Late offense saves C’s
Drop Nets without Isaiah’s production
NEW YORK — For one night, anyway, that MVP conversation took on a little extra sheen for Isaiah Thomas.
The Celtics, faced with a Nets team that hasn’t won consecutive games all season, but went into last night on a one-contest hot streak, barely escaped with a 98-95 win.
The Celtics, in their limited experience without the point guard this season, are now 2-3 in Thomas’ absence.
And based mainly on their offensive troubles in the first half last night — defense was literally their saving grace until Jae Crowder and Gerald Green revved the attack in the fourth — the experience was strange.
“Out of body a little bit, especially at the beginning of the game,” said Crowder. “Took a little getting used to.”
It was thus a game waiting for a Celtic to take charge offensively, after a first half marred by 36.4 overall shooting, 23.1 3-point shooting, and a combined 4-for-17 performance by Al Horford and Marcus Smart.
The shots eventually fell, once the Nets also heated up. But over the first three quarters the Celtics often looked in need of an offensive road map.
“Isaiah does so, so much for us in the offensive end, and (last night) we had to find ways,” said Horford, who shored up his own flagging night with a sevenpoint, four-rebound, two-assist, one-block fourth.
“Jae Crowder answered the call, and different guys — Gerald Green, Avery Bradley — different guys stepped up at different times and we got it done by committee,” he said. “It’s (Thomas’) ability to get to the paint, but also to shoot the ball. He shoots extremely well. But we got some really good looks (last night). We were unselfish, but our defense was really unbelievable.”
Two players in particular changed the fourth-quarter energy — Crowder with nine of his game-high 24 points in the last 7:55, and Green with big plays at both ends of the floor. Crowder also had a season-high 12 rebounds.
“Jae Crowder was terrific (last night),” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens. “When we were in the first half struggling to get a shot, he comes right out of a timeout and shoots it in. He just made those shots when we couldn’t get anything going. And I thought Gerald Green’s lift coming off the bench was the key to the game for us. We needed something to go in from the bench especially.”
Credit Green with ending Brooklyn’s most overpowering threat of the night, when Randy Foye, Andrew Nicholson and Quincy Acy opened the fourth quarter with successive 3-pointers for a 74-71 Brooklyn lead.
Green, called on to supply the kind of fourth-quarter lift that normally comes from Thomas, cut the flow of that 9-0 Nets opening with a back-cut, and came back two slow minutes later with a turnaround banker. Crowder followed up that basket with a pull-up 3-pointer for a 78-76 Celtics lead.
The C’s took the lead three more times in the next four minutes on a Horford 3-pointer (83-80), a Horford post-up (85-83) and, with 3:37 left, on a Crowder 3-pointer made possible by Horford’s pass out of the post.
Crowder then punctuated the night on the next possession, again assisted by Horford when the latter rebounded the former’s missed 3-pointer. Crowder drove, dunked off the baseline and drew the foul. Before heading to the line to complete the three-point play, he flexed for the sizeable Celtics contingent among the crowd.
It capped a stretch where the C’s scored on seven straight possessions.
Despite back-to-back postups by Brook Lopez, both at the expense of Horford, in the last 2:08, the Celtics waded through the fouls and shot 5-for-6 from the line in the last 24.1 seconds, including four straight by Smart.
Though a Bradley miss from the line left the Nets within three points with nine seconds left, Brooklyn was unable to convert when Lopez and Acy both missed 3-pointers on the last possession.
“That was a long nine seconds,” said Horford.