An over-C’s rally
LONDON — The NBA Global Games’ mission is to grow the game overseas, presumably by playing entertaining basketball.
On that basis a lot of Euro converts probably lost their religion after witnessing the first 15-odd minutes of Celtics basketball. But with a slight improvement, the Celtics chants started, and once players like Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving found their range, the latter’s MVP chants weren’t far behind.
Once again better late than early, the C’s nailed down their seventh straight win with a 114-103 recovery against the Philadelphia 76ers yesterday at O2 Arena.
Recovery is indeed the right word, even if the Celtics are as frustrated as anyone by what that indicates. They fell behind the 76ers by as many as 22 points in the second quarter. It wasn’t a season record, as the most improbable recovery remains the escape from a 26-point hole against the Houston Rockets on Dec. 28 at the Garden.
Irving could once again see why the Celtics have become good at erasing their mistakes.
“Jaylen was on the bench, yelling at Al (Horford), stay the course, stay the course,” Irving said. “We do a great job of that, and (coach) Brad (Stevens) does a great job of preparing us.”
Stevens was so fired up about staying and following the course, he couldn’t stop talking about it.
“Stay the course. We’ve done that all year. There was no real panic, but we had to play a lot better,” Stevens said. “As a group we needed to be more assertive, and we needed to play with more force. We were behind a step a lot in the first half and not ready for the punch they gave us in the first half. As a head coach it gives you confidence if you stay the course and madness if you don’t start better.”
So Stevens experienced both sensations again, as did Horford.
“I don’t like getting in those holes personally,” Horford said. “I just felt we tried to really focus and not get it all back in one play. We locked in, got stops on defense. Brad gives us the freedom to play, and we have a lot of resilient guys.”
Irving bounced back from a slow start to score 20 points on 7-for-20 shooting. Brown finished with a rather gritty 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting. Just as major was a 19-point performance off the bench by Marcus Morris.
The Celtics overcame J.J. Redick’s 22 points, which included 13 in the first half as Philadelphia took a 57-48 lead into the break.
Bolstered by the combined shooting of Tatum, Irving and Morris in the third, the C’s carried an 85-79 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Celtics resumed their attack on the paint, leading to Morris’ diving save of a loose ball and pass to Terry Rozier, who immediately drained a 3-pointer for a 92-83 lead with 9:40 left. Rozier’s 3 also gave life to the Celtics’ most important run of the night. The 15-2 burst built steam from downtown, with Morris following up another Rozier hoop, a drive made possible by a Marcus Smart steal, with his third trey. Morris followed with a turnaround, before Smart got into the act, nailing a bomb for a 102-85 lead with seven minutes left.
Timely if inconsistent offense combined with the usual dose of second half defense once again turned a game around.
“Happens throughout basketball, throughout games,” Irving said. “We have a very resilient group. A few sacrifices were needed to get back in the game, and we have the kind of team where we can rely on each other, and give ourselves confidence.”