“We’ll see what happens”. After jumping to a 2-0 series lead over a franchise it has never beaten in a playoff series (0-7) since setting up in Atlanta, the Hawks were facing a wounded Boston team that was down a starting guard and a center and felt desperate enough to change two other starters.
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It was like real playoff basketball that probably would have impressed even sometimes old and bitter players from the 1980s who can be dismissive of today’s game.
Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens admitted Thursday that he’s still pondering lineup changes in advance of Friday’s Game 3 against the Atlanta Hawks, and given Boston’s slow starts and penchant for switching to smaller lineups, some tweaks seem inevitable if the team’s health will allow it. They led 24-7 after the first quarter and by as many as 23 against a Celtics team that shot a putrid 31.8 percent from the field and went 5-for-28 from deep.
The Celtics are back in Boston for Game 4, which will tip off Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. “We’ve got to do something to try to switch this up at home next game”. “You have to figure out, especially after a game like (Tuesday) night what didn’t go well, what we felt like didn’t go well but maybe once you watch the film it really went a little bit better than you thought, and kinda get ready for the next game”.
NOTES: Celtics F Kelly Olynyk missed his second straight game with his troublesome right shoulder.
Showing improvementCeltics forward Jae Crowder placed sixth in voting for the league’s Most Improved Player, and point guard Isaiah Thomas finished eighth.
Boston is eager to break a six-game losing streak in the postseason, its last playoff victory coming on May 1, 2013, against the Knicks.
“Those guys gotta step up – including myself – and we all just have to put one good game together to give us some confidence”, said leading scorer Isaiah Thomas, who had 16 points – more than six below his season average – and shot 4 of 15 on Tuesday.
“So we have to be better to get a chance”.
Atlanta may have to overcome a key injury of its own after backup point guard Dennis Schroder suffered a left ankle injury in the closing minutes of Game 2. For the first time in their Atlanta history (they moved from St. Louis in 1968), the Hawks advanced to the conference finals. “But I’m not going to be overly critical of how we responded or how we came out”. Cleveland has torn up the Pistons pick-and-roll defense – the starters do not get off blameless here by any stretch, they need to improve on P&R defense, but the bench has been a mess.
The Grizzlies continued to struggle to find consistency on offense without injured starters Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. But Gasol and Conley are out with injuries, leaving Z-Bo to fend for himself with role players Tony Allen and Matt Barnes against the mighty Spurs.
Patty Mills led the Spurs with 16 points while Kawhi Leonard added 13.
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“Keep their head up”, Randolph said. They built a 19-point lead in the first half of Game 1, before fending off a Celtics rally in a one-point win. “We talked about that, but it was just a matter of we lost him a few times”.
