Celtics squeak out their 16th win in a row defeating the Mavericks 110-102 in OT
What a game, what a comeback, and what a streak. The Celtics came out hot scoring 34 in the first but dulled as the game progressed into the second and third quarters resulting in a 77-69 deficit heading in to the final quarter. When down 96-91 with under 2:00 left in the fourth, after a sloppy possession Marcus Smart did what he does time and time again - he bailed the Celtics out after it looked like they were lost. He buried a deep and heavily contested three to bring the game within two. After that, it was all Kyrie Irving.
Kyrie had a historic night, scoring 47 points on 16-22 shooting from the field, including 5-7 from deep, and dished out six assists. This was the fourth highest scoring output from a single player in Celtic's history, bested by Pierce scoring 48 and 50, and of course, Isaiah Thomas' 52 point game against Miami last year. I know it's just a regular season game, and it's just the Mavericks, but this team is special. Not because they're 16-2 (well kind of), not because they're alone atop the NBA after losing the biggest free agent signing in team history and not because there seems to be no deficit too big for these guys to come back from, but because of how they are playing together. The reason they have been able to erase these crazy double digit deficits is because they truly believe in one another's abilities. They are showing fight and a motor that we haven't seen in past Celtics teams. I just don't know if that was the case in last year's team despite the success they did have. The offense was too heavily reliant on IT creating points and it was part of their downfall. Sure, the Celtics needed every point Kyrie scored tonight, but other guys had fantastic games that without Kyrie's performance, would be getting talked about much more. Jaylen Brown had 22 points on 8-13 shooting, and Jayson Tatum had 15 points on 6-11 shooting, as well as a huge defensive stop on the last Dallas possession of regulation, shutting down a Harrison Barnes iso stepback to keep the game tied and send it into overtime. One crazy stat from this game is Marcus Smart shot 3-15 (20%) from the field and was tied for second on the team in net rating, with a +15. That just goes to show that looking at a stat like FG% or PPG does not tell the whole story.
All in all, it was a great win and an enticing game to watch, and I'm pumped to watch them try to extend the streak to 17 against the Heat on Wednesday. Go Celts.
Kyrie had a historic night, scoring 47 points on 16-22 shooting from the field, including 5-7 from deep, and dished out six assists. This was the fourth highest scoring output from a single player in Celtic's history, bested by Pierce scoring 48 and 50, and of course, Isaiah Thomas' 52 point game against Miami last year. I know it's just a regular season game, and it's just the Mavericks, but this team is special. Not because they're 16-2 (well kind of), not because they're alone atop the NBA after losing the biggest free agent signing in team history and not because there seems to be no deficit too big for these guys to come back from, but because of how they are playing together. The reason they have been able to erase these crazy double digit deficits is because they truly believe in one another's abilities. They are showing fight and a motor that we haven't seen in past Celtics teams. I just don't know if that was the case in last year's team despite the success they did have. The offense was too heavily reliant on IT creating points and it was part of their downfall. Sure, the Celtics needed every point Kyrie scored tonight, but other guys had fantastic games that without Kyrie's performance, would be getting talked about much more. Jaylen Brown had 22 points on 8-13 shooting, and Jayson Tatum had 15 points on 6-11 shooting, as well as a huge defensive stop on the last Dallas possession of regulation, shutting down a Harrison Barnes iso stepback to keep the game tied and send it into overtime. One crazy stat from this game is Marcus Smart shot 3-15 (20%) from the field and was tied for second on the team in net rating, with a +15. That just goes to show that looking at a stat like FG% or PPG does not tell the whole story.
All in all, it was a great win and an enticing game to watch, and I'm pumped to watch them try to extend the streak to 17 against the Heat on Wednesday. Go Celts.
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