the game meant that a Boston victory was almost certainly not guaranteed:
https://twitter.com/Riffs_Man/status/1293322482494189570?s=20
Sidebar: I sincerely think that in the offseason, Kanter will likely move on and that’ll be that. There isn’t any grand scheme behind why Stevens plays him—he’s trying to stagger minutes among the bigs, not somehow prove that Kanter isn’t the player we all know he is. The onus is on Kanter to change people’s perception of him in his time on the court, and if he won’t, he’ll likely be gone even if he opts in.
Moving right along, the synergy throughout the roster, as described below, was what really kept the Celtics ahead despite the Grizz surges.
👀 @gordonhayward getting fancy with that pass pic.twitter.com/E63UURWEyg
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 11, 2020
Then there was an extremely brief, heart-swallowing moment:
Scary moment with Kemba Walker that brought memories of the Denver collision. But Walker is up and OK. That was a hold your breath moment though.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 11, 2020
.@phillybul_22 to the hoop 💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/v6Mk2Jd77x
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) August 11, 2020
Now if we want to talk actually inexplicable lineup decisions, I certainly wasn’t sure why the starters were still in the game with barely five minutes to go and a double-digit lead. Kemba I get, I guess; he’s still working back from the minutes limit. Tatum, Hayward and Jaylen? Not so much.
Oh hey, Carsen Edwards:
Terrific Carsen Edwards content right here: pic.twitter.com/XMpiRv29w8
— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) August 11, 2020
Kemba being on the court put this one definitively in the bag during the last five, though, with a flurry of jumpers and slick playmaking:
Kemba's so damn good at creating his own space pic.twitter.com/7C9DqNNg4W
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) August 11, 2020
After that, the bench took over fully and that was a wrap.
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