Boston Celtics show clutch progress in win over Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns

Boston Celtics show clutch progress in win over Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns

Another game that came down to the wire basically for the Boston Celtics and signs of progress One play two results I’ll talk about it right now on the lock down Celtics podcast the Blockbuster holiday season drop Drew in the mix and three from KP no we not on the knck flushing

Competition like Al on Yannis juicing big de still being Town’s finest been a r going up in the raps watching SE game in lock going after caral on the breakdown clutch like a tip from D white on the breakdown John on the mic document and domination m p back B all

SE Nation r j how start a raising B how we finish locked on Celtics P home of the Winners hey there welcome back to the lockdown Celtics podcast right here in the lockdown podcast I records your team every day and I got you covered every single day Monday through Friday plus bonus podcast on a Saturday night Sunday morning we’ve skipped ahead we’ve sprung forward and the Celtics have sprung

Their way that doesn’t make much sense to a 10-point win in Phoenix breaking a two game losing streak the Celtics still have not lost more than two games in a row this season they only have two losing streaks this year uh that is pretty incredible when you think about

It as much as people are losing their minds over the Celtics and what can they do and what might not they not be able to do two losing streaks of only two games that’s impressive that’s a good basketball team and honestly uh this was a good win in Phoenix where we saw signs

Of progress so let’s just dive into it here 10-point win the big story to me is the final five minutes or so the the Kevin Durant had just an amazing game just he was doing crazy stuff hitting insane shots he’s he’s an all-timer uh and you saw why he just

Continues to put teams on his back it’s wild to see him score so he was doing his thing and the Celtics had a a 15-point lead maybe 16-point lead at one point and they were there where they were in the fourth quarter starting to make those same mistakes

Jason Tatum threw two of the worst passes of his career just completely out of bounds uh on consecutive possessions through one behind uh I think holiday one way over Payton printer’s head that would have been over Victor Wiman yama’s head he just didn’t look it just felt

Like like oh God this is happening again and then Jaylen Brown they call a timeout it’s 3 55 to go the lead is down to five so that that makes this an official clutch game for the Celtics the lead gets down to five Joe Missoula calls a timeout they

All they need to do is score they just need to score a basket as I’ve said a million times here fourth quarter when you’ve got a lead is just about making any buckets you can scoring points in any way you can you yes generate three pointers all that

Stuff keep doing your stuff but also just score doesn’t matter if you get a good mid-range shot take it all you have to do is score when you have a lead well excuse me Jaylen Brown comes out gets fouled misses he missed the first free throw

And I knew right away he was missing the second one and he did and I thought okay this is this is how this is going to go okay let’s see what they got I tweeted out on March 1st that I wouldn’t be upset if the Celtics uh got three four games where

They had last minute shots last second shots to tie or win or whatever uh they they have th they’ve had similar opportunities that didn’t fall and here they were in another clutch opportunity and they said all right let’s let’s let’s see what they do and the the biggest sign of progress to

Me to correct this weakness was the Al Horford three pointer where the Celtics ran this um kind of a flare screen for Jaylen Brown so Drew holiday comes across sets a a pick at the at the nail at the middle of the free throw line for Jaylen Brown to kind of flare

Out and the first time they ran that play because teams switch everything in these in these scenarios at end of game situations uh holiday Reddit he slipped into the space right in the middle Tatum hits him with the pass and because two guys went with Jaylen Brown originally holiday was left wide

Open I think it was Bradley Beal had to leave Horford off the corner because it was gonna be a a layup and holiday just kicks it to the corner and Al Horford has a corner three-pointer that’s so wide open everybody was in the paint no one was

Any closer to him than Beal who had taken Maybe by that time he shot uh one step out of the paint and Horford hits it and immediately I’m like oh my God they finally a ran a play and B tat him pass the ball like this is great this is

A sign of progress so what do they do they they ran the play again they the next possession down they ran the play again but this time and I broke this down on Boston Sports Journal this time holiday sits the screen he cuts down the middle Grayson Allen goes with

Him instead of two going with Jaylen Brown This Time Jaylen goes all way to the three-point line and now you have Jaylen at the right three-point break uh I think Derek white in the right corner Horford in the left corner and holiday in the left dunker spot

Right right around just outside the lane now Tatum has a lane a nice big wide openen Lane and no help is coming there’s no secondhand slapping at the ball it’s just him against Kevin Durant love KD but you’re 35 and Tatum can bust you and Tatum smartly this is so smart

Two dribbles or one Dribble To the Left I forget but Dribble To the left because that means Grayson Grayson Allen has to stay on his guy and uh Horford’s guy has to stay on him so those guys can’t just come on over and help then Tatum spins and when

Tatum spins white is one pass away uh Jaylen Brown is one pass away so those Defenders can’t they’re frozen they can’t do much and it’s just a nice big wideopen swath of Lane for him to go and get the layup only open because that play before he passed the ball and because it

Was a pass and a kick and a three-pointer that’s that forced the the Suns to play the second version of this play differently and then and only then did Tatum was Tatum able to isolate effectively Tatum loves to ISO that’s fine he can do it one onone the problem in these late game

Situations the problem that we saw against Cleveland the problem that we saw against Denver is when he isolates it’s not always one-on-one someone’s helping someone’s coming over someone is selling out because they know he’s not going to pass by passing the ball to Drew holiday on that first

Version of the play that got Al Horford the three that forced Phoenix to defend the same play differently the next time down and Boston’s versatility guys who can hit shots guys who can drive guys who can do everything now that all comes into play but none of it comes into play

Unless Tatum makes the pass and shows he’s willing to make the pass and if anything if this game teaches him anything if this game teaches the team anything it’s that a you can run actual plays down the stretch because what has been the problem for the Celtics when turnovers

Are an issue when they don’t execute down the stretch the problem is that Tatum and brown dribble into too many guys and they turn the ball over late game offenses simplify because they don’t want to turn the ball over the Celtics though have shown in their late game

Situations that they say yeah you got to simplify and I think the biggest issue that the Celtics have kind of faced over these past few years is guys doing what they think they should do versus just kind of doing what the game kind of tells them

To do like Tatum says I’m a superstar I I should be taking over down the stretch Jaylen Brown I’m a star player I’m a superstar too I should be taking over down the stretch well boys when you go out there and try to take over down the stretch I hate to tell you

But you turn the ball over you get double teamed and trapped and it’s not good it’s not good but when you pass the ball like this Celtics team should I can understand it with you know you got Marcus Smart and Robert Williams and there’s two non-shooters and the spacing

Is kind of bad and he don’t have a lot of great offensive options uh as far as your spacing goes I can’t I get it I get it more there but on this team Derek white and Drew holiday and Al Horford no Chris opsp in in this one but that’s fine

But this like Tatum and brown have to get out of the habit and this is why I love the fact that these guys are getting these late game clutch situations I love the fact that this whole road trip has been late game clutch situations keep them coming keep

Them coming because the more film you get where you can say hey look you passed the ball and it was fine like Joe Mula can see it and say we can we can run plays Boston’s turnover problems come when individuals try to do too much when you run a play and guys

Are actually passing the ball and moving the Celtics don’t turn the ball over because they’re crisp with that they protect the ball very well so the end of this game against Phoenix to me me that one play that they ran consecutively to me that’s a big sign of progress that’s

Something you can look at in film and you can you get lessons out of that that are so valuable Tatum and Brown Look At what happens when you make that pass the first time and now the entire defense is thinking oh crap we have to defend the

Pass if if a defense has to defend the pass from Tatum and from Brown then they’re toast they’re done they’re cooked Boston is winning that game but if they don’t respect the pass then they can double and sell out and Blitz Tatum and brown and then you get a little

Dicey maybe it’ll work sometimes maybe it’ll maybe it won’t but if they have to defend the pass which is what Grayson Allen had to do on that second version of that play that got Jason Tatum that layup if they have to defend that pass then there’s just you’ve got nothing because

One-on-one defense on Jason Tatum it’s going to be very difficult Tatum is that good he’s he’s just gonna beat that more often than not but he’s not gonna beat one on two right he’s just not gonna get through that and jaylen’s not gonna beat one on

Two but oneon-one yeah that’s you can do that so more than anything in this game that’s that’s my huge big takeaway it’s a sign of progress can they build on that give me more clutch situations give me more tight games down the stretch so we can see this over and

Over and over again and maybe they can get used to the fact that hey it’s the last three four minutes there’s so much time there we can work on plays and it’s not just hunting a mismatch it’s not just oh you’ve got Grayson Al

On you come set the pick for me then we can switch and then I’m just going to go one-on-one but it’s not really gonna be one-on-one it’s gonna be one- on two because they don’t respect my pass so it’s going to be me against the world can’t do that hopefully that’s

Done run those two plays together on a loop in in the film session for an hour and put like I forget what movie that was where the they got the the guy’s eyes pinned wide open like watch these plays Jason and Jaylen watch these two plays over and over and over and over

Again and that’s how it should be moving forward everyone contributed in this game everyone contributed uh Jaylen uh even though he struggled a little bit early missing a bunch of layups he got it together uh the first three I think he missed three layups in the first quarter uh that it

Was that the layups in the first quarter were kind of weird to me but uh anyway he bounced back he had a nice game 27 points three assists two steals two turnovers uh shot 40 almost 40 47 and a half percent uh three of seven from

Three again with the two free throws is my biggest criticism of him right now is the free throw shooting but otherwise pretty good game from Jaylen Brown Jason Tatum didn’t shoot well 11 of 28 not even 40% but five of nine from three that’s good 10 rebounds seven assists 29

Points he had the four turnovers so he had he had a good second half um struggled early early on but got it going in the second half and uh aside from those two bad turnovers uh stepped up Derek white was all over the place D white is first of all

He if he doesn’t make an all defensive team we Riot that’s that’s if he does not make all defensive team then it’s just no storm storm the uh NBA offices and demand a recount he’s so good uh that block shot that he had was like reaching back like he goes up his

Momentum is going to the left but he still reaches has the wethal to turn spot the ball and kind of block it behind him are you kidding me what what a great play he was amazing and he had nine assists 10 points nine assists Drew holiday 15 points six rebounds a couple

Of steals uh he also had a block shot he had that big assist to Al Horford he hit some big shots just the the combined guards for the Celtics were everywhere everywhere on the floor they just did everything it was it was those two guys were clutch key players um and

And key to this win the bench shout out to the bench after a bad performance in Denver they all stepped up Luke cornette was huge in this game 14 points six rebounds three offensive rebounds and a block shot plus challenging a couple of shots I’ll even give him a break in the

Cornette contest which I hate but uh the the uh taking advantage of their pick and roll defense the sun’s pick and roll defense cornette was just getting in there for lob after lob after lob it was he was very effective uh he he just makes the

Right plays he works it just works with him in that was a good matchup for him so cornette was huge uh Payton Pritchard comes in early gets a couple of layups when the Celtics were struggling for to get layups uh make layups he was right there he he made a couple and that

Actually seemed to settle people down he had a couple of three-pointers big minutes from Payton Pritchard Sam Hower Only Hits one three-pointer but man he was effective he was effective defensively he did a really good job and then Al Horford who didn’t hit much he

He was 0 of six from three until that one in the corner made him one for seven but awesome just first of all having the stone to take and make that shot was big but then also 12 rebounds three offensive rebounds three assists for him he did other things he defended well he

Uh had a couple of possessions there where he got switched on to Kevin Durant stayed in front of him forc the Miss so Al Horford did a good job like everybody who who played for the Celtics did a good job this was a great team effort uh

They overcame some stuff early on uh shots weren’t falling early on uh but they but all of a sudden they they were able to kind of kick it into gear so was it their best game no it wasn’t their best game but I’m happy with the

Progress that they showed in this game I thought that was very very good so um just a nice nice bounce back they haven’t lost like I said before they haven’t lost three in a row yet and and who knows they might not at this point but road trip continues they play play

On uh Monday and Tuesday Monday in in Portland Tuesday in Utah it’s GNA be a tough back toback three games in four nights you lose an hour now heading into uh Portland and yeah it’s it’s gonna be it’s gonna be a a little bit difficult but the the

More uncomfortable they are the better right now because they’re they’re going to be able to figure that out still obviously very confident in them winning a championship I think they’re going to win a championship but it’s very easy for that confidence to be shaken after

Uh this this week but this this was a good game this was a good game for them to figure some things out and I think they did I think well the opportunity to figure things out kind of presented itself and I think they will but look they got they got to

Phoenix they got to go play some golf I thought it was really funny to see the tan lines uh Tatum uh Hower uh you can see the golf the golf shirt lines and is kind of funny but you could tell get out there and and get your 80 degree weather

And spend a few hours on the links and Tatum said he won some money uh from his teammates that’s it’s good to go out there have some fun and do something like play golf it’s nice calm low impact activity and I think it was good for them and and

Look they they managed to pull this out Durant was awesome they didn’t have Booker but Durant was awesome and that I think the Celtics did a pretty decent job holding everybody else in check for the most part um so yeah good win good win and I’m hoping that this progress

Carries over hope you enjoyed this bonus podcast for the lockdown Celtics podcast if you’re new if you’ve just found this podcast subscribe open it up and uh go download it and subscribe and all that good stuff hop in the comment section of the YouTube uh on the YouTube page

Become an every dayer let me know what you think and uh share the podcast spread the word tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the lockdown Celtics podcast right here in the lockdown podcast Network it’s your team every day

The Celtics found themselves in another clutch situation in Phoenix and this time they executed down the stretch, with Jayson Tatum making the right pass before finishing Phoenix off with an iso drive. John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal explains why these two plays could be big signs of progress on a night where everyone made a big contribution.

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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.

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