Tonight’s game was quite the roller coaster to say the least. It had everything including the highest of highs and lowest of lows.
The Celtics had a solid start being up as much as 7 in the first quarter. Then they let the Grizzlies walk all over them and went into the half down 17. The whole second half was just a masterpiece. The C’s outscored Memphis by 9 in the third quarter, and then by 17 in the fourth.
The Celtics would have gotten nowhere without the strong contributions from Kyrie Irving (26 pts), Marcus Morris (22), Al Horford (18), and Gordon Hayward (14). Things were extremely rough at times on the offensive end. There was a stretch where Memphis went nearly 5 minutes without scoring and the Celtics literally gained no ground. I can’t imagine the madness that would’ve occurred on Twitter if these guys didn’t step up tonight.
A Fourth Quarter to Remember
So, the Celtics had been down as many as 19 against the Grizzlies tonight. They entered the fourth quarter down 8 points which seemed like nothing after the previous deficit.
This was such a strange quarter of basketball to watch because it really had everything. There was the stretch where no one really did anything. The score was like 90-82 for three or four straight minutes because of the tough defense being played. Defense was really what won the game for the C’s. They only allowed the Grizzlies 16 points for the entire fourth quarter. It’s even more impressive because of how hot Memphis had been all night. Going into the fourth, they were shooting 58% for the game. During the final frame, the Celtics held Memphis to only 21% from the field. Gutsy performance from the guys to say the least.
Regardless of the defense, the Celtics still needed guys to step up in crunch time. They got exactly that from Kyrie, Mook, and Al.
Kyrie was the man to really get the ball rolling as the Celtics had a cold stretch to start off the quarter. He was taking the ball hard to the basket and converting through tough defense. He had 10 fourth quarter points on 3-6 shooting and was a +15.
Marcus Morris was the middle man in the big fourth quarter. He made a few tough shots when the C’s had climbed back into the game. There were two shots that he made over air tight defense to help push Boston ahead. Morris finished with 9 points in the quarter, shot 3-4, and was a +13.
Al Horford came in with about 4 minutes left and he was huge. Horford helped seal the comeback with some huge shots down the stretch. The big man scored an and-1 to put the Celtics up 2 almost as soon as he got in the game. Then he made two massive threes including this dagger.
Horford had 9 points on 3-3 shooting in the fourth, and he was also a +11.
The Second Quarter is still the Second Quarter
If you’re wondering how the Celtics got down so much, look no further than the dreaded second quarter. It’s been the Celtics’ Achilles heel for as long as I can remember. The Celtics actually won every quarter tonight, aside from the second.
So just to get into the scoring, it was pretty much the complete opposite of the fourth quarter. The C’s were outscored 38-18 by the Grizzlies and things were not looking good. Boston shot a measly 35% from the field while Memphis was on fire, shooting 65%. Believe it or not, the issues actually were with the starters, rather than the bench. The starters combined to shoot 1-8 from the field. On the other hand, the bench was 5-9. I’d say that alone is a bit of a positive, because the bench has been so bad as of late. It’s nice to not have them being the root of the team’s issues.
Is the Bench Back?
Like I just mentioned, the bench was not the cause of the Celtics’ second quarter woes. It was actually pretty solid tonight. Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier combined to shoot 12-21 from the field scoring 27 points. The trio took mostly good shots which was good to see, because things had been questionable as of late.
Gordon Hayward played the ideal game for a sixth man. 14 points on 6-11 shooting wasn’t bad at all. Not to mention that he saw crunch time minutes tonight and made some decent plays. There was one possession that he got his own miss and got the Celtics an extra shot which turned out to be a huge Al Horford three. It was good to see him playing more like himself. The most important thing for me was that he was making his open shots. That’s something he’s struggled to do for some reason. It’s definitely going to be key when getting him back to full strength.
Monday night the Celtics will be in San Antonio to play the Spurs. This game will conclude the current road trip. It would be great to take 2 of 3 out West before coming back to Boston.
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