Everything you need to know about the Celtics’ 105-100 win over the Blazers in quickie form.
Box score
HEADLINES
Gritty comeback: The Celtics had every reason to throw in the towel on Friday night, trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter with an undermanned roster against one of the hottest teams in the Western Conference. A balanced team effort in the final period propelled one of the team’s best comeback wins of the season. Marcus Morris scored a game-high 30 points, including a pivotal 3 to put the Celtics up by five points in the closing minute. Jayson Tatum added 10 points in the final quarter, while Al Horford and Shane Larkin each made crucial plays on both ends down the stretch that enabled the visitors to outscore Portland by a 38-23 margin in the fourth quarter. That type of late-game offensive output without two of the team’s top scorers in Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown produced one of the best wins of the year for the C's.
Morris puts on a show: Without Irving and Brown, the Celtics have been desperate for offense over the last five games and Morris has continually delivered. The forward put together arguably his best offensive performance of the year on Friday night, carrying the scoring load with 30 points on 9-of-13 shooting. He also went 5-of-6 from 3-point range, which helped to keep the Celtics in the game for the first three quarters when no one else on the team had broken double digits in the points column. Morris has been the team’s leading scorer (21 ppg) over the past couple of weeks and that type of increased production has been essential for this team over that stretch.
TURNING POINT
Brad Stevens
had to go deep into his bag of tricks at the start of the fourth quarter with his limited healthy bench options and the Celtics trailing by 12. He rolled out an unorthodox lineup of Larkin/Ojeleye/Tatum/Yabusele/Monroe, a group that probably hadn’t even practiced together all year. Behind some strong defense and scoring by Tatum and Larkin, that unit erased most of a 12-point deficit with a 15-5 run in the opening four minutes of the fourth quarter, setting the stage for the starting unit to complete the comeback.
TWO UP
Shane Larkin:
The third-string point guard no longer has a minutes restriction and it’s probably the reason the Celtics won the game on Friday night. He was needed for every one of his 34 minutes to held keep Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum (26 points each) from tearing apart a Celtics’ defense that bent but never broke. Offensively, Larkin was a terrific creator as well, scoring nine points and dishing out seven assists despite playing big minutes alongside the likes of Semi Ojeleye and Guerschon Yabusele. He’s now shooting 50 percent from 3-point range over the past five games Irving has been out.
Guerschon Yabusele:
The rookie got a second chance for some minutes in the rotation up front and he formed a solid duo alongside Greg Monroe for the oversized bench unit. His numbers don’t say much on paper (five points, three rebounds in 17 minutes) but he held his own against the Blazers bigs, played with good energy and was on the floor for the biggest run of the game by Boston. He looks like a solid alternative to Ojeleye and/or Nader for Stevens, depending on the matchup.
TWO DOWN
Greg Monroe’s turnovers:
The veteran posted another double-double, but he also had his third four-turnover game in the past five contests. For a big man that only plays 20 minutes a night, the C’s can’t afford to have him cough up the ball so often. He’s prone to get stripped in the post, but he needs to be more careful with his handle to prevent such easy takeaways.
Pat Connaughton:
The Massachusetts native and former Notre Dame standout really struggled with his shot off the pine for the Blazers. He misfired on seven of his eight shot attempts, including all six of his 3-pointers.
TOP PLAY
TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
Al Horford finally showed some All-Star level play in the fourth quarter:
The All-Star has been a bystander on the offensive end for much of the last month and this team can’t really afford that when Irving and Brown are watching from the sidelines. Luckily for the C’s, Horford came alive at the perfect team on Friday night, in the final few minutes of the fourth quarter. He drilled an open 3 over Nurkic, blocked him in the post and drew free throws on consecutive possessions. The sequence pushed Terry Stotts to sub the big man out of the game, which helped opened the door for Horford to grab an offensive rebound to seal the game in the closing seconds. On the whole, Horford has had a rough month or so, but he played at an elite level with the game on the line Friday night.
This win should be a big confidence builder down the stretch:
This was the toughest challenge of the team’s four-game west coast swing. The Blazers had won 18 of their last 20 games at home and were fully healthy as they tried to strengthen their hold on the third seed in the Western Conference. Boston still managed to go toe-to-toe with this group for the better part of 48 minutes and got important contributions from nearly every active member of the roster. With certain players needing to take on bigger roles as Irving’s status remains questionable, this performance should give everyone a reason to feel good about themselves.
