Celtics Blow Out The Suns And Uh Oh Is That Winning Streak Music?!?
Yeah, maybe the streak is only at 2, but who cares? Who are you to judge? Sometimes if you are a struggling NBA team having a tough time, clearly lacking chemistry, sometimes all you need is to play maybe the biggest dumpster fire in the entire league in order to get back on track. Fortunately for the Celtics, last night was that opportunity. You see, the Suns are a hot mess, which if you follow the Celts or the NBA shouldn’t be a surprise to you. On paper, this as the exact team the Celtics needed. The Suns are currently 29th in the league in opponent scoring, and 24th in defensive rating. They are allowing opponents to shoot 47% as a team against them, which you guessed it, is last in the league. Things don’t get much better when defending the three, where they give up 38% shooting which is 29th in the league. You get the idea, the Suns are really really bad on defense, and since they are missing Eric Bledsoe, there was no reason to think things would be different.
Now look, this was a weird game because as a Celts fan, this sort of taught you nothing. This was the result that should happen 100 times out of 100 given the circumstances. So don’t read too much into this. If anything, this performance put them in a good spot heading into a pretty tough 3 game road trip (WSH/DAL/TOR). Nonetheless, there was some exciting moments and some things the Celts did really well. Let’s have a look.
The Good
– I love how the starters wasted little time in asserting themselves. Just 3 minutes into the game the Celts held an 8-2 advantage, and from there, they took off. Fast starts and good first quarters should come as no surprise, it happens almost every game, but here’s the thing. This Celtics team often plays to its competition. They play really well against the elite teams, and really bad against the shitty ones. It was nice to see they didn’t fall into this trap to start the game, and they shot the ball really well (58%) for the quarter.
Offensively, they went for the throat. This game really went on ice at about the 5 minute mark of the first quarter. Markieff Morris (the bad one I think?) had just made a bucket to cut it to 15-16. What happened next was pure bliss. First, Avery made his first outside shot of 2016, then they got a stop. Next up came Jae Crowder’s 24 ft bomb, and after a PHX bucket came Isaiah’s dagger. It was this combination of consecutive threes that really set the tone for the rest of the night.
– I could write 5000 words on how fucking awesome Aggressive Kelly Olynyk is. Instead, just sit back and enjoy the beauty of Dirk-Lite. Forget about the inconsistency for a second and get lost in what could be.
What a run by Kelly. This is the potential myself and fellow KO supporters refer to. This Olynyk is who the Celts hoped for when they drafted him, and he changes this entire team when he plays like this. Mike Gorman said it best, last night was like watching Olynyk’s season long highlight tape.
– Congratulations to Marcus Smart on his first career triple double. It wasn’t a Westbrook/Draymond Green style triple dub, but his 10/11/11 made him the youngest player to get one who didn’t even start the game. His shot selection is still terrible, and offensively there are issues, but you’re lying to yourself if you don’t think Marcus Smart is going to be a valuable piece for this team moving forward.
Man big night for those of us who are mortgaging our future happiness on the young guys huh?
– I know this probably seems repetitive, but the more Jae Crowder plays like this, the more I will continue to gush about him. I think people sometimes forget how ridiculous this production is, simply because it’s his first real season getting starter minutes. He hasn’t hit a wall. In fact, he’s getting better and more confident as the season goes along. A team high +23, his 17/6/5/3 has become part for the course. You don’t even hear about him in the MIP conversation, and it boggles my mind.
2014 (w/ Celts): 24 MPG 41% FG 28% 3P 9.5 PPG 4.6 REB 1.4 ASTS 0.4 BLK 1.0 STL
2015: 32 MPG 45% FG 36% 3P 14.4 PPG 5.2 REB 1.6 ASTS 0.6 BLK 1.9 STL
– Isaiah did Isaiah things which was to be expected as he was facing his former team. To be honest I thought he would have had more. By far the best play of his night came in the third quarter, I don’t care that this was a foul. Monster block
– I mentioned above how bad the Suns are at guarding the three point line, and the Celtics showed why. It has been a LONG time since the Celts have shot 46% from deep, and that’s exactly what they did (14-30). Cherish that because it probably won’t be that good again in your lifetime.
– Oh it was also nice to see the Celtics finally won a game while giving up 100 points. Glad that curse was broken.
The Bad
– Raise your hand if you are surprised that Evan Turner was a -6 in a game that was a blowout since the first quarter. I’ll wait.
– Speaking of blowouts, does anyone have any idea why RJ Hunter and James Young both only got 1:11 of floor time? In a game that you rested your starters? If anything you need to showcase these players for other teams. Or you know give them NBA minutes so they can develop. What is going on?
– As much as I love to see the Celtics win, this one tugged at some Greenie heartstrings simply because of Dan Majerle. If you didn’t have one of these growing up, your parents didn’t love you.
– Honestly what the fuck is going on with these FTs. Going 19-29 is absolutely appalling. If this is against any other team in the league, this loses you the game. CLEAN IT UP.
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The Ugly
– Call me old fashioned, but a 14 point win is in no way Gino territory. I get that they were up by 20+ for a majority of the game but still, the Celtics were outscored in both the 3rd and 4th quarter. I understand that given any sort of opportunity to bless the Garden with Gino you want to do it, but last night wasn’t the time in my opinion.
– As an ASU alum it’s tough to see how far the Suns have fallen since my college days. There was nothing like getting a $5 ticket outside US Airways and watching prime Steve Nash/Amare/Shawn Marion absolutely destroy teams. Sucks for them.
And just like that, Celts are on a roll. After a good win against IND, and a cakewalk against PHX, as a Celts fan you couldn’t ask for better momentum heading into today’s game against the Wizards. Washington is playing really well, winners of 4 straight, but they also played last night. After being unstoppable on the road in the second night of a back to back, the Celts have dropped a couple their last few attempts.
As it stands now, the Celtics (21-19) are just 2.5 games out of the 3 seed where CHI currently lives, and while many were under the impression that the Celtics season was over after their little skid, they are in fact still very much alive. If the Celtics can manage to go 2-1 on this road trip they will put themselves right in the thick of things.
21 down, 26 to go.