Avery Bradley scored a team-high 21 points, Jae Crowder added another 19 and the Celtics blew out the Nets, 120-95, on Friday night at the Garden.
Bradley came off the bench and gave the Celtics all they could ask for, shooting 10-for-13 from the floor in 25 minutes of play. He tried just one three-pointer -- which he made -- logging three rebounds and two steals.
Crowder, meanwhile, put up most of his numbers in the opening period, scoring 12 out of the gate as Boston gained the upper hand. He drilled three threes in the first half and grabbed five boards, second on the squad to Kelly Olynyk's 10.
The Nets fell behind early and never recovered, trailing by 24 at the break en route to their 11th loss of the season. Thaddeus Young and Brook Lopez led them with 14 points each, though Young attempted eight more field goals.
The Celtics improve to 7-5 with the victory, the sixth best record in the Eastern Conference.
Turning Point: The Celtics clung to a four-point edge after the first quarter, but pulled away for good with a dominant performance in the second. The Celts out-scored Brooklyn 43-23 to take the pressure off, aided in large part by 11 points from David Lee.
A Tale of Two Point Guards: Isaiah Thomas missed each of his first six shots on the evening, but bounced back from there to convert his next five. The turnaround helped Thomas finish with 18 points, including a 4-for-9 outing from deep.
Get Inside: The Celtics had 68 points in the paint to the Nets' 40, undoubtedly a major reason they won by so much. The C's are now 4-1 this year when they score 50+ down low -- the lone defeat coming November 1 to the Spurs.
Next Up: The Celtics battle the Nets again on Sunday, visiting the Barclays Center for the first time in 2015. Tip-off is at 6:00 p.m. ET, with CSN-New England and the YES Network calling the action.
I like our play this year (Hi Shirley and all) but!!!
ReplyDeleteThru last night, Celtics have the 5th worst 3Pt % in the league and we are 3rd in the league in most 3pt attempted per game.
Do you need "analytics" to fix this?
We are scoring a lot in the paint, we are getting offensive rebounds (3rd in the league).
Until we get some real legit 3 pt shooters - just stop!!!
Of course in order to get a legit 3-pt shooters we have to trade some people, so in my pessimistic mind we will trade some offensive rebounding "in the paint" people or penetrators to get a 3-pt shooter - we don't really need because we shoot too many 3's already.
Po's Annual Analytics Seminar - "run, get big wide bodies in the paint, use a PG who can penetrate, crash the offensive boards, play aggressive defense. block out on the D boards, and run more." - Thank you - this concludes our course on "What does analytics teach us about winning"