The Celtics held out a couple of guys, including Isaiah Thomas, but they, I guess, avenged their only preseason loss (pretend you’re interested in that) by beating the Knicks in Boston tonight, 99-85.
The Celtics struggled with the Knicks’ size in New York but that wasn’t the case tonight. Part of that was because Marcus Smart was able to bull his way to the basket and really run an efficient offense (6 first quarter assists), and part of it was the inclusion of Kristaps Porzingis who, while 11 feet tall (give or take a few feet) looked very much like a rookie in some defensive stretches. Side note on Porzingis, though… you can see the raw skill that made him so enticing. If things go right over the next few years, he’ll be a beast.
Anyway, the Celtics took a single digit lead and built it up to 19, largely thanks to a big second quarter from Jared Sullinger (Kelly Olynyk rested tonight). He didn’t seem right to start, but after a couple of lucky bounces that got him a couple of easy baskets, he seemed to settle down. He had 10 and 6 going into the half.
The Celtics backed off a bit in the third, walking the ball up and getting away from the aggressive approach that built the huge lead. The Knicks also started hitting shots and Jose Calderon made me feel like I should have drafted him in my fantasy league, but the daunting Celtics lineup of RJ Hunter, Terry Rozier, James Young, Jared Sullinger, and Perry Jones not only closed the door, but extended the lead to finish this thing off.
The Green
Jae Crowder’s defense on Carmelo Anthony was excellent. Melo started out 1-9 and rarely got a comfortable shot. Some of those shots went in just because Melo is Melo, but Crowder was all over him. Bonus: Crowder was a strong contributor on offense too. 13 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal is a very nice stat line from him.. I’ll sign up for that all year long right now.
Marcus Smart had a great first half offensively. His passing tonight was spectacular. Speaking of signing up for things… give me Smart from the first half tonight and I’m popping bottles I’m so happy. He was that good. After halftime… not so much. More later.
Tyler Zeller is gonna be the quietly consistently good guy all year long. We’ll ignore him all year long and we’ll wake up in March with him averaging 15 and 5… which happened to be his numbers tonight.
Sully had a good night. We give him a lot of shit and some of it is most definitely deserved. But I’ll repeat myself here… he’s a skilled big man who will have a much longer than average career.
The Gross
Jose Calderon had 17 points on 6-11 shooting, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. Most of those minutes came against Marcus Smart and that’s just un-f’ing-acceptable. I understand the elite guards getting numbers, but Calderon torching Smart is ridiculous. I know Smart already has the reputation of being the tough defender who randomly gets burned by unsuspecting opponents, but he has to be better here.
Evan Turner (3 points, 1-7 fg) does not instill much confidence as an off-the-bench swing man. He experienced a revival as a pseud0-point guard last year and it’s clear he’s much better with the ball in his hands at all times. I’m starting to wonder if Turner is reaching his peak value and will reach Jordan Crawford-like status as a guy whose talent was maximized by Brad Stevens to a point where he’ll be traded for something that seems silly in a few years.
The Greenlights
Marcus Smart with the And-1
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Amir Johnson rejects Melo
Smart to Sully for the dunk
The Grid
- Points in the paint: Boston 48, New York 36
- Jerebko: 9 points, 3-6 fg (1-1 3pt, 2-2 ft)
- Sullinger: 16 points (6-10 fg, 4-10 ft)
- Terry Rozier: 10-17 from 3 this preseason (58.8%)
One more preseason game (TOMORROW, for some stupid reason) and we’re off to the regular season!
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