Please say hello to your above .500 (23-22) Boston Celtics. The first time they have been above .500 since December 7. Rob Williams out for personal reasons.
This game started in all-too-depressing fashion with the Celtics falling behind big in the first quarter (29-18). Lucky for me I was out on an errand and missed it. When I tuned in they were down 34-22 with 8 minutes left in the half, and over the next ~4 minutes New Orleans ran the lead up to 18, 42-24. This was shaping up to be another one of those games where the Celtics fail to show up for a below .500 opponent and gte their butts kicked, but they turned it around from there. Over the final 4:23 they went on a 15-4 run to cut the lead to 11. Horford (5 points), Tatum (4 points), Brown (3) and Schroder (3) did the damage.
The bench did not do much in the first half. Freedom played 4 minutes and rung up a -12. Pritchard played 11 minutes, missed both his shots, was a -12, and did not get a look in the second half. Nesmith got a couple of minutes and kissed a par of threes. With Freedom playing poorly, Horford played 20 minutes in the first half.
In the third quarter, it was back and forth for a while. Celtics cut the lead to 2, NO expanded it back to 7, and then, with 6:21 left in Q3, Ime brought Kanter back in - and Kanter went on to finish the game - Al did not see the court again. With 2:42 left, NO up by 5, Aaron Nesmith came in. He, too, would not leave the game. Celtics go ahead in the third when Schroder pulls off a 2 for 1, in the final 34 seconds first hitting three that put the C's ahead by 2, then driving for a layup after a quick NO basket, for a 71-69 lead at the half. Fourth quarter was all Boston, with the Celtics outscoring New Orleans by 10 to win by 12, 104-92.
What stood out in this game was:
Tatum had a srrong game depite going 0-4 from three. He shot 9-18 overall along with 9-11 from the line for 27 points. He was very aggressive driving the ball, hence his many trips to the line. He had a few beatiful footwork moves that got him past defendars cleanly on his drives. He added 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal versus 1 turnovers. One of his assists was a beautiful one handed bounc pass ahead to Nesmith for a fast break dunk and-1.
Brown had a quieter 23 point, shooting a bit less well 8-17 but shooting better from 3 (3-7). He added 8 rebounds and 2 assists.
Schroder was all over this game in a positive way. He, too, was getting to the rim and hitting from outside. 23 points on 9-16 shooting (3-5 from three), 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals. One of his better games as a Celtics in terms of coming through in a timely way. And he only walked the fucking dog once that I saw.
Al had a decent all around line with 12-7-4 in 25 minutes, but did not play most of the second half. Grant, starting for Rob, added 10 points on 4-7 shooting (2-5 from three) and had a couple of blocks.
In terms of the bench guys, Pritchard got a lot of time in the first half, was a -12, and did not play in the second. Langford also got 5 minutes in the first half and did not play in the second.
Mixed bag for Richardson in 19 minutes. Did not shoot it well (1-4) so scored only 2 points, had a team leading 3 turnovers, but did add 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals.
After being a -12 in 4 first half minutes, EK Freedom finished at a +6, so he was a +18 in 19 second half minutes. He scored only 2 points, on 2 free throws, but had 5 rebounds, an assist, 2 blocks, just 1 turnover.
FInally, Aaron Nesmith. He played the last 15 minutes of the game, and that Ime never took him out speaks to how well he played. Overall, he was a +16 in 19 minutes. He was 2 for 2 from the field, scoring once on a nice drive/floater and once when Tatum made agreat feed to him for a dunk (and 1). Added 6 rebounds. Also had a nice drive and dish to Freedom who was fouled and hit the free throws. Best we've seen from him in a while.