Recap: Celtics pull away in the 4th (no, really) for blowout win

At the outset of this game, it looked like the Celtics were going to struggle against Nikola Vucevic and the Orlando Magic.  Rajon Rondo was equal parts sloppy and sharp, but the Celtics turned it over a lot and didn’t rebound early in the game.  But the Celtics slowly got their act together, got a lot of contributions from a lot of places, and, for once they pulled away in the fourth quarter to make the game look like more of a blowout than it actually was.

Jared Sullinger snapped out of his funk in a big way in the first quarter.  He hit 4 of the 6 shots he took, including a 3, to put up a team-high 9 points.  The Magic countered with a heavy dose of Nikola Vucevic, who put up the Magic’s first 6 points and 12 overall in the quarter.  The Magic scored 28 points on 39% shooting thanks to 7 Boston turnovers (4 by Rajon Rondo) and 9 offensive rebounds that allowed them to put up 28 shots.  Soooo many of those shots were fairly easy layups too. The Celtics only took 17 shots but shot 71% to score 29 points in the quarter and lead by 1.  Tyler Zeller was still Rondo’s favorite target, going 3 of 3 for 6 points (Rondo had 4 assists in the quarter).

The Magic whipped off a 10-0 run shortly into the second quarter (MORE LAYUPS!! MORE PARENTHETICAL REMARKS!!) to take an 8 point lead.  The lead grew to 10, but then Kelly Olynyk went all Olynyk on us, scoring 8 points in the quarter to lead a Celtics 19-6 charge that closed the half.  The Celtics actually tacked on a couple of points to their lead, also thanks in part to Rondo’s 5 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in the 2nd… 3 of those 5 points came on a rare Rondo 3-pointer.  After being a little sloppy with the ball earlier, the Celtics only committed 3 second quarter turnovers (1 by Rondo).

The Celtics tacked on two more points in the third quarter powered by Jeff Green and Sullinger (each 3-6 in the 3rd).  The Celtics built their lead up to as high as 8 before it settling to 5.  Rondo displayed a consistent willingness to shoot, hitting on 2 of 4 attempts in the 3rd and 5 of 10 to that point for 11 points, 12 assists, and 7 rebounds through 3 quarters.  The Celtics only turned the ball over once in the quarter.

The Celtics pushed the lead 10 on an amazing and-1 from Olynyk where he upfaked his defender at the arc, drove the lane, faked out another defender with a pass-fake, and finished with the dunk.  An Orlando turnover (deflected nicely by Gerald Wallace) and Evan Turner dunk pushed the lead to 12… which is where it would stay for a few minutes after some traded baskets.  The Magic went on a 5-0 mini-run to cut the lead to 7, but and Olynyk layup put the lead back up to 9 to start a little back-and-forth here for a bit.  The Celtics pushed to 11 on a Rondo-to-Bass connection in the lane for a dunk.  Then Rondo found Bass in the corner for a jumper and Pressey cutting down the lane to push it to 15 with 4 minutes left.  From there, it all fell apart for Orlando, and Boston finished with a 109-92  win.

The Green

The Celtics bench:

Let’s start with Kelly Olynyk, who didn’t put up 30, but played the exact same way and led some key moments in this game.  The Celtics really needed him in that second quarter when Orlando was threatening to build a big lead on Boston.  His energy in the second quarter was a huge factor in this game.

Brandon Bass had a typically quiet Bass night.  It looked like he was having a nice game and then all of a sudden he was the team’s leading scorer. He scored 10 of the Celtics last 14 points of the game to help the C’s close this out.

Phil Pressey came in and helped the Celtics maintain an uptempo pace.  His 9 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals were huge to lead the second unit.

The bench as a whole scored 50 points to Orlando’s 24.

Rajon Rondo had a tough start to the game with 4 early turnovers, but he limited it to 2 after that to have one of his best overall games of the season.  Yes he had 13 points, 15 assists, and 7 rebounds… but he also took 12 shots that helped keep the defense honest and take presser off his teammates.  That’s the kind of thing a lot of people would love to see more often.

It was nice to see Sullinger snap out of his funk early, but he only played 7 second half minutes.

The Gross

I really didn’t like the steady march of Orlando layups throughout most of this game.  The Celtics did a better job later in the game of clamping down, but they gave up 50 points in the paint.

The 7 first quarter turnovers weren’t pretty.  The good news is they only had 7 the rest of the way, so I don’t want to go too crazy about it.

The Greenlights

Rondo nearly takes Zeller’s head off with the pass

Pressey gets in on the “get assists by passing to Zeller” fun  

Rondo having some post-whistle fun

Bradley with the block. Rondo the lead pass. Bradley the layup  

Jeff Green with a pair of upfakes and a pair of fouls, really

Kelly Olynyk with the slam in the lane (plus bonus slo-mo action)

This “bounce pass to himself” thing Rondo did  

The Grid

• Points in the paint:  Boston 54 – Orlando 50
• Celtics:  44-84 (55%), 7-19 3pt (36.8%)
• Orlando:  37-85 (43.5%), 5-19 3pt (26.3%)
• Rebounds:  Boston 42 – Orlando 36
• Offensive rebounds:  Orlando 10 – Boston 7.
• Offensive rebounds after the 1st quarter:  Orlando 1 – Boston 5.

The Celtics did a nice job tonight and once again showed that they can be better than the bottom third of the NBA when they get contributions from just about everybody.  Even Avery Bradley, who only shot the ball 6 times and scored 4 points was a team-high +23.  The Celtics got double-digit contributions from 6 different guys and were efficient scoring the ball.  Hopefully Marcus Smart will return on Friday as the Celtics take on Minnesota.

Box Score