BSJ Game Report: Celtics 112, Nets 104 -- Balanced scoring carries C's without Kyrie taken at TD Garden (Celtics)

(Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)

Celtics

BSJ Game Report: Celtics 112, Nets 104 -- Balanced scoring carries C's without Kyrie

By Brian Robb

Jan 29, 2019 • 12:05 am

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Everything you need to know about the Celtics beating the Nets 112-104 with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score 

HEADLINES 

Celtics hold on without Kyrie: Without star point guard Kyrie Irving (sore hip), the Celtics used balanced scoring and their defense to take down Brooklyn on Monday night, holding the Nets to just nine points in the first nine minutes of the final frame, which helped them pull away for a 112-104 victory.

Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown (21 points each) led six different Celtics who scored in double figures as Boston did well finding seams inside Brooklyn’s 2-3 zone defense for much of the night, despite a rough shooting evening from 3-point range (32 percent). Aron Baynes had 16 points off the bench while Al Horford had his third straight double-double to go with a season-high six blocks.

D’Angelo Russell had a game-high 25 points for the visitors as the Celtics snapped Brooklyn’s six-game winning streak.  The Celtics have now won 11 of their last 12 games at the TD Garden and will go for their 12th on Wednesday night upon hosting the Hornets.

Block party: The Celtics tied a franchise record with 16 blocks, the most the team has collected since 1983. Horford led the way with a season-high six blocks, while Smart, Baynes, Tatum and Morris all chipped in with at least two each. 12 of those 16 blocks came in the first half against a Nets team that was very aggressive in attacking the basket all night.

TURNING POINT

The Celtics opened up the fourth quarter with a 13-2 run, playing relentless defense over the first five minutes of the frame, forcing six turnovers in that stretch that helped turn a one-point game at the end of the third quarter into a double-digit deficit for the Nets. 

TWO UP

Marcus Smart: The outside shooting for the fifth-year guard continues to sustain, as he was the biggest weapon against the Nets 2-3 zone in the first half, scoring a team-high 16 points before the break, including four 3s on his way to 21 on the night. He has continuously heard some chirping from the Nets bench all year long in head-to-head matchups and he gave them some more lip on Monday night after another impressive shooting night.

Aron Baynes: The big man did damage from inside and out in the first half, scoring 14 points in just 10 minutes off the Celtics bench while grabbing four offensive rebounds, which directly led to several second-chance points. His 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting matched a season high. 

TWO DOWN

Defensive rebounding: The Celtics allowed the Nets to grab 16 offensive rebounds, which the visitors turned into 29 second-chance points, the most points the C’s have allowed in that department all year.   

Gordon Hayward: The swingman scored just two points for the second straight game, missing his first five shots of the game before finishing off a dunk in the fourth quarter. He misfired on 10 straight shots at one point dating back to the Warriors game and has scored just four points in nearly 50 minutes over the past two contests.

TOP PLAY




TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER


Marcus Smart is quickly becoming the third most important player on the Celtics roster:
Kyrie Irving and Al Horford still hold the top slots, but Smart has played like the more indispensable piece on both ends of the floor this year. His outside shooting (36.5 percent from 3) continues to be a major asset, while his defense (season-high five steals) is holding steady at an All-NBA Defensive level. The fact he’s able to do it all on a night like this and punish a zone defense is a huge sign that the Celtics are going to be a changed team in the postseason with him logging bigger minutes. There is no need to hide him on offense anymore from a spacing perspective and that will make this team better on both ends of the floor when bigger games roll around.


Gordon Hayward’s minutes should continue to decline until he snaps out of funk:
Brad Stevens has started to reduce Hayward’s minutes slightly in the past few weeks in the wake of some offensive duds, and that trend might need to continue for this team to keep winning. Jaylen Brown is in the midst of playing his best basketball of the season, yet he has been stuck playing some of the same minutes as Hayward despite the different levels of production. Stevens stuck with Brown for 31 minutes on Monday night (Hayward played just 20) and that’s the type of gap that should be in place as long as Hayward keeps failing to find a rhythm on the offensive end. We are long past the time for giving him time to figure it out, so winning must take priority over anything else. On nights when he doesn’t have it, Hayward needs to sit.

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