Recap: Celtics close out preseason with a win

The preseason is over!  The next time the Celtics play a game, it’ll actually mean something.  The C’s closed out the preseason tonight with a 100-86 over the Brooklyn Nets 

The Celtics struggled a little early, but finished the first quarter tied with the Nets.  Then, after falling behind by five in the 2nd quarter, the Celtics whipped off a 29-10 run to close the quarter and go up 14 at halftime.  Marcus Smart had 11 in the 2nd quarter to finish with 16 at the half.  Jared Sullinger had 7 of his 13 first half rebounds in the quarter as well.

Both teams played mostly even in the third quarter, with the last half of the third and all of the fourth really becoming garbage time (except for Jared Sullinger’s return to the game midway through the quarter for some reason).

The Green: 

Gerald Wallace played pretty well tonight.  He had a big role in that second quarter run, scoring 8 points and dishing 3 assists in the quarter.

I’ll mention James Young in this because I think he played the right way.  His numbers won’t wow you, but he busted his ass, made some hustle plays, and was one of the unheralded keys to that second quarter run.

The Gross:

The one thing I saw early is Kelly Olynyk just not boxing out.  I’m not going to go on a crazy tirade about it, but Olynyk isn’t good enough to just turn and look when the shot goes up.  DeAndre Jordan can do that because he’s huge and he defies gravity.  Olynyk needs to put a body on guys and, even if he doesn’t get the board himself, keep his guy off the boards.

The Greenlights:

Jeff Green chase-down block:

James Young checks in and immediately drains a 3

//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsYoung leads the break… Sully eventually sticks a 3

  “Young kicks it, Sullinger….sticks it.” #Celtics   A video posted by KWAPT (@kwapt) on Oct 10, 2014 at 5:25pm PDT    

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.jsBrandon Bass corner threes are a real thing!  //platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js

The Grid: 

• Sullinger:  15 points (7-10 fg, 1-4 3pt), 17 rebounds
• Smart:  16 points (5-8 fg, 2-5 3pt), 4 ast, 2 stl, 15:38 min. played
• Zeller: 11 points (2-9 fg, 7-7 ft), 9 reb
• Points in the paint:  Celtics 52, Nets 40

Let’s toast the end of the preseason.  The Celtics are now off until they host the Nets for real a week from tonight.

Box Score

Condensed version of game