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Recap: Celtics weather the storm, beat Jazz

KWAPT (@KWAPT) January 26, 2015 Gametime, Recaps 15 Comments

Despite a few turnovers, 5 to be exact, Boston had a decent 1st quarter. They were aggressive for the most part, but Utah’s bigs were up to the challenge. Derrick Favors led a rim-protecting Utah defense that let Boston know it meant business early. But the C’s persisted, and were tied with the Jazz 17-17 after 1Q.

Led by Tayshaun Princem& Marcus Smart, the Boston bench (and Bradley) played exceptionally well in tonight’s 2nd quarter. Prince has been nothing but solid since the veteran joined the C’s. He led Boston to a 38-point quarter on the offensive end. Defensively, the Celts had their best quarter of the year, holding Utah to just 14 points. Things clicked on all cylinders as Prince had 10 points and Avery Bradley put in 10 of his own. Boston went into the half up 55-31. Other than a few minutes of the 1st quarter, Boston was waxing the Jazz in their own building. Boston’s bench had 25 of the Celts’ first half points.

And then..the 3rd quarter happened. Utah looked like a completely different team and overwhelmed the C’s with an 18-0 run. The Jazz were “super aggressive” as Mike Gorman said and just opened up a can of whoop ass. After going into the half up 24, the Celtics’ lead was down to just six points. It was 62-56 Utah with 2:55 to go in the 3rd. Boston did manage to hang in there, as they held a 71-66 lead heading into the final quarter. Hats off to Marcus Thornton who’s heady play late in the 3rd kept Utah from totally taking things over.

Like the two previous games, the Celtics showed plenty of fight going down the stretch. Just when it looked like Boston would fold late, the C’s played some consistent ball in the 4th. This time it was Tyler Zeller & Marcus Thornton making the big plays. Zeller & Thornton each put in 6 points in the quarter and Boston avoids a total meltdown. The Celtics played some great defense in the final quarter and also hit their free-throws, shooting 10 of 12 from the line in the 4th. Boston wins 99-90 tonight in Utah. Brad Stevens has this group playing with purpose and a lot of heart. Kudos to the coach-this was the squad’s 4th game in 5 nights on the road. Gordon Hayward led all scorers with 26 points. The team now heads to Minny where they face the Wolves on Wednesday night to wrap up this trip.

Looking very nasty outside here in Boston tonight-be safe out there east coast. Get some food, drink & hunker down….

The Green:

Who else-Tayshaun Prince did it all again tonight. In 30 minutes, Prince had 19 points, 5 assists & 2 rebounds. Not to mention his strong veteran play/savvy all night.
Tyler Zeller had 14 & 7 tonight to go with 2 blocks. He shot 75% from the floor
Somewhat quiet but solid night again from Sully & Bass the two combined for 20 points & 16 boards. Marcus Smart’s numbers don’t leap off the page, but he played good defense, drew a charge and had 9 points, 5 assists & 3 boards in 28 minutes.

The Gross:

C’s were outscored 35-16 in the 3rd, where they also had 6 turnovers

The Greenlights:

The Grid: ( quick stats)

The Jazz had 10 blocks
Boston went 21 of 23 from the line
Celtics held their own with one of the NBA’s best rebounding teams: 39 boards for Utah & 37 for Boston.

Box score

Latest lottery odds from Tankathon

Alex Costa

These Celtics are playing with a lot of heart. Been enjoying a lot of these games as of late.

Avery Bradley continues to be a pain in my ass because he truly isn’t a starter and I believe he would play a lot better coming off the bench. This guy has to be one of the worst passing guards in the league and I’m stunned that he only had 3 turnovers… I thought he had a LOT more. I know it’s a cool new trend to hate on Bradley but his utter streakiness and horrible passing doesn’t make him a good player to watch.

EDIT: He went 4-12 this game, yikes…
- KWAPT
  
  Another thing that drives me crazy about Bradley is that for a shooting guard, he never gets to the FT line.
  - KGino
    
    I agree he has yet to develop much of a drive game (besides the back door cut), especially for a guy that has some hops. He is a good shooter though, I feel like he has to take a lot of contested shots because of his team and would shoot a better % if he wasn’t one of the go to guys. A lot like smart has been doing. I’m not sure where to rank his defense anymore.
  - NE_Celt
    
    Yea but when he drives to the basket his handle isn’t good enough… Usually loses the ball or is out of control… He needs to work on his basic ball handling skills. Even our bigs seem to have a better handle then AB.
  - Dirk Diggler
    
    Well he can’t change his shot or finish at the rim very well anyhow. And the ball handling is bad. I think he’s best utilized by limiting him on offense to open jumpers off of picks and of course the baseline cuts to the hoop.
    
    I really can’t overstate how bad his new contract looks to NBA teams, and fans, outside of Boston. Danny’s worst move in this rebuilding process.
  - KGino
    
    KWAPT, I saw what you did with the title of this article btw… Just didn’t want you to think your subtleties would go unnoticed.
    - KWAPT
      
      Thank you sir!
- Dirk Diggler
  
  The problem has never really been Bradley as a player so much as it has been the complete overrating of him and his game by Danny and the Celtics brass. The culmination of that was this offseason, when the oft-injured, undersized, and inconsistent Bradley earned a 4 year 32 million dollar contract in an offseason where Lance Stephenson (3yr/27) and Shaun Livingston (3 yr/15) both got less guaranteed money by a fair margin,
  
  When Bradley has a couple of good games like he did prior to last night’s, Celtics fans and Celtics front office staff members act as if he’s on the verge of breaking out. That’s simply not the case, and it never will be. Bradley is not good enough to sustain nice shooting numbers. He’s not a starting shooting guard in this league. He’s a very good role player at best. He doesn’t really do anything that great on the floor as the best thing we can say about him is that he plays slightly above average defense and his back door cuts have always been pretty fun. That’s about it.
Dave

In the ‘Thornton Cookin” one was that fan on the right side trying to call for a travel? Not even close haha, I always love seeing fans trying to make calls like the refs are actually going to pay attention to them.
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