Last Night Was The Epitome Of Celtics Porn
I know it’s common to speak in hyperbole around these parts, but last night was truly one of the best performances we’ve seen from the Celtics all year. And thank fucking God if you ask me. After getting absolutely embarrassed in back to back games in WSH, this team needed to get back to the Garden in the worst way. They needed to right the ship and get back to playing the style of Celtics basketball that we all know and love. That means defending, that means being active, that means moving the ball and giving up a good shot for a great shot, and more importantly, it means playing with a type of swagger that oozes confidence.
I think we all knew that if the Celtics lost this game, the season probably ends on Friday. Teams that win Game 5 when tied 2-2 advance something crazy like 84% of the time, and given how the Celtics have played in four tries this year in WSH, last night was one of, if not the most important game of the Brad Stevens era. The good news is, the Celtics showed up, and they showed up in a BIG way. I think now we see why it was so important that the Celtics finished the season strong enough to stay ahead of WSH in the standings. Home court makes all the difference.
I want to caution everyone to fully understand that this series is not over. If the Celtics can’t close this out on Friday and have to play a Game 7, anything can happen. This is not a time to start looking ahead to CLE (yet), but it IS a time to relive some of the best Celtics porn these eyes have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
Let’s talk about it.
The Good
– It took me a while to decide who should start us off. When you’re getting great performances from multiple guys, it’s a nice problem to have. After going back and forth with Walter all night, we have come to a conclusion. Enjoy.
I will die on the hill that while Isaiah may be the Celtics best talent, Avery Bradley is their most important player. It’s why before the playoff’s started when I was asked who had to be the one to step up and help Isaiah, my answer was always Avery. When Avery gives this team legit secondary scoring, and you combine it with his All NBA defense, the Celtics are awfully tough to beat. Make no mistake about it, Avery has had a pretty poor offensive series before last night, and you have to love that at the biggest moment, he had the best playoff game of his career.
The final line is pretty ridiculous: 29/6/3 on 12-19 shooting (4-7) from deep. You can tell the two days off did wonders for Avery’s hips because his lift was a thousand times better on his jump shot. It was great to see Avery get back to being Mr. First Quarter, and the way he started this game set the tone for the entire team. With Avery, it’s all about confidence. When he makes his first couple jumpers, combines it with easy transition buckets, this entire offense opens up. We all saw how WSH was throwing basically their entire team at Isaiah, and players like Avery stepping up and knocking down shots is going to have to force the Wizards to now adjust in Game 6.
And that little baseline jumper at around the 4 min mark in the 2nd? Avery warned Gortat that he would fuck him up, and that’s what that play was to me. When was the last time we saw Avery create his own shot like that? He can do that now? I don’t hate it. If Game 1 was the Jae Crowder outlier game, you could argue that Game 5 was the same thing for Avery. He probably won’t shoot this well again, but that’s OK. They don’t need 29 from Avery in order to win, but they do need 16-19 to help keep the defense honest. Now that he’s looking back to full strength, I don’t think that’s a crazy thing to think he can do.
– We were told ALL YEAR to not put too much focus into the regular season. That all evaluations of this team would come once the playoffs started. A good stretch here or there from a certain player was nice, but until we saw how everyone performed in the playoffs when the stakes are high, nothing else matters.
Well, allow me to share with you how our max player Al Horford has played during this all important time. For the playoffs as a whole, he’s averaging 15.8/7.7/6.1/1.0/1.0 with 64/57% splits. In this series, he’s averaging 16/6.8/5.6/1.6/0.8 with 69/59% splits. So, not only has Horford elevated his level of play from the regular season to the postseason, but he’s getting BETTER as the playoffs go on. After months and months of hot takes about how Horford isn’t worth the money, how this was a bad signing, all I can do is laugh. Al Horford played one of the most inspired games of his Celtics career last night, and honestly it’s really hard to find someone on the roster playing better than him right now.
His 19/6/7/3 on 8-9 shooting (3-4 from deep) happened in my opinion because the Celtics made an adjustment in how they use Horford that was very different from both losses in WSH. Remember in the CHI series where the Celtics would put Horford at the top of the key to pull Lopez away from the rim, and from there Horford went to work since he had the extreme advantage? They did it in Game 1 of this series, but then for some reason went away from it. Well it was back last night, and when they did that, we saw him expose Gortat and either knock down an open jumper, or take it all the way to the rim only to make a beautiful pass to a Celtics cutter. The main takeaway is the Celtics got back to creating space and combined that with off the ball movement which ultimately led to great offense. That all starts with Horford.
But what also stood out to me was once Horford realized he had a guy like Morris on him in the post, he was uber aggressive. We in no way saw a hesitant, disappearing Horford in this game. This shot chart right here is about as ideal as you can get from Al
A perfect combination of an inside/outside game. I was also really impressed with how Horford defended at the rim. The three blocks were nice, but the way he was able to defend a driving Wall without fouling was a big reason why the Celts were able to get out on the break and start fast. We’re seeing a guy step up and play his best basketball at the most important time. If that’s not what max players do, what is?
– Don’t look now, but the Celtics have just put in back to back solid efforts in first quarters. Gone are the days of getting down by 15 points in the first five minutes. It wasn’t a 26-0 run, but their 16-0 run after WSH scored the first four points was such a relief. The Celts needed a wire to wire win like this, and you can’t be happier with the energy that they started with. That was some of the best effort on both ends we’ve seen this entire playoff run, and when they play with that type of energy and activity, they are really hard to beat.
– This play right here, this is it. This is Celtics porn. This is the stuff that gets the blood flowing. Cum absolutely everywhere
But let’s not act as if this was the only time. Ball movement was everywhere last night, and plays like this show that when this team is unselfish and makes the right basketball play, they are going to be successful
– Isaiah showed us something in his development last night. I was very happy he didn’t force things on the offensive end and instead played within the flow of the offense and got great shots for his teammates. His 18/9 marked the third straight game he’s been under 20 points, but this one felt so much different from the previous two. Many will say Isaiah didn’t play that well, and I guess when you’re used to him dropping 30 a night that’ll happen, but for anyone who actually understands basketball, his performance was exactly what the team needed. His shot struggled at times yes, but they were all good looks, there wasn’t that situation where he was forcing low percentage threes, or when he got into the lane he tried to force a shot instead of kicking it to an open teammate. He said it it postgame and I agree with him, a younger Isaiah probably forces way more.
– How do you know the Celtics played hard? Well, they won the rebounding battle, won the fast break battle, took care of the basketball, and had 33 assists on 46 baskets.
– Here’s something I couldn’t believe. Jaylen, Marcus, and Terry all played at least 20 minutes. Combined they had ZERO turnovers. I can’t even stress how huge that is. I thought Marcus turned in his best performance of the series, even though he shot 3-7. Remember, by law we are not to give a shit about his shooting when he does everything else to positively impact a game. I’d say his 11 rebounds 6 assists and 2 steals qualifies. He was everywhere, diving on the floor, grabbing rebounds and pulling it away from Gortat, he defended well, overall this was exactly the energy and effort we need from Marcus.
And make no mistake about it. Terry completely owned Jennings and is playing with a confidence I didn’t know he had.
– 26 minutes for Jaylen, and he gave us plays like this
If I had to guess, I would say we are going to get a healthy dose of Jaylen in this series from here on out.
– With the game in hand, I tweeted this out
well….
– I can’t keep up, do we like Jae Crowder now that he had 19/8 and was a team high +19? Feel like this changes every five seconds and I’ve lost count.
The Bad
– There wasn’t much, but I’d say the play where the Celtics got an offensive rebound late in the third quarter and kicked it to Jae Crowder with 23 seconds on the shot clock and not a defender in sight, him taking that three was bad. I know he was open, but they didn’t need the knockout punch right there. I think at times that’s where Jae gets into trouble. He wants to deliver that knockout instead of realizing the situation.
– I thought the Celts defense after their hot start sort of regressed. The Wizards only had one 30 point quarter, and it came in the second. I thought there were defensive possessions where there was late weak side rotations, and the Celtics did have a tougher time containing Wall who went 4-7.
– Jonas really gonna get a DNP-CD in a blowout? That was weird.
– Is it a little outrageous that I’m bothered by the Celtics shooting 15-21 from the line? Absolutely, but that is nothing new around these parts. Marcus missed three, Kelly missed one, and Isaiah missed one. I dunno what is going on with Marcus at the line, but how often does a 80% shooter during the year end up shooting 50% from the line in the playoffs? They didn’t need the points, but that doesn’t mean the trend of missing FTs this postseason doesn’t concern me.
The Ugly
– Jaylen, Jaylen, Jaylen. I understand you want to be aggressive. I understand Brad talks all the time about how until you defend, you won’t see the floor. What I want you to know is this does not mean fouling Ian fucking Mahinmi 30ft from the basket as he attempts a quarter ending three. That one you can let him have, it’s OK. Seeing how mad Brad was I was very surprised to see Jaylen play the whole fourth quarter, but make no mistake about it, that was a HORRENDOUS foul. There’s just no excuse for that type of mental mistake. At this point Jaylen isn’t a rookie, he has to be better if the wants to play.
– All this hoopla about the chants from the crowd. I found it entertaining that WSH had something to say about it considering they refer to themselves as Death Row DC. Wahhhhhh an opposing fan base said a bad word. Those Boston fans man, when will they clean their act up?
It would be so sweet with all the stuggles this team has had in WSH to close it out on their home court. To do that the Celtics are going to have to play with the same energy, the same focus that they did in Game 5. I truly believe that if they can just not give up historic runs, and play like complete and utter assholes, we’ll be talking about CLE and the Conference Finals. One step at a time. I will say this though, not counting tonight’s HOU/SA game, teams that play an elimination game at home this postseason are 0-9. Do with that what you will.
But let’s call last night what it was. Pure Celtics porn. The best kind of porn.
Now say it with me
7 down 9 to go.