After a few days off, the Celtics will be back on the floor tonight against the Kings. It will be their first home game in about a week and half, and it’ll be nice to see them back out on the parquet.
Since last Thursday, Sacramento hasn’t made any ground in the standings. They’re still in ninth place, and are now 4.5 games behind the 8th place Clippers. Over their last 10 games, the Kings have only won 3 times. They beat OKC, and the Knicks twice. Their playoff hopes are fading and they’ll be looking to get back on track against the Celtics tonight. Obviously the Celtics have their own playoff race to worry about, but they want to keep the Kings out of the race because they’ve got their draft pick. If the Celtics get lucky, (which they never do), they could end up with the 2nd pick in this year’s draft.
In this match up, the C’s have won the last 3 games, and 6 of the last 7 over the Kings. The last one was certainly the most entertaining in recent memory. Gordon Hayward was able to give the Celtics the win after knocking down a fadeaway with 2 seconds left.
Tonight could be a decent chance for the Celtics to make up some ground in the standings. Indiana is playing OKC, which is definitely one that could swing in Boston’s favor. If everything goes right, the Celtics could find themselves just a game out of 4th place.
It’s no secret that the Celtics have been a better team when playing at home. They have a record of 24-10 this season at the Garden, which is quite different than they’re mediocre 17-17 road record. Being back in front of the home fans could be the boost that they need after a tough loss in LA Monday night.
I’m curious to see how well the Celtics can play now that they seemed to have figured things out on the road. Three out of four isn’t bad, even if the one bad game was REALLY BAD. Even though it seemed like the effort was still there, which is the most important part. The Clippers just couldn’t miss, which had a little to do with some poor defense from the C’s, but it was just one of those nights. If you look at the way the Celtics played on the offensive end, it was still pretty good. 115 points would’ve won them a lot of games this season.
Hopefully, some of the offensive success that the Celtics had out West will follow them all the way back to Boston.
A lot of the improvement came from the bench. Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, and Terry Rozier were all playing some of their best ball in Cali. Their improvement saw the Celtics become a lot more successful than they had been since the all star break.
Jaylen Brown was up and down on the trip, but overall was pretty good. In order, he scored 18, 10, 8, and 22. The game against the Lakers was really the only one that he struggled in, shooting just 3-12 from the field. He managed to shoot at least 50% in the remainder of the games. Before the trip he had been coming along just fine, and a lot of people were calling for him to start over the struggling Marcus Morris. He did get to start in the final game, but it wasn’t for Morris. It was for an injured Jayson Tatum. Regardless of that, Brown still did his part, scoring 22 points on 9-13 from the field.
Gordon Hayward came to life in California. In this first game of the trip he torched the defending champion Warriors with 30 points off the bench. He followed that up with a game winner over the Kings. Hayward was solid against the Lakers with 15 points on 6-8 shooting. He wasn’t as successful against the Clippers, scoring just 8 points on the night. Overall, I’d still say that it was a successful trip for Gordon. He’s looking like his feet are back under him a bit more, and is coming along nicely.
Terry Rozier was another player that was impressive over the last week. He consistently was able to provide scoring off the bench. Rozier had 9 points in the win over the Warriors. He then got the start next game due to Kyrie resting with an injury. In that game, he scored 16 points in the starting role, on just under 50% shooting. This wasn’t much of a surprise, because he usually plays better in the starting role. Rozier had a solid game against the Lakers, scoring 10 points on 4-8 from the field. Shooting percentage is something I find important for him. He just hasn’t been making shots that he was making last spring. Seeing him up around 50% is very encouraging. The most encouraging thing on the trip was his performance against the Clippers. Rozier had 26 points off the bench and made 9 of his 13 attempts from the field.
In order for the Celtics to continue to be successful, they’ve got to get this sort of support from the bench more often. All 3 of these players have been adjusting to new roles all season, and it looks as if they may be getting used to them now. They key for them is to be more consistent. Both Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward have been slowly improving for a while now. Obviously it’s important that they continue to do so. Terry Rozier hasn’t done the same. He’s struggled to adjust to the bench role quite a bit this year. It’s been difficult for him to make the most of his limited attempts, and I think that’s why he’s shot so poorly. The last game against the Clippers gives a lot of hope that he will improve. That’s the highest total he’s scored off the bench all season, and his shooting was great.
Tonight’s game should be a good chance for the trio to continue their strong play. The only game where all three of these guys scored in double digits was against the Kings. Nothing is more important than consistency, and they can start to build some tonight.
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