The word ‘bored’ has been tossed around a little bit with the Celtics over the last few days and besides ‘injured,’ that’s the one word that no one really wants to hear with this team. Everyone knew it was going to happen at some point, but the fact that it began after just 11 games was a little disconcerting.
The Celtics added another word to their vocabulary Monday night: ‘angry,’ and they played like they were ticked off at the world in a 99-76 win over the Hawks. (Click here for a full game recap).
They should have been. After losing at home to an Oklahoma City team that was without Kevin Durant and then sleepwalking through a loss to Toronto, the Celtics had every reason to be miserable. The good news is that they did something about it.
Too often last season the anger wasn’t exactly paired with execution, but against the Hawks they were nearly flawless. The Celtics held them to 4-for-17 shooting in the first quarter and shot 72 percent as they opened up a 39-13 lead. They put the hammer down in the third quarter, limiting the Hawks to 4-for-21 shooting.
“The only question is, can we do that every night?” Doc Rivers said to reporters in Atlanta. “It’s a veteran team. It seems like at times we start counting how many games we have left to play. So that’s going to be our challenge and we knew that coming into the year.”
Yup, that’s the challenge right there. Rivers wants them to compete for homecourt advantage, but to do that they’re going to have to win 60 games minimum. Is that a reasonable thing to ask a team with this many veterans?
Maybe, maybe not, but it’s certainly reasonable to expect the Celtics to put forth a much-better effort than they showed Sunday against the Raptors.
Monday’s game proved, yet again, that when the Celtics are committed to playing their brand of defense, there are very few teams who even stand a chance of staying on the court with them. That’s a given, but Rivers’ question -- can they do it every night -- will linger throughout the season.
KEVIN GARNETT TEACHES JOSH SMITH A THING OR TWO
The Hawks came into this game with obvious matchup disadvantages. Al Horford was giving up about 100 pounds in the post to Shaquille O’Neal, Nate Robinson can probably walk faster than Mike Bibby at this point and Marvin Williams is a few nickels shy of even being a poor man’s Paul Pierce.
If there was one spot where the Hawks should have had something that would bother the Celtics, it was at power forward where the young and athletic Josh Smith was matched against Kevin Garnett.
Now, Smith is not in Garnett’s class as a player, but he is almost a decade younger and he has finally begun to resemble the All-Star player that his potential says he should be. Should have, could have, wasn’t.
Garnett destroyed Smith, there’s really no other way to say it, with 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting and 11 rebounds in just 23 minutes. Smith, meanwhile, had exactly two points, three boards and zero made field goals in his 22 minutes.
If the Celtics were angry, Garnett was the one stoking their fire. If they were in a bad mood, he was the dark cloud hovering over them. This was vintage Garnett stuff Monday night: aggressive, purposeful and efficient.
It’s been said several times this season already, but the 2009-10 Garnett wouldn’t have been able to do that. Garnett, along with Shaq, controlled the paint and thoroughly dominated his matchup and that, once again, is the biggest difference between last season and this one.
WHAT SECOND HALF LETDOWN?
As amazing as the first quarter was, and it was one for the ages, the Celtics may have had an even more important third quarter, at least defensively.
After building a 22-point halftime lead, the Celtics had to figure that the Hawks were going to play for pride, if nothing else, and truth be told they did put together a much better defensive effort.
The only problem was the Celtics made sure that the Hawks couldn’t breathe on offense. Atlanta put up 21 shots in the third quarter, missed 17 of them and scored 14 points.
If the Celtics were going to have a letdown in this game, the third quarter would have been the perfect time. After their insane start, they allowed the Hawks to score 29 points in the second quarter. Another 12 minutes like that and suddenly a 20-point lead becomes 15 and then 10 and then who knows what happens.
Instead, the starters did their job and the bench did the rest of the work allowing Garnett, Shaq, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to play just 89 minutes total. The defensive play of the night came when Delonte West of all people blocked a ZaZa Pachulia dunk attempt from the weakside.
That’s the kind of defensive effort that has been lacking and the kind that allows a team to win by 23 points on the road when the starting five don’t have to play a single minute of the fourth quarter.
AVERY BRADLEY MAKES HIS DEBUT
If not for Rondo’s injury, it’s likely that the rookie from Texas would still be looking for his first taste of NBA action. But Rondo’s absence, along with the lopsided score, allowed Bradley to break into the lineup.
There’s still no telling what Bradley can offer the Celtics this season. He turns 20 on Friday and there’s plenty of time for him to develop. He looked every bit like a young player making his debut in his six minutes, but it’s a start.
The hope was that Bradley would be able to be something of a perimeter stopper in limited spurts, but ankle surgery robbed him of the summer and most of training camp and he suffered a setback when he landed on Pierce’s foot during practice several weeks ago.
You can see the flashes of potential, even in very limited time, but the best course for him may be a trip to Maine to get some game action with the Red Claws once some of the injured players start to return.
Bradley has a bright future. The Celtics were thrilled to get him with the 19th pick of the draft and they have the luxury of waiting for him to come into his own. This wasn’t the beginning of something big, it was merely a starting point, but on a night when the fourth quarter meant very little Bradley got a little jumpstart on his future.