The Celtics opened with a pretty damn good 1st quarter, shooting 59% overall and 4 of 7 (57%) from 3 en route to 31 first quarter points. The Celtics looked active on both ends of the floor, holding Brooklyn to 41% shooting and 23 first quarter points.
The second quarter was even better than the first, especially the end. The Celtics whipped off a 17-1 run over the last 4:05 go into the half with a 67-41 lead. The Celtics shot 63.6% from the field in the second quarter, led by 8 points in less than 6 minutes from Marcus Thornton. The entire Celtics bench came to play in the first half, finishing the first 24 minutes of the game shooting 74% from the field.
The Celtics came out of the half a little sluggish, and it seemed like we were on our way to one of those “every team makes a run” moments to get things way too close. But Rajon Rondo went on a personal 9-2 run over a little more than two minutes out of a timeout to squash any thoughts of Brooklyn getting it close in the 3rd. The Celtics put up 34 in the third to extend their lead by 3 and go into the 4th with a 101-72 lead.
Brooklyn opened the fourth on an 12-2 run, and basically controlled most of the fourth as the young Celtics backed off a bit. Mirza Teletovic basically shot the Nets almost kinda sorta back into the game, but the Celtics did just enough to never really be threatened in the final quarter.
C’s cruised to open the season with an impressive win.
The Green:
Let’s start with the Captain, Rajon Rondo, who checked in with a 13 point, 12 assist, 7 rebound gem of a game. He started out a little too hyped up and a little too demanding of the ball… almost posting up above the 3 point line to get it from teammates. But he quickly settled down and worked more of the offense. Once that happened, the passes started flowing.
Rondo is passing so well, he’s making even Zeller look good.
— Bill Doyle (@BillDoyle15) October 30, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsKelly Olynyk was actually the Celtics leading scorer with 19 points tonight. He had a nice game, shooting 8-14 to go along with 6 rebounds and a couple of assists (one was a beauty from the top of the key). Hell, I might as well cut and paste the box score here because literally no one played poorly. Jeff Green (17 points, 6 rebounds) was a force in the first quarter defensively (4 of his rebounds came in the first). Sully had a nice, albeit low key night. Not only did everyone who played score, everyone but Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller scored in double digits.
The Gross:
The 4th quarter was nothing to write home about. I’m sure Brad Stevens, being the coach that he is, will harp on that a lot over the next couple of days. If you want to be good in this league, you will play a few extra hard minutes to make sure this thing is over. The last thing you want is the James Bond moment where he somehow inexplicably escapes and kills you when he should have been history a long time ago. It’s actually good that the Celtics had this kind of quarter because it gives Stevens something to be a prick about in practice.
The Greenlights
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hS6–MZcfw]The Grid:
- Rondo: 13 points (6-9 fg, 1-3 3pt, 0-4 ft), 12 assists, 7 rebounds
- Turner: 10 points (5-9 fg, 0-1 3pt) 7 rebounds, 5 assists
- Celtics: 11 steals (Marcus Smart: 4)
- Smart: 10 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, 4 steals, team-high +20
- Celtics bench: 44 points (19-33 fg [57.6%], 2-8 3pt)
- Points in the paint: Celtics 62 – Brooklyn 40
- Turnovers: Celtics 13, Brooklyn 21
The Celtics spent 36 minutes of this game mostly active and working hard on both ends of the floor. Brooklyn was playing at a disadvantage without Brook Lopez… and you can probably say playing WITH Deron Williams was a big disadvantage for most of the night. Perhaps the thing that helped them most was Mason Plumlee being limited to 11:29 of playing time with foul trouble. That allowed the Celtics to decimate the Nets for most of the first half as the Brooklyn frontcourt WAY overreacted to Rondo’s dribble penetration and on pick and rolls. And as soon as you make a mistake against Rondo, he’ll find the guy left open as a result. I don’t mean to piss on people’s parade tonight because this was a fun win, but a better, more disciplined team wouldn’t have made a lot of Brooklyn’s mistakes. But I will say this… if the Celtics are the team that beats decent and worse teams when they have mistake-filled games this season, I’ll take it. That will result in a lot more fun than last year. And if the guys can play like this against good teams, they’ll catch one or two of them sleeping and snatch a hard-fought game here and there. Overall, very nice win, and very encouraging to see a lot of young guys take advantage of mistakes.
KG on Rondo: “Rondo was classic. I don’t know what he said, he was 89, 83 percent? That’s a hell of an 82 percent.” — Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) October 30, 2014
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