Celts come out swinging
Hit hard early in easy win
After flying home for Thanksgiving with their first loss in 35 days and 17 games, the Celtics needed a holiday home setting for their landing.
Enter an Orlando Magic team on the decline, offering the Celtics the perfect opportunity for a fresh launch, this time with a 118-103 win last night at the Garden.
“We were going to come out and try to hit somebody in the mouth tonight,” said Kyrie Irving, the lead puncher with 30 points on 9-for-15 shooting. “We had to. Otherwise it would have been a whole bunch of hoopla that we would have had to deal with going forward.
“So it was good to kind of have that humbling experience of being down, understand that we can’t play like that, and we have to come out like this, and play with a whole bunch of energy that we needed in the first half,” Irving added. “I don’t think we’ve had a few too many games like that this season. So for us to do that after a loss, we’re just continuously building our identity and character.”
The Celtics also got something right they had failed to execute during the latter part of the streak. They began swinging the ball over to the weak side again with consistently good results, albeit, against a poor defensive team.
And the primary vessel for ball movement was Al Horford, who tied a career high with 10 assists, including a career-high seven in the first quarter, which set the tone.
Let’s just say, moving the ball to the other side of the floor was a point of emphasis for the C’s coming out of Wednesday’s loss in Miami.
“No question. I mean, when we had a paint threat and got the ball to the second side of the floor, we were almost three times as good on offense through our road trip,” said coach Brad Stevens. “And so, we didn’t meet at all the last two days, but that message was sent out, and hopefully we can continue to play that way. Like, if we don’t — if we don’t get it side-toside — it’s hard to score on good NBA defenses.”
Orlando, 20th in the NBA in defensive rating, doesn’t fall into that category. But any opponent was going to work for a Celtics team attempting to lubricate its offense. And Horford was the perfect conduit.
“(Orlando) and a lot of other teams are trying to guard him at the (3-point line) and often using guards switching to do so — so he’s doing a good job of finding the next right play,” said Stevens. “It’s making sure the ball is getting to the other side of the floor to attack those switches. And I thought all night long, his ability to handle the ball, his ability to pass the ball, was a real benefit to us.”
Horford, naturally, welcomes the opportunity to be the primary playmaker.
“The guys were knocking down the shots,” he said. “Jaylen (Brown) had a great look, (Jayson) Tatum as well. Early in the game we wanted to play with a little more pace.
“It was a point of emphasis for us. We wanted to be better in that area and I felt like we grew a little bit,” Horford continued. “We got a little stagnant there toward the end, but for most of the game I was happy with the pace we were playing at. It started with ball movement. That was my focus, to get the ball to the other side and move it. Usually when we do that, good things happen for us.”
And those things happened early — not a small thing for a team that suffered from slow starts over the latter part of the streak.
Save for Marcus Morris, the Celtics’ starting lineup remained on the bench in the fourth quarter, when Orlando cut a 32-point lead down as close as 14 in garbage time.
Irving thus did all of his damage in three quarters with two 3-pointers and 10-for-10 at the line. Terry Rozier, who entered hot off the bench, scored a careerhigh 23 on 8-for-11 shooting, including a five 3-pointers.
And just like that, the offense started flowing again.
“Beautiful basketball. Beautiful basketball when the game is played the right way,” said Irving. “Not saying we haven’t been doing it, but it was going side to side and guys were driving and kicking and getting to spots where we needed to be. It was beautiful to watch and beautiful to be a part of.”