Celtics Win Game, Lose Smart (11/7/14)

Its bad enough the Celtics almost lost at home to yet another undermanned team, but they really lost something bigger when Marcus Smart rolled his ankle on a driving layup with 11:07 left in the 4th quarter. Winning the game is one thing, but losing Smart for possibly the season really hurts a team that needed his defense, athleticism and spark. Without him, they're pretty much the same exact team as last year just with Tyler Zeller, Evan Turner and Marcus Thornton. In other words, lottery.

                                        Goodbye Smart and any hope of a winning season

How did they almost lose the game? Once again they played no defense until the very end. Even with David West, George and CJ Miles out, the Pacers still shot the lights out. The worst part is the Celtics only led 88-82 with 6:33 left. They got completely out-rebounded by the Pacers which led to second and third chance opportunities. Phil Pressey replaced Smart and his floater with 4:50 left gave the Celtics a 92-86 lead but a Hibbert runner cut the lead to 4. A Bass jumper made it 94-88 with 4 minutes left but Hibbert hit another big shot that was actually well defended. Sullinger answered with a 3. Another offensive rebound and a shot by Sloan made it 97-92 with 3:04 remaining. ANOTHER turnover by Pressey gave the Pacers the ball back with 2:50 left. Hill airballed a three and a hustle play by Rondo saved a possession which led to Olynyk turning the ball over anyway. A Hibbert offensive rebound and putback cut the lead 97-94 with 90 seconds left. Sullinger missed a 3 which led to a Kelly Olynyk foul. Sullinger played Hibbert straight up and fouled him shooting. Roy hit both free throws to cut the lead 97-96 with 58 seconds left. Jeff Green missed the clutch shot AGAIN but Rondo got the rebound...only to miss himself. The Pacers took timeout with 35 seconds left but Sloan missed the layup, rebounded by Bradley. Celtics coach Brad Stevens took timeout to get his free throw shooters in there. Bradley missed a shot but Jeff Green got a HUGE rebound and was fouled. With a chance to extend the lead, Green hit the first shot.....and the second to put the C's up 3 with 6 seconds left. The ball came into Sloan and Bradley fouled him with 3.7 seconds left. Sloan hit both free throws to cut the lead to 1. The ball was foolishly inbounded to Avery Bradley who was fouled with 2.9 seconds left. With the game on the line, Bradley hit the first.....and the second. 101-98 and the Pacers used their last timeout. The ball was inbounded to.....Gerald Wallace who stole the ball to win the game. Yes, they WON the game...what???

Bawful report:

Hate to dump on someone who is potentially out for the year, but before he got hurt, Smart had a bad game. He was just 1 for 6 shooting with a personal foul. Avery Bradley conked 8 shots, turned the ball over twice and fouled twice as well. As a team they turned the ball over 12 times and almost allowed yet another 100 point game. Jeff Green bricked 7 shots, turned the ball over 3 times and fouled once. Rajon Rondo missed 6 shots, turned it over 3 times and fouled twice. Marcus Thornton played just 7 minutes and took just 4 shots, missing two of them. The Celtics took 27 three's and missed 18 of them. As for the nightly awards, Dwight Powell and Vitor Faverini get checkmarks for the Ellison Award while James Young gets a checkmark for DNP-CD. Lastly, a pack of fans banged on the window outside the post-game show conducted by Brian Scalabrine. The zombie apocalypse was after Scal! Run Scal run!

Were there any positives? Yes! First, Dr. Jekyll showed up tonight.

Jeff Green had 15 points and 7 rebounds and an assist. After Smart went down, Jeff stepped up. Tyler Zeller scored 6 points and grabbed 2 boards in just 12 minutes. Phil Pressey stepped up big with 5 points, 4 assists, a rebound and a steal. Evan Turner redeemed himself from the last 2 games with 8 points, 2 rebounds and an assist. Brandon Bass kicked ass with 10 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a block. Jared Sullinger had a team high 17 points with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Kelly Olynyk had 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Avery Bradley had 11 points, 3 rebounds and an assist. Hero of the Night is tonight's thief, Gerald Wallace.

                                                   "I'm hero of the night, bitch!"

Wallace hit 2 clutch free throws, grabbed a rebound and got the key steal that won the game. From WAY above courtside you could hear the voice of Johnny Most scream "WALLACE STOLE THE BALLLLLL!!!"

Final Thoughts:

Talk about a double whammy. Indiana was missing Paul George, David West, CJ Miles and Rodney Stuckey and the Celtics won by just 3 points. The worst is they lost Marcus Smart who when last updated, was being wheeled out of the Garden with his foot in a boot. If he's done for the year or out a couple months, this team's headed to the lottery. Remember, this is almost the exact same team as last year with Zeller replacing Kris Humphries, Marcus Thornton replacing Chris Johnson, Evan Turner replacing Chris Babb and James Young replacing Jerryd Bayless. I'll say the new guys are upgrades over the previous, but that's maybe 5-10 wins which means they'll win 30-35 instead of 25. Still, that leaves plenty of opportunities for bawful. The 2-3 Celtics now travel to Chicago tomorrow night to play Derrick Rose and the Bulls. Good grief they may lose by 30.