C’s handle 3-point turn
Down 16-0, then rally to win
Brad Stevens drew on his days as a Butler assistant coach to explain how the Celtics could roll out of bed late and spot Washington the first 16 points yesterday at the Garden.
“I had an old boss at Butler, Todd Lickliter, (who) one time called a timeout when we were down 120,” Stevens said. “He said, ‘I don’t know if our plan of letting them score ’til they get tired is a good one.’ And that’s all I could think about, because I didn’t know if we’d ever score and I didn’t know if they’d ever stop scoring.”
The Celtics coach, who continued to sound hopeful despite his team’s cold shooting throughout its Eastern Conference firstround playoff series win against the Chicago Bulls, finally saw his prediction come through. Water did indeed find its own level yesterday.
Roughly 36 hours after putting away the Bulls during Game 6 in Chicago, the C’s tied a franchise playoff record by making 19 of their 3-pointers on the way to a 123-111 win against the Washington Wizards in Game 1 of the conference semifinals.
Jae Crowder (24 points, 6-of-8 shooting on 3-pointers), Isaiah Thomas (33, 5-of-11 on 3’s), Avery Bradley (18, 3-of-9 on 3’s) and Kelly Olynyk (12, 2-of-2 on 3’s) each bagged multiple shots as part of the successful long-range attack. Crowder finished with postseason career highs in points and made 3’s.
“I felt pretty good,” Crowder said. “I got the first two going, and I just know once I get two going maybe I can rattle off a few more. But I was just taking what the defense gives us. We were playing great. Great ball movement on the offensive end. The ball was whipping, and we were getting into the paint, creating for one another, and the shots were falling today.”
The Celts, now leading all playoff teams with 95 made 3’s, took 43 percent (39-of90) of their shots yesterday from downtown, and surprisingly tied Washington in total rebounds (38 apiece) and offensive boards (12).
Part of that sudden equalization on the glass can be traced to the premature departure of Markieff Morris, who left in the second quarter after spraining his ankle landing on the foot of Al Horford. When asked if he intends to play in tomorrow’s Game 2 at the Garden, Morris said: “Hell yeah. It ain’t broke. It’s what I do.”
The C’s were hit hard by Washington’s 20-3 start, and spent the rest of the first half in recovery that included a leveling 18-4 run over the first 4:19 of the second quarter. The home team closed with a strong fourth that featured nine of Horford’s 21 points and the reappearance of rookie Jaylen Brown for the foul-hindered Terry Rozier.
Brown hit a big corner 3-pointer for a 109-99 lead with 5:26 to go, passed out to set up Crowder’s final trey with 4:45 left and filled the rest of his time with rebounds and hustle plays.
“Obviously you have to be locked in to sit for two-anda-half hours and come in and contribute,” Crowder said of Brown. “He was locked in. That’s playoff-type basketball. He was locked in, ready to go. And it’s kudos to him. Just staying locked in, and when his number’s called, just stepping up to the plate. He did a great job.”
Once again, though, the C’s flowed through two familiar sources — Thomas, who lost a tooth in the first quarter just before spitting out his first two 3-pointers, and Horford, who once again fell one digit shy of a triple-double with 21 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.
Horford has averaged 8.5 rebounds since Game 2 of the Chicago series and continues to be the Celtics playoff assists leader at seven per game.
They didn’t start this way, but the C’s may have produced their most complete game of the postseason to start this series.
“We don’t look to the next game. We don’t look (at) going to Washington. We just take every game as it comes,” Crowder said. “And I think that’s what you have to do. You can’t look too far ahead. You can’t get down on yourself if you drop a game, because it’s a long series. We’ve got to take it one game at a time. We’ve been doing a great job of preaching that to one another and it’s paying off for us.”