DENVER – One thing the Celtics should avoid doing this afternoon is thinking they have the Nuggets hung out to dry, warns Brad Stevens. Denver can score in bunches.
“I’ve watched now multiple of their home games in prep for [our meetings], and in multiple of those games they were down double-figures and came back and won, or went and took the lead,” Stevens said ahead of today’s game in It’s a team of runs.”
Boston’s players should know this as well as anyone. The Celtics led by as many as 22 points when they beat Denver back on Jan. 27 at TD Garden, yet it never felt as if the game was comfortably in their hands.
That’s because the Nuggets used a bunch of runs to stay within striking distance. Denver logged seven different runs of at least 5-0 and scored at least six straight points on five different occasions.
Two of the key players to Denver’s spurtability are Danilo Gallinari and Will Barton, who each scored 23 points against the Celtics during these teams’ first matchup of the season.
Gallinari is having a career year with an average of 19.9 points per game. He is scoring with impressive efficiency thanks to his ability to get to the free-throw line, where he is attempting 8.2 shots per game.
“He had a game the other day that I was watching,” Stevens said after noting that Gallinari gave the C’s fits last month. “He had 27 points at the end of the third and he had taken 10 shots.”
Barton, meanwhile, has exploded onto the scene as one of the top scoring reserves in the league this season. Much of his work is done during the fourth quarter, as Stevens saw first-hand when the 6-foot-6 forward dropped 13 on the C’s during crunch time on Jan. 27.
“Barton came off the bench and did what he does, which is – he’s one of the best fourth-quarter scorers in the league,” the coach said.
Barton enters today’s game ranked ninth in the league in fourth-quarter scoring. The eight guys in front of him (LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, DeMarcus Cousins, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, James Harden and Kevin Durant) are all perennial All-Star players.
With all of this in mind, the Celtics shouldn’t feel comfortable at any moment of this afternoon’s game. This is a matchup that will require 48 minutes of concentration, because these Nuggets are more than capable of logging a dramatic comeback win.
– Marc D’Amico
