Boston’s game three victory was about more than just Rajon Rondo’s injury
The Chicago Bulls announced Friday before the game that Rajon Rondo is out indefinitely with a right thumb fracture, which is a huge blow for the Bulls. Rondo is the team’s leader and the player who ultimately runs their whole offense, as we clearly saw their offense had little movement Friday night. Chicago only had 14 assists in Game three. Rondo in Game two had 14 assists alone. So it’s pretty easy to see why the Bulls are really missing their starting point guard. While it may have made things easier on the Celtics, it wasn’t the only reason the Boston Celtics came away with the Game 3 win.
After the Celtics’ Game 2 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, wild speculations came out that Brad Stevens is in the hot seat. WEEI came out with the headline “BRAD STEVENS OFFICIALLY ON HOT SEAT”.
Stevens responded in Game 3. He changed the Celtics starting lineup by replacing Amir Johnson with Gerald Green. Someone who hasn’t started a game for the Celtics since April 13, 2007, a game where he was actually the leading scorer for the Celtics. People thought that the Celtics would change their lineup to be bigger for rebounding purposes so this is a move nobody saw coming. Green had a slight spark to start off the game and proved that it was the perfect decision by Stevens.
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Al Horford silenced his critics in Game 3. Horford led the Celtics in scoring with 18 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, and dished out 6 assists. Jae Crowder started it all of for Boston in the first quarter as he had 10 first half points, including back-to-back 3-pointers late in the first. Isaiah Thomas didn’t get going until after halftime. Thomas ended the game with only 16 points, but he still helped the offense tremendously, getting 9 assists. Terry Rozier proved that he should get more minutes in the playoffs, as he fired up the Celtics with his 3-pointers. Rozier finished with 11 points. This game showed that if the Celtics play team ball, they can be a very dangerous team.
Game three was huge for the Celtics for more than the reason that they needed a win to stay in this series. It showed that Thomas doesn’t need to be on the floor for them to play great basketball. In fact, Boston seemed to play better at times without Thomas in the game.
Here's a crazy stat from Game 3.
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) April 22, 2017
Celtics with IT on the floor: 90.6 off. rating
Celtics w/o IT on the floor: 154.9 off. rating
If everyone can play as good as they did in Game 3 and Thomas gets going, the Celtics will be unbeatable.
The Celtics aren’t done just yet, as Avery Bradley said “We weren’t coming here hoping to get a win. We knew we were coming here to win both games.”
Next: Boston Celtics Win With Small Ball
It’s a whole new series, and now the Celtics will prep for Game 4 on Sunday as they look to even the series.