Classic Box Score: Remembering Brad Stevens first win with the Celtics

With NBA games on hold for at least the next month, we’re going to be bringing back a fun feature here at BSJ, Classic Box Score, to help pass the time. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a fun look back at epic games or performances in Celtics history. Please send along your requests for future games in the comments and I’ll try to get to the ones I can in the coming weeks.

To kick things off, let’s go to a bit of an obscure contest that marked the beginning of a crucial era for the Celtics: Brad Stevens' first win as head coach in Boston. A completely overhauled roster awaited the first-time pro coach upon arriving in Boston, full of rookies, overpaid veterans and potential trade chips the front office was set to cash in. Amazingly, Stevens managed to stay close to .500 with this group over his first 30 games of coaching before following into the basement of the Eastern Conference.

The Setup
Boston Celtics (0-4) vs. Utah Jazz (0-4)
November 6, 2013
TD Garden
The Celtics had opened their season on a four-game losing streak, even though they had been competitive in pretty much every game. Fourth-quarter collapses loomed large in losses against the Bucks, Grizzlies and Raptors, but the stage was set for a possible win against another young team in Utah arriving at the Garden.

The Jazz were starting over this season like the Celtics after losing their top two players (Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap) in free agency. That left 23-year-old Gordon Hayward as their leading scorer with another familiar face (Enes Kanter) getting big minutes off the bench. Nine of the team’s 15 players had three years or less of experience so this was a matchup where the Celtics had the edge.

The Game
In the first big move of Stevens’ coaching career, he elected to start journeyman Jordan Crawford at point guard, sliding Gerald Wallace to the bench instead. Somehow, Avery Bradley was tasked with running point guard during the first four losses of Stevens’ tenure and that wasn’t going particularly well from an offensive standpoint.

Crawford didn’t do anything exciting in his first start of the season, playing alongside juggernauts like Vitor Faverani (scoreless in 6 minutes), Avery Bradley, Brandon Bass and Jeff Green. However, it was the C’s bench that ended up being the difference makers in this one, as the hosts outscored Utah 27-8 in the second quarter behind the stellar play of Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger and Wallace off the pine. The starters eventually pushed the lead to 22 points after three quarters.

Utah rallied late behind the scoring of Hayward (game-high 28 points) and Kanter (22 points) in the fourth quarter, but they could get no closer than six points, giving the C’s a comfortable 10-point win for Stevens to get him on the board.

The Box Score





The Highlights



Leftover Thoughts:
* Rudy Gobert actually came off the bench in this one for Utah at the start of his rookie season. He was stuck behind Kanter for most of the next two seasons until the big man was traded to OKC at the deadline.
* A guy named Mike Harris played off the Utah bench and I have no recollection of him in my life. Apparently he played in parts of five NBA seasons.
* Team-high 20 points for Brandon Bass, who was automatic from the midrange in this one (9-of-15 FG). It always surprises me how quickly he fell out of the league a couple years later. He might be still playing until the end of the last decade if he had become a 3-point specialist.
* Crawford became a full-time starting point guard for the C’s after this game until Danny Ainge managed to snag a second-round pick for him at the trade deadline. No small feat considering he was out of the league the next season.
* Kind of weird to see a game so recently with just 10 3-point attempts for a team (Utah).