Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“I feel like he was getting away with a lot of curse words and inappropriate words to me, and I retaliated and I got hit,” Crowder said. “Tony said he didn’t hear anything from Wittman. I’m not going to outburst on a coach and say something like that for no reason.”
Wittman held his postgame news conference before Crowder talked, and the Wizards declined to make Wittman available again.
ESPNBoston: Celtics’ Jae Crowder accuses Randy Wittman of cursing at him
“He was saying something about me being soft and bleep, bleep, bleep about Nene hitting me on the John Wall foul. He (Nene) hit me with a little back hand,” Crowder said.
Crowder’s teammates didn’t understand why he was jawing with another player at that critical juncture in the game. He then told them it wasn’t another player, but the Wizards head coach.
“They were like, ‘what!’ It was a shocker for everybody,” Crowder said. “I’ve never had that, since I been playing basketball, interaction with a coach,” Crowder said.
Crowder: Wittman said ‘some stuff I didn’t like’
This was a weird moment. With John Wall on the free throw line with 22.8 left on the clock, Tony Brothers caught Jae Crowder with a tech seemingly out of nowhere. On the replay you can see Crowder talking back towards the bench area, and when Brothers blew the whistle, Crowder incredulously motions back at Wittman.
The tech hurt because Wall had missed his first of 3 free throws, but they essentially got that point back.
Now… as for Wittman…
Coaches should be held to a higher standard, and if Wittman said something to draw that kind of reaction, then he should be punished. Each tech costs players a couple of grand, so if Wittman is found to have been trash talking Crowder from the bench, then he should be hit with a fine… and an increased fine at that.
The NBA can’t allow coaches to provoke players. I get that Crowder should have been better composed, but it doesn’t change the fact that Wittman was the instigator in this. And there’s no doubt he was… you can see in replays that Isaiah Thomas was asking Brothers what a player is supposed to do when a coach is talking trash to him. And Crowder went out of his way to get the last word in at Wittman after the last-second shot.
I’ll be interested to see if the NBA follows up on this. I think a $10,000 fine is in order here.
Page 2: Brad Stevens is a hell of a coach
Asked what he intended on the last play, Stevens replied with three words: “What we got.”
“He’s a hell of a coach, man,” Wall said, according to ESPN. “He’s a young coach, but that’s one hell of a coach that knows the game real well. Even at the end of the game, we lined up in different formation that he hadn’t seen and he called out our play before I got the ball. I heard him calling it out.”
The game-winning play was brilliant in its simplicity, and it worked because Brad Stevens studies the game and his opponent, and he knew what would happen if the Celtics ran a certain set.
“Brad knew exactly how they were going to play it,” said Crowder.
It starts with Boston taking the ball out from the baseline, which (a) gives Washington a lot of time to overreact to Thomas and (b) doesn’t give away anything the Celtics were really trying to do.
Olynyk and Bradley are threats and need to be guarded, and everyone is worried about Thomas… so while Thomas and Kelly run what is essentially a distraction, Crowder ducks behind his guy and Bradley clears out to the corner.
What results is 5 red onesies all drawn away from the one thing they are trying to defend… the basket… which is now left completely open.
All Marcus Smart had to do was toss the perfect pass to the other side of the rim and the Celtics got their game-winning layup.
These are all simple things. There wasn’t some crazy multi-pick action anywhere. It was simply understanding their tendencies that made it work. Getting Crowder behind Oubre and then having him sell it like fronting him was actually good defense is basically a basketball version of the Jedi mind trick.
“You want to be fronting me right now.”
“Yes, I should be fronting you right now.”
“Fronting me is good defense.”
“Yes, I’m playing good defense.”
Sorry Kelly… it wasn’t. Brad wins again.
By the way… this season has to be the first time two guys named Kelly faced each other in an NBA game, right? I’m just going to say it is… I’m too lazy to check
Related links: Crowder: Brad drew up a great play | ESPN Boston: Wall: Stevens is a hell of a coach
And Finally…
Never forget how much of an idiot Matt Barnes is… When speaking about his altercation with Derek Fisher, he said…
Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it is. And unfortunately, it happened. I don’t regret it.”
Let that quote wash over you for a bit… and remember, there’s no IQ test required to be an NBA player.
The rest of the links
Globe: Isaiah Thomas outduels John Wall as Celtics hold off Wizards | Olynyk newest driver of Patriots bandwagon | McDonough determined to turn around Suns | CSNNE: Smart: Crowder’s confidence at an all time high | Stevens: Fortunate Wall missed final layup | Herald: Noah to have shoulder surgery, out 4-6 months | Crowder delivers | Olynyk and Edelman guy
