C’s open trip by dropping Dubs
Hold off Curry, Warriors for win
The faces are going to change.
When one of the core five misses time — Tuesday night, and for the next two to three weeks, that person will be Marcus Smart — Brad Stevens will go deep on his bench looking for someone to help the remaining regulars make winning plays.
From Semi Ojeleye to Rob Williams to, when he was healthy, Payton Pritchard, that help has come from up and down the bench. And Tuesday night, with a second half that glued it all together, Grant Williams rebounded from a DNP on Sunday against the Lakers to do everything in the Celtics’ 111107 win over Golden State.
“We’re going to play opponent to opponent with this group we have,” said Stevens. “So some nights will be his nights. Other nights will be other people’s nights. And I thought he did a lot of good things for us today. They’re hard because you have to be up on all those screens that (Steph) Curry comes off, which we didn’t do a great job of, and then you also have to be physical and protect the paint. Grant gave us a little bit of both of that and I thought he did a good job on the back of our zone communicating. And then came up with some big rebounds.”
Nothing looked like it was going in this direction by the end of the first quarter, with Golden State leading, 35-24, and Curry off to a 17-point, 6-for-10, four-3-pointer start in his first 12 minutes.
The Warriors are capable of beating anyone with this legendary shooter on the floor, and it didn’t take long before he was running various Celtics off a bruising network of picks.
But the Celtics caught a break when Kevon Looney left the game in the second quarter with an ankle sprain — rookie James Wiseman was already out with a wrist issue — leaving the Warriors exposed on the defensive glass.
Enter Grant Williams, along with namesake Rob and Daniel Theis, with numerous opportunities to keep the ball alive. In all the Celtics won the rebound battle, 51-36, including a 12-6 edge in offensive boards.
Those second and third chances came in handy considering that none of the Celtics stars shot well. Jayson Tatum had 27 points, on 9-for-19 shooting. Jaylen Brown heated up late, but shot 8-for-20 for his 18 points. Kemba Walker rebounded nicely from his 1-for-12 low point on Sunday against the Lakers, but shot 6-for-18.
Williams simply didn’t miss, with 15 points, including 3-for-3 shooting from downtown — two of those in the third quarter as the Celtics began to open up some room. And though Curry was there at the end to make the Celtics’ escape difficult, Williams turned in a series of hustle plays in the fourth that helped turn the result. His block of a Kelly Oubre dunk attempt triggered a Walker pull-up 3-pointer for a 101-96 Celtics lead with 5:18 left. His put-back had given them a 98-96 lead a minute earlier. And though he still had his share of missteps, like getting suckered by Curry into a three-shot foul, and missing two free throws with 12.2 seconds left, Williams was a plus-three in the fourth.
“Grant played tremendous for us today,” said Tatum. “Really gave us that spark off the bench — a couple guys did. But Grant, he played big. He rebounded, he hit some big shots, got some key stops, and that’s what he’s capable of. I know it has to be tough in and out the rotation and not knowing exactly when you’re going to have your number called. But I trust in him, we trust in him in the biggest moments for him to come in and do what we need him to do. And that’s to make winning plays.”
But at this stage Williams can clearly handle the minutes swing, going from a DNP against the Lakers to, for matchup purposes against a small ball opponent, playing key fourthquarter minutes against Golden State.
“I just try to stay ready and prepared,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t know and that’s understandable. Coach has a lot of different options and a lot of different players on this team that he can go with on any given night. For me, it’s about staying ready and even if I don’t know if I’m going in or not, just being prepared in case he calls my number, whether it’s the first quarter or fourth quarter.”