Celtics keep on rolling
3-point shooting lights out
Brad Stevens wasn’t necessarily thinking about last night’s game when he said beforehand, “Our offense will improve. Our defense has carried us so far.”
But like the Knicks, who the Celtics had obliterated from downtown on Oct.24, the Sacramento Kings had the kind of leaky perimeter just begging for what was about to happen in last night’s 113-86 Celtics win.
The C’s, their 0-2 start slowly turning to fog, have won six straight to own the best early record in the NBA.
And though the loss of Gordon Hayward to a broken leg and ankle poured gasoline on the perception of those first two games, it’s the way that the Celtics have filled in the cracks that’s been most impressive, thanks in part to a youth movement that has played beyond its years.
Jaylen Brown, who left for good in the third quarter after pulling up in a limp during a defensive sequence, shattered all of his personal 3-point numbers with 22 points on 7-for-8 shooting, including 5-for-6 from downtown.
That kind of shooting was contagious, with Kyrie Irving (22 points, four treys) and rookie Semi Ojeleye (11 points, three treys) in particularly hot form.
Daniel Theis, a 25-yearold rookie with four years of experience in the German Bundesliga, had a team-high 10 rebounds against Sacramento’s beefy front line, including four on the offensive glass, along with 10 points and a block.
Jayson Tatum, who like Brown has found ample space thanks to the work of Irving and Al Horford (seven points, six assists, seven rebounds), started his eighth straight game and looks awfully mature in an NBA setting.
Irving smiled when talking about the rare opportunity all of these young players are receiving on the roster of a team with high playoff seed intentions. And looking back on his own team as a star in a losing situation in Cleveland, Irving hopes that they all appreciate what they now have.
“I hope guys don’t want to get drafted by mediocre teams. I really hope that’s not a hope. I think it happens, but I don’t think anybody hopes for that,” began Irving, who is now leading the league in steals with an average of 2.6 per game.
“To be drafted by a great organization, a team that’s going to hold you to a higher standard than you just being on a team where they just kinda expect you to just go through the motions and not hold you to that high standard,” said Irving.
“Who wants to go through an 82-game season winning only 16 games? That’s just tough. I don’t know who wants to go through that, but it happens.”
The Celtics rose towards the early season high 3-point numbers (.483 shooting, 14 made treys) they set in the win over New York, going deep early and often on Sacramento with a 41.5 percent (17-for-41) downtown performance that included a season high in makes.
“Young guys are getting better, man. Young guys coming in, they’re expected to do a lot more, especially in situations that they’re put in,” said Irving. “Top picks in the league when I came in, we weren’t on the best teams. We had good players, but us as young guys coming in, I was just expected to get numbers. That attitude kind of stuck with me and turned into some bad habits that I had to break out of as I got older in this league.
“But they’re at the starting line, and they’re ahead of the curve in terms of where previous young guys were,” Irving added. “And then when you come into a situation where you have great veterans, it makes their job a lot easier and their learning curve a lot quicker . ... The quest for knowledge is never ending, and those guys are thirsty for it.”
And right now they’re on a six-game winning streak.