The Celtics have become a little bit 3-point happy this season, haven’t they?
Well, on Friday night, they had plenty of reason to let it fly from long range.
Because they were on fire.
Boston opened up its game against the Brooklyn Nets by clanking nine of its first 10 attempts from beyond the arc. Apparently those clanks were just to knock the lid off the basket, because its hoop looked as big as the ocean heading into halftime.
Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder combined to hit six 3-pointers, and the Celtics hit their final nine shots overall, over the final 4:37 of the first half.
Thomas connected on four of those 3s, the first two of which came from the left side of the court off of the exact same play. Brad Stevens dialed up back-to-back pick-and-rolls with David Lee and Marcus Smart and each of them led to treys from Thomas.
Crowder then got into the mix by drilling a trail 3 in transition from the right wing at the 3:47 mark – just 56 seconds after Thomas hit his first 3. Crowder’s splash put the C’s on top 51-37, their largest lead of the night to that point.
But they weren’t done.
Crowder drilled another 3 at the 2:36 mark, just five seconds after a timeout by Boston. Stevens drew up a play that got Crowder a wide open look, and the small forward connected on it with a twist of the twine.
Avery Bradley scored a pair of layups (not as exciting, we know) off consecutive steals before Thomas continued his hot stretch. He nailed another pair of treys, separated by just 27 seconds, to give Boston a 64-40 lead at the 1:05 mark of the second quarter.
All in all, six of Boston’s final nine buckets of the first half came from downtown. And they didn’t miss a single shot during that stretch.
Boston went on to pull ahead by as many as 30 points and cruised to a 120-95 victory.
We’ve been waiting for this, haven’t we?
Jae Crowder seemed poised to break out this season after carving himself out a starting role for the Celtics. He had been consistent over his first 11 games of the season, with averages of 11.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, but he hadn’t broken out offensively.
That is, until Friday night.
Crowder found his groove, particularly from long distance, against the Brooklyn Nets. He connected on three of his six 3-point attempts and eight of his 12 shots overall. He scored 19 points to set a new season high in the scoring column.
As always, Crowder was a consistent contributor across the board for Boston, particularly on defense. He entered the game as the league’s leader in steals, with an average of 3.0 per game. He hit that number right on the head, grabbing another three Friday night against Brooklyn. He also hauled in five rebounds and dished out two assists.
You might have guessed this, but the Celtics were pretty darn good while he was on the floor. Crowder logged only 28 minutes of playing time but the Celtics still outscored the Nets by 19 points during that action.
Brad Stevens on getting back onto the practice court Thursday afternoon for the first time in 10 days.
