Here’s tonight in a nutshell: The Celtics flat-out SUCKED for 3 quarters, but James Young finally got some minutes, and he took full advantage of them to lead a comeback that felt like it gave the Celtics a chance to win. Unfortunately, Kemba Walker existed, thwarting any hopes of the Celtics coming all the way back with a 33 point performance that included some really insane individual scoring. There was no catch-and-shoot going on with Walker. It was isos and attacking the rim.
Anyway, it feels like James Young checked into the game riding a white cloud and being ushered in by angel’s harps rather than a buzzer. Maybe that’s just how this season is going. But he hit big shots at the right time… and thus the legend of James Young was born.
The Celtics came out of the box cold (shocker) as the Hornets opened up the game on a 13-4 run. Luckily, Phil Pressey and Kelly Olynyk were able to come in and stabilize the team before things got out of hand early. The Celtics shot 30% in a very sloppy opening quarter. The second unit as a whole did a great job as the starters, on a night where Brad Stevens said he was comfortable with the starting lineup, came out and looked horrible.
The second quarter brought much more horribly unwatchable basketball, thought the Celtics managed to up their shooting to 35% for the quarter, which I guess is a like finding a dime in your dog’s crap. We did manage to see James Young for 3 largely uneventful minutes. The Celtics lost the quarter by 6, and managed only 36 points by halftime to go into the break down 14.
The third quarter was a lot more of the same with one, lone bright spot: 5 late points by James Young. In fact the Celtics got 15 points out of Young, Marcus Smart, and Jae Crowder on 5-7 shooting.
Young hit a quick 3 in the 4th followed by one shortly thereafter from Crowder, who ended up having a really nice night. Then Celtics defense started hounding the Hornets, forcing them to go into nothing but isolations, which Kemba Walker seemed to enjoy, but not enough to keep the C’s from cutting the lead all the way down to 7 on another Young 3… sending the Garden crowd into a craze and the Hornets to the bench for a timeout with just over 5 minutes to go. After Charlotte got it back up to 9, Young hit a crazy, contested shot to bring it back to 7, but that was answered by a Gary Neal 3. Kemba Walker continued his onslaught to get the lead to 11. By the time Walker hit for his 33rd point of the night at the 2:30 mark, the Hornets had whipped off a 12-3 run to regain control and go up by 15.
The Celtics had another run in them to cut it back into single digits, but they never really had enough time to finish the comeback. C’s lose this one 104-95.
The Green:
James Young gave the Celtics fans something to cheer for, and something to complain about with a career-high 13 points on 5-7 shooting in 17 minutes of play. He was 3-4 from 3 and he hit some pretty tough shots in general. I’m sure this and other comments sections tonight will be full of questions about the Celtics decision to send him to Maine for all those D-League stints. I’m not going to say it’s not a legit question, but just keep in mind the possibility that his time in Maine also helped make some of this possible.
Jae Crowder’s night should not get lost in the Young mania. He also scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting in 25 minutes. He also had 5 rebounds, an assist (to Young on the 3 to cut it to 7) and a steal.
Phil Pressey’s night will almost certainly go unnoticed, and he didn’t put up a gaudy stat line, but he was a team-high +11… and he earned it. I have to hand it to the kid… he’s had DNP and some near DNP’s, but tonight he was called on early and he changed the energy of the game. He’s one of the reasons the Celtics had any sort of a chance at all (even if it was a remote chance).
Jared Sullinger did some good work tonight too. Again, another guy who’ll be lost in the hysteria of James Young, but he had 22 and 8 and was often in the right place at the right time.
The Gross:
Where do I start?
Jeff Green was terrible. 3 of 13 tonight and once again he rode the bench for all but a minute and a half of the 4th quarter. At this point, Brad Stevens has to pull the plug early on bad Jeff Green and go with the Young/Crowder combo with Gerald Wallace mopping up. If Green has it going early, then that’s a different story, but nights like this should just end early.
Hey remember when we were making the argument for starting Evan Turner? Well, nights like this make me think he should never play again.
Tyler Zeller lost the battle of the Zeller bros. in a big way tonight. Tyler checked in with 2 points on 1-5 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists. Cody had 20 points on 8-8 shooting, 7 rebounds, an assist, and a block.
The Greenlights:
James Young highlights:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q3wPi_N9aw]The Grid
- Celtics: 36-91 fg (39.6%) Charlotte: 38-78 fg (48.7%)
- Points in the paint: 40-40
- Second chance points: 20-20
- Fastbreak points: 17-4 Celtics
- FT’s: Celtics: 16-23 Charlotte 22-23
The Celtics have a LOT to work on. Everyone who dressed played, and now with Young in the mix, the Celtics have yet another guy who deserves a good look. He clearly needs to stick around at this level and get some minutes.
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