The Celtics made it back to .500 with a convincing 99-83 win in Milwaukee against a Bucks team that is long on length and short on depth.
After spotting the Bucks the first 8 points and forcing Brad to call a “You guys do realize that this is an actual game, not a scrimmage?” timeout like he did on Friday against the Wizards, the Celtics outscored the Bucks by 8 the rest of the quarter and the first period ended where it began, with a tie score.
That was bad news for the Bucks, who really needed to make that early lead stick against a Celtics team that is much deeper than they are. The Celtics played more assertively in the second quarter, driving to the basket, breaking down the Bucks defense, and generally wearing them down.
At halftime, the Celtics led by 4.
Milwaukee pushed the Celtics to open the second half, and got within one. The Celtics continued to pound the ball inside, and even if they took a lot of contested shots and made very few of them, you could kind of see the writing on the wall.
Late in the 3rd, Stevens subbed in Kelly Olynyk, Evan Turner, Jonas Jerebko and RJ Hunter in a sort of hockey line change that just buried the Bucks. JJ and RJ immediately sparked an 8-0 run, and before you knew it the lead was 17.
The Bucks came out aggressive to open the 4th, getting the deficit down to 11, but they didn’t have the depth or the energy to keep pace with the Celtics and the lead was soon back up to 17. After that, the only thing in doubt was the final score.
The Green
RJ played like a pro, looking for his shot, clearing the boards and generally acting like he belongs on the court. He finished the game with 7 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes and was +17 overall. He also picked up a new nickname courtesy Celtics fan and salary cap expert Ryan Bernardoni:
R(ebound). J(umper). Hunter is +19 in 14 mins and should have a positive PER now
— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) November 11, 2015
David Lee finally showed signs of life. He had a couple of very nice sequences on offense, shot 5-7 from the field and 3-4 from the line. He also played a key role in killing over a minute of clock late in the 4th, pulling down a pair of offensive rebounds and then cashing in a jumper.
Jared Sullinger pretty much kept the Celtics in the game early in the first quarter.
I swear, whenever Olynyk does that up-fake followed by a dribble drive he looks like a flamingo falling down a staircase, but it was incredibly effective tonight.
The bench delivered, again. They scored almost half the team’s points.
The Gross
The first eight minutes of the game, pretty much.
Jae Crowder’s shooting. He hit a very important three, but otherwise, he missed 9 of 12.
Is Brad Stevens ever going to have a good starting lineup? Or is that just going to be a thing with his teams, that they’re going to come out looking like a group of tall people who have, apparently, never seen a basketball before tip off?
Avery Bradley got kicked by Tyler Ennis and left the game with a bone bruise.
Greenlights
Celtics killing the game at crazy shots that don’t count… https://t.co/wzInyozhvH
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) November 11, 2015
Come on. You’ve got to give Turner continuation on that!
Sellout crowd at the Harris Center tonight*
Mad Brad apparently wants to know how Middleton got so open. Thomas might have been expected to switch handoff. https://t.co/ULFLDAHcVb
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) November 11, 2015
Angry Brad Stevens is Angry.
The Grid
Isaiah Thomas was 6-20 (1-10 from three) and still led all scorers with 20 points. Dude’s got the Paul Pierce gene for getting to the foul line.
Evan Turner was +32!
Jonas Jerebko did not miss a shot (although he only took 3 total)
*Actually, that’s Progressive Field during an Indians game. This is what it really looked like:
Update: Crowd filling in nicely depending on how you define nicely mostly pic.twitter.com/nOuouWOIeE
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) November 11, 2015
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