The Celtics cut their series deficit to 2-1 after Friday night’s gutsy win.
Things didn’t go as planned right off the bat for the Celtics, who quickly fell behind 19-4 in the first quarter. It seemed as though we’d be getting a repeat performance of Game 2, with Boston getting outclassed and the full game turning into just a formality.
Instead, the Celtics came out of the timeout playing high-level basketball, ending the quarter on a 29-13 run that saw them take their first lead of the game.
Jayson Tatum was magnificent as he dropped his 4th 50-point game in 49 days, and his second of the postseason (if we count the play-in as a playoff game). The Celtics forward was able to dominate matchups against the smaller Kyrie Irving, Bruce Brown Jr., and the slower Blake Griffin. The Nets, playing without a true big man in the paint, couldn’t stop Tatum from getting to the bucket and scoring easy points. Tatum’s patented, step-back corner 3 was also hot last night, contributing to his 5 made 3-pointers in the game. Tatum also utilized a technique that the best in the game make use of every night, getting to the free-throw line. The Celtic’s forward was 13-15 from the line, outpacing Mr. Free-throws himself, James Harden.
He also played unselfishly when the Net’s (finally) decided to double him, dishing out 7 assists on the night.
Marcus Smart was huge for the C’s, dropping 23 points and knocking down 5 shots from deep. His intensity was there on the defensive end as well, even when the referees decided to overturn an obvious charge by Kevin Durant.
As Celtic’s commentator Brian Scalabrine said during the game, Tristan Thompson “leveled up” in this series, dropping 19 points and 13 boards in 30 minutes. He paced everyone on the court in boards, including 9 offensive rebounds in typical Thompson fashion.
Evan Fournier provided the bulk of the rest scoring for the Celtics, dropping 17 points to help lift Boston to victory.
Grant Williams and Romeo Langford provided quality minutes for the team, especially when Robert Williams went down early. The young guard was a plus-21 in 27 minutes while Williams was a plus-15 in his time on the court.
This was all while Harden kept hitting 3’s late in the game like it was warm-ups for him, with Durant adding another 39 of his own points. The odd man out of the big 3 was Kyrie Irving, who didn’t play great, but was still serviceable for Brooklyn as their only other double digit scorer.
The Boston Celtics were able to win a game vs the Nets while their big 3 combined for 96 points, something most observers likely wouldn’t have believed coming into this matchup.
What’s Next for the Celtics?
Tristan Thompson said it in his postgame interview, Tatum essentially needs a repeat performance for the Celtics to have a chance on Sunday night. With no Jaylen Brown in this series, those 50-plus points a night need to come from somewhere, and as he’s demonstrated yet again, Tatum is capable of delivering.
If Kemba Walker can show up for the first time in this series in Game 4, Boston has a realistic chance of evening up the series. If Walker is able to contribute even 18 points on solid shooting, that might be enough if the team has similar contributions Sunday night. His plus-minus was an abysmal minus-15 while shooting 3-14 from the field in Game 3. The Celtics will need at least a good fourth quarter out of Walker in the next game if they want to even up the series. Kemba was second on the team in rebounds in Game 3 with 8 however, not bad for the shortest player on the court. He was also very active defensively, pitching in however he could for the squad.
TD Garden will be packed to full capacity for Sunday’s game, the first time Boston has had all 17,000 fans in the building since last March. If Boston was ever going to take advantage of momentum and crowd energy, it’s going to be Sunday night’s game.
I expect Kyrie to have a performance more in-line with his abilities in Game 4, meaning the 3-headed Brooklyn monster might break out their full bag of tricks after losing their first playoff game together. Boston will need to play even better than in Game 3 if they want to take the match. Brooklyn knows this isn’t a cruise-control series anymore, which means we might witness some of the craziest brand of basketball ever to grace an NBA court on Sunday.
The C’s have momentum, the C’s have 17,000 Bostonians that are going to be roaring, the C’s have Jayson Tatum and (hopefully) a rejuvenated supporting cast. They’ll need everything firing on all cylinders to even up this series.
Do you think Boston has a chance in Game 4? Let me know in the comments!
Catch Game 4 of the Celtics-Nets Sunday, May 30th at 7:00 pm on TNT.