Celtics Review - Game 20
Matchup - Miami Heat
Results - 112-93 (W)
Record - (15-5)
I unfortunately wasn’t able to watch this game, as I had to work. However, I was checking the box score while I was working, and feel like I can give a good enough summary of what happened. From what I saw, it was literally like every single other Celtics game I’ve talked about this season. When the game began, we got torched. Duncan Robinson couldn’t miss from the field, and we just couldn’t get any of our shots to fall. Kemba was struggling, Tatum was struggling, and so was the rest of the team. It was just like we start every game we play, and it’s starting to really get on my nerves. You think we would have figured out how to play basketball in the first quarter after 20 games of the season.
Luckily, we managed to pick it up by the middle of the second quarter. I work at my school for the athletics department, and so I was working a basketball game last night. I checked the score at a timeout and we were down by 7 or so. Then, at the end of the third quarter of my game, I looked at the Celtics score again and we were magically up by a bunch. I mean, I can’t really complain, but I’m going to anyways. How do we manage to do this every single game without fail. It’s like Brad Stevens is just trying tos often up the other team before showing them what we can really do. He’s there in the huddle like “okay Kemba you miss your first 3 shots, Tatum miss your first 5, and Smart you just don’t make one until the fourth quarter - then they’ll think we suck.” I hate to break it to you, Brad, but at that point everyone in New England thinks you guys are bad. All I want is a game like the one we played in Brooklyn. Yeah, I know we lost, but we shot so well in the first quarter. We just have to match that up with a winning game and I’ll be ecstatic.
Just yesterday, I said in my “One Sentence to Describe Every Celtic” article, that Grant Williams is Marcus Smart 2.0. Much to my surprise, guess who was starting in the place of an injured Marcus Smart last night? Man I’m good. Grant just has this mentality about him that’s just like Marcus. He will do whatever it takes just for the good of the team. He may not fill up the stat sheet, but his impact goes far beyond that. Williams only played 17 minutes last night, and like I said I didn’t watch the game, but I did catch a little bit in the first quarter. In the few plays I saw, I saw Grant Williams hustle more than any other Celtic on the floor. You can tell he’s one of those rookies who is trying to make it by just doing everything. He knows his role, and he plays it perfectly.
Ouch Award - Jayson Tatum
Now, seeing as I didn’t watch the game, I only used the box score to determine my Ouch and LOML awards. Tatum took 20 shots last night, which is what I expect from a guy of his talent, but he only made 6 of them. That’s 30% from the field, including 2-12 (16.7%) from three. I could sit here and tell you that he should have stopped taking threes after he missed a certain amount, but I’d be lying. Tatum is one of those guys who will keep taking them no matter what, and I love that. It’s just tough to watch when he struggles to get ANYTHING to go. At the end of the day, Tatum still filled up his stat sheet with 19 points, 5rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and three blocks. That’s not a bad day, but I just want him to start being more efficient from the field, that’s all.
Love of my Life Award - Kemba Walker
Every bone in my body wanted to give this to Jaylen Brown because he set his career high in points last night, but I just couldn’t. Kemba Walker single handedly brought us back into this game. When I checked in a second time and we were magically winning, the only person who had improved stats was Kemba. He shot amazingly from the field, led the game in assists for either team, and had the most steals on our team. In reality, he only had three less points than Brown with 28, and he just did more for us on the court last night. Kemba is easily an All-Star and clearly the best player on our team. I just love how he can do all of this while still getting along with everyone… interesting.
