Banner Town Breakdown: Celtics vs. Nets
Wendell Cruz (USA Today Sports)
The Boston Celtics took on the Brooklyn Nets and their star duo of Kevin Durant (25 pts, 6 reb) and Kyrie Irving (17 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast) on Friday night, as Boston gears up for their season tipoff with the revamped Milwaukee Bucks on December 23rd. This exhibition marked the first time Boston faced Brooklyn at full strength as well as the first game Kyrie Irving has suited up for in Boston. Boston saw the return of Daniel Theis (5 pts, 9 reb) to the starting lineup after missing last game due to a sore back.
In an interesting trend, Javonte Green (0 pts, 4 reb) once again suited up with the starting lineup. It’ll be interesting to see if his play can garner a full-time spot, but Brad Stevens has hinted that Green’s spot will be doled out as part of the rotation. Here’s what Brad Stevens had to say on Green’s play and his fit with Boston:
“Regardless of whether he starts or not, we need his energy. He can get points of cutting, running the floor and he can make shots when he's open. I can see him coming off the bench and I can see him starting.”
Outside of the expected absences of Kemba Walker (left knee strengthening) and Romeo Langford (right wrist surgery), Tacko Fall was listed as out (right eye irritation) and Tristan Thompson continues to recover from a right hamstring strain. Without further ado, let’s get down to it.
Both teams started off the first quarter a little sluggish, trading a few misses earlier on. Boston struggled from deep early, with the team shooting 2/14 from range (14.3%!!!?). Marcus Smart (7 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast) was hurling shot after shot from range, going 1/6 in 9 minutes. Boston’s bench struggled without Jayson Tatum (19 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast) on the floor, and it does beg the question where Boston will find consistent scoring to buoy their second unit when the games start to count.
On the other side of the coin, Brooklyn shot 4/8 from deep, and 12/24 from the field. Kyrie Irving shot 3/6 from the field with 2 assists while new running mate Kevin Durant shot 2/4 with 2 rebounds. Brooklyn seized the opportunity and built up a decent lead, riding a 35-23 lead into the 2nd quarter.
Things seemed to trend in the same direction as Brooklyn continued to get into rhythm. Boston still looked out of sorts offensively, and even worse with Jayson Tatum on the bench. By the 7:30 mark in the quarter, Celtics was down 45-27, letting up a 10-4 to start the quarter. Durant started to heat up and established that he’s back and fully operational, shooting 3/3 from the field and using his wingspan to get his shot up and over defensive contests with ease.
The Nets shot 5/7 from range, while the Celtics continued to trend in the opposite direction, shooting 1/8 from deep in the quarter; their lone make was a nice clean corner 3 from Tatum. Overall, the trio of Smart, Tatum and Jaylen Brown (16 pts, 4 reb 4 ast) were putrid from deep through the 1st half.
Smart/Tatum/Brown shot chart through two quarters
Boston relied heavily on shooting from deep to claw their way back into the game, but to no avail. Joe Harris (14 pts, 5 reb) continues to be a lethal sniper from beyond the arc, going 2/2 in the first and 2/3 in the second quarter. Brooklyn increased their lead to 18, and led Boston into the half, 62-44.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were on a mission to start the quarter on the good foot coming out, attacking and drawing contact while pushing the offense to whittle down the deficit. However, that energy evaporated quite quickly, and the Celtics quickly reverted to last year’s 3rd quarter protocol: crumble.
Brooklyn’s lead snowballed, and outscored Boston 30 to 16 for the quarter. Boston’s deep ball continued its vanishing act, as the team shot 2/10 from range. As a team, the Celtics shot a miserable 6/23 from the field on the quarter. Brooklyn sat firmly in the driver’s seat with Boston locked in the trunk, and with a massive 92-60 lead they put it into cruise control.
The fourth quarter was only more of the same. Outside of some of the younger guys like Aaron Nesmith (9 pts, 5 reb), Payton Pritchard (5 pts) and Tremont Waters (7 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl) getting minutes, this was a painful game to watch. The Nets suffocated the Celtics 113-89, and Boston will have to sort its act out quickly before they face Milwaukee on Wednesday and rematch Brooklyn shortly afterwards on Christmas Day.
Kevin Durant led all scorers with 25 points, 9/16 shooting with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal in addition to 3 blocks. Irving chipped in 17 points on 7/15 shooting with 7 boards and 5 assists. Boston was led by Jayson Tatum with 19 points and 9 rebounds on 5/17 shooting (7/8 from the line). Jaylen Brown also had 16 points, 4 assists and 4 boards on 7/15 shooting. Boston ended up shooting 8 of 45 from deep on an abysmal 17.8%. In the postgame presser, Brad Stevens acknowledged that the team hasn’t played up to standard so far:
"We’ve got to play a lot better than we have. I think that ultimately, we have to make sure we’re building the right habits every time we take the court."
Boston has shot 19 of 84 from deep across their two preseason games, which is alarming but not too surprising when you consider they are without scorer and playmaker Kemba Walker. Until his return, Boston will need to sort out its offense; what that means for the starting lineup and bench unit, it’s hard to say. But it certainly can’t continue if the team expects to compete in the East this year.
