Just When All Hope Was Lost, The C's Pull Off Their Best Win Of The Season 122-114 At Bucks

 

    Coming into tonight's rematch between the Celtics (22-23 overall, 9-16 away) and Bucks (29-15 overall, 18-6 home) at the Fiserv Forum, I don't know who would have been crazy or frankly stupid enough to think that Boston would snap Milwaukee's eight-game win streak. That's the beauty of sports though, the unexpected often becomes reality. A day after the NBA Trade Deadline passed with Daniel Theis shipped off to Chicago and Evan Fournier on his way from Orlando, the Celts managed to put together their best performance of the year in a 122-114 victory that wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. We've been fooled too many times by this team during this bumpy season to think it's anything but an aberration that is until they prove us wrong again. 

    Center Robert Williams (7 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 blocks, 2 steals) got his first start of the season and as you can tell by his statistics, he made the most of his 27 minutes. His energy seemed to boost the entire club as swingman Jayson Tatum (game-high 34 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds) was fantastic and guard Marcus Smart (23 points, 8 rebounds) had his usual once-a-year lights out shooting display (7-of-10 on 3s!). Point guard Kemba Walker (21 points, 5 assists, 3 steals) has actually been good for a few weeks now but it's hard to notice when the team is a trainwreck. Shooting guard Jaylen Brown added 18 points and five rebounds while another new Celtic Mo Wagner hit a 3-pointer and grabbed five rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench. 

    After being held to 13 points on Wednesday, Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo (16 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) wasn't much better this evening which makes you wonder how healthy he's feeling. As we know, it's not like Boston is considered great defensively so it's tough to explain how they locked him up in these two contests. Nobody on Milwaukee reached 20 points as small forward Khris Middleton led them with 19 points and two steals. Point guard Jrue Holiday scored 17 points but he had six costly turnovers. Shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo added 13 points but he was 5-for-15 from the field. Giannis' brother Thanasis put up 12 points and five rebounds off the bench while shooting guard Sam Merrill got hot in garbage time (making the score what it was) and finished with 15 points. 

 The C's had lost five straight games in Milwaukee and after Wednesday's bitter defeat, this was exactly what they needed. The first half treated them well as they led 32-26 after the first quarter and 60-55 at halftime. The third quarter was the key of the game as they pumped in a season-high 43 points to take a 103-89 advantage into the final frame. They went ice cold in the fourth as the Bucks got them 25-19 but thankfully by that time it was out of their reach. 

    As a team, Boston shot 4.5% better from the field than Milwaukee (48.9%-44.4%) and hit three more 3-pointers (22-19). They also made twice as many free throws (14-7), had three more assists (27-24), three more steals (10-7), five more blocks (8-3) and two less turnovers (16-14) than the home team. Kemba will be resting tomorrow night (9, NBC Sports Boston) but the Celtics will be in Oklahoma City (19-25 overall, 8-13 home) to try and take this back-to-back from the Bucks and Thunder. After this four-game road trip started poorly with the overtime loss at Memphis (21-21) on Monday then the comeback fell short against Milwaukee in round one, winning this game gives them a chance to go 2-2 which would be fine. The Thunder are not a playoff team so even with this condensed schedule, the Celtics should beat them if they want to start to rebuild any kind of trust in their fanbase for the rest of this bizarre campaign.

Evan Fournier & Mo Wagner Become Celtics While Daniel Theis, Jeff Teague & Javonte Green Are Out

 

    The NBA trade deadline came and went this afternoon with the Celtics (21-23) involved in two deals: they traded guard Jeff Teague and a pair of second-round draft picks to Orlando for French swingman Evan Fournier; they were also part of a three-way trade with center Daniel Theis and guard Javonte Green going to Chicago while power forward Mo Wagner (traded earlier in the day from Washington) and center Luke Kornet also came to Boston. Out of all these names, the only ones that really matter are Fournier and Theis. The rest are all guys that will either sit on various benches, be bought out or won't be in the league in a year or two.  

    Celts GM Danny Ainge was reportedly interested in Magic power forward Aaron Gordon but they lost out on him (of course) as he was sent to Denver in a separate deal so they settled for the consolation prize in Fournier. He was drafted by the Nuggets in 2012 (20th overall) and played there for two years before being traded to Orlando where he's played for the past seven seasons. I certainly have heard of him and have seen him plenty of times in games against the Celtics but with so few national TV games or playoff appearances, I'm not going to claim to be an expert on his game. 

    For his career, he has averaged 14.4 points per game, 37.6% on 3-pointers and 80.6% on free throws. He was obviously gunning for a big contract headed into free agency this summer as he is averaging the most points (19.7 per game) and the most assists (3.7 per game) in his career. At 6-foot-7 and a slim 205 pounds, he appears to slot in as a shooting guard or small forward depending on the lineup that Boston head coach Brad Stevens wants to employ. He's been a starter for basically the past six years with the Magic but then again, he's almost never been on a good team (not that the Celtics could be considered one either at the moment) so it'll be interesting to see what role he gets.

    It's sad to see Theis go, especially since his last moment as a Celtic was missing a game-winning 3-pointer last night against the Bucks (29-14). He will never be the biggest guy but as an undrafted free agent from Germany, he got better every year in his four seasons with Boston. He has averaged a career-best 9.5 points per game and 5.2 rebounds this season. He was a likable guy and easy to root for, hopefully he doesn't get lost in the shuffle with the Bulls (19-24) who have been rebuilding for years. For a guy that nobody knew a thing about when he signed with the C's, he had plenty of nice moments in big games including the playoffs. 

Please Tell Me That Getting Blown Out By The Wizards Is Rock Bottom For The C's This Season

 

    Just when you think that things cannot get much worse for the reeling Celtics (13-13 overall, 7-9 away), they lay a complete egg on Valentine's Day against undoubtedly one of the worst teams in the NBA. Washington (7-17 overall, 3-9 home) was never even challenged this afternoon at Capital One Arena as they defeated Boston 104-91. Coming off of Friday's loss to another awful team-Detroit (8-19 overall)-you figured that the C's would be motivated and ready to show that they are not an utter mess. Welp, that didn't happen as they lost for the fourth time in the last five games and they fell to 3-7 in their last 10 games. Is that bad? I really don't know what Boston's excuse for playing so poorly will end up being. Other than guard Marcus Smart (left calf) remaining out, this was about as healthy as the Celts have been all season as forward Semi Ojeleye and center Robert Williams III both returned to the court. 

    Point guard Kemba Walker (25 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals) and shooting guard Jaylen Brown (25 points, 7 rebounds) were both good for Boston but their next highest scorer was Jayson Tatum (6 points, 8 rebounds) who had one of the worst performances in his NBA career, going 3-of-14 from the field which is stunning for him especially against what should be a very favorable opponent to do some damage against. I'm really struggling to figure out a quick-fix solution to whatever is ailing the Celtics at the moment. Head coach Brad Stevens and/or GM Danny Ainge don't deserve to be fired, let's not be ridiculous, but it shows you how rough things have been lately that those words don't seem completely far-fetched. Still, it's all about the players and while the roster is flawed, they should not be sitting at .500 this far into the campaign. 

    The Wizards had five guys score in double-figures led by shooting guard Bradley Beal (game-high 35 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) who would be a lock for the All-Star Game if his team wasn't such a joke. Power forward Rui Hachimura added 15 points, the ghost of Russell Westbrook nearly had a triple-double (13 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds), center Mo Wagner notched 11 points and two steals while Sideshow Robin Lopez posted 10 points off the bench. It's not even halfway through this season but coming into today, I would have called it basically a must-win for the C's. They apparently didn't get the memo though as they never even made it remotely competitive. Down 29-22 after the first quarter, they trailed by double-digits (55-43) at halftime and then they gave up in the third quarter-getting outscored by 10 points (34-24). 

    I'm at a loss for words, this is simply not acceptable for a club that went to the Eastern Conference Final last season and had similar expectations in 2020-21 with two young All-Stars just starting to reach their prime years and a decent supporting cast around them. They trailed by 25 points today to a team that will be one of the front-runners to get the No. 1 pick in this 2021 Draft. They were outworked by a group of misfits that are already playing out the string: Washington hit 13 more free throws (31-18) and handed out 10 more assists (24-14). Losing to the Pistons should have served as a wake-up call and now it's on the players to figure this out or else Ainge might be forced to make some drastic changes. 

    Boston returns to TD Garden for a pivotal three-game homestand this week starting with Denver (15-11 overall, 7-5 road) on Tuesday (7, NBC Sports Boston) then followed by two games with Atlanta (11-15 overall, 5-6 road) on Wednesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) and Friday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston). The Nuggets are better than their record indicates (like the Celtics, they reached their conference final in the bubble) and the Hawks are in a tailspin themselves but as these past few games for the C's have shown, they can't afford to overlook anybody at the moment-no matter if they are some of the NBA's worst teams.