For the second night in a row, the Boston Celtics found yet another way to lose at the final moment of regulation. While Wednesday it was a brutal rim-out this time in the form of a buzzer-beating triple by RJ Barrett that, ultimately, gave the New York Knicks a 108-105 victory.
The Cs jumped out to an early lead in this one, battling hard on the defensive end and converting on all attempts they needed to on the offensive side of the ball.
Heading into the half, Boston held a 16-point advantage, leading New York by a lucrative score of 63-47, and saw both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown leading the way for the squad with an impressive combined stat-line of 27 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on 56 percent shooting from the floor and 55 percent shooting from deep.
Unfortunately, things seemed to take a total 180 the next two quarters as the big free agency signee for the Knickerbockers, and former shamrock, Evan Fournier, completely erupted for what wound up being a career night.
Since leaving in the offseason, the veteran sharpshooter has turned himself into a “Celtics killer” so to speak, as he had been averaging 32 points and 5.5 rebounds on 53 percent shooting from the floor and 43 percent shooting from deep coming into the night against his one-time employers.
Dropping 22 of his eventual 41 points in the second half, Fournier was seemingly on an absolute mission to spoil Boston’s attempt at taking the lead in the season series, as he was virtually unstoppable on the offensive side of the ball, converting on 60 percent of his attempts from the floor and a whopping 71 percent from deep.
Frankly, the Celtics could have certainly used for their former wing Thursday night, for, outside of the likes of Tatum and Brown the team struggled to find consistent offensive production out of their guys (minus one… but more on him later) and, because of this, we saw far more duds than studs.
Still, there were a few players that are deserving of praise (though it may be hard to justify for some at the momemt) and, with this, we at HH will go on to pinpoint 1 stud and 1 dud performer from Boston’s heartbreaking loss to the New York Knicks:
Boston Celtics stud: Dennis Schroder
For the majority of his tenure thus far with the Boston Celtics, Dennis Schroder has struggled when serving as the team’s spark-plug sixth man, looking far less comfortable in said role than when slotting in with the team’s first five.
While this still seems to be a very sad but real truth and is something that we must continue to monitor moving forward, Thursday Schroder seemed to look right at home whilst coming off the pine for the C’s.
Logging 27 minutes by game’s end, Schroder wound up finishing as the team’s second-leading scorer, going on to drop 20 points to go along with five boards on a highly-efficient 67 percent shooting from the floor and 50 percent shooting from deep.
Providing his long documented isolation scoring excellence while also knocking down a few snazzy catch-and-shoot attempts as well (not a trait he’s well known for), the contributions that Dennis Schroder brought to the floor for Boston were unequivocally valuable and, quite frankly, encouraging for what may be to come should he continue to come off the bench (let’s hope no more injuries or COVID surprises pop up anytime soon).
Unfortunately, however, these efforts were simply not enough to help the team get over the hump and finally collect win No. 19.
Boston Celtics dud: Second-half Jaylen Brown
So this one’s a bit of a cheat, for we’re only focusing in on the second-half showing of Jaylen Brown but, quite frankly, we feel as though this move is rather warranted, for the wing was seemingly a totally different person during quarters three and four than he was in one and two.
A true Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of showing, after exploding in the first quarter and finishing off with an overall nice first half by putting up 12 points and six boards on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 40 percent shooting from deep, the All-Star was absolutely nowhere to be found in the second, finishing with just four more points for the rest of the night and only taking six more attempts.
Tatum could have certainly used for his fellow franchise cornerstone to play up to his capabilities/ expectations down the stretch, as he himself had the shoulder the load on the offensive side of the ball by taking a total of 13 shots and tallying 21 of his 36 points during the final two periods.
In a game that the Boston Celtics desperately needed to win, the 25-year-old simply couldn’t find a way to step up for his team.
While some could make an argument that, say, Al Horford should be deemed the C’s dud of the game (believe me, I wouldn’t argue with you if you did), considering just how hot of a start he had coupled with how putrid of a performance we saw from him in the final half, we believe that Jaylen Brown is the one most deserving of this lowly moniker.
Let’s hope he can step it up in Boston’s rematch against the Knickerbockers on Saturday.