Celtics stumble late in loss to the Spurs, 110-106

It was like the first full moon of the season. The Celtics were able to put all of their best on the floor together for the first time, with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart in the same opening lineup.

“I think we’re all excited to have everyone back and we look forward to playing,” said Smart. “It feels like we’ve missed this for a very long time. So for us it’s great 16 games in to be able to have everybody back now, trying to start our rhythm. We’re looking forward to it, it starts tonight, and we can’t wait to have everybody out there.”

Smart had obviously been counting the games. And now he’ll have to count a little more, until that time when the Celtics, at full strength, put a complete game together.

They met a familiar San Antonio end with Wednesday night’s 110-106 loss to the Spurs.

Tatum’s drive with 4:03 left had cut the San Antonio lead to 97-96. The next time down he air-balled a 10-footer, and was answered by a Dejounte Murray jumper. But Walker, back in the game, tied the game at 99-99 with a 3-pointer.

This time Murray missed from downtown, and Tristan Thompson drove for a 101-99 lead.

Lonnie Walker stepped out of bounds, Kemba Walker missed from downtown, and Keldon Johnson tied the score with a dunk.

The Celtics called timeout with 1:15 left (14 seconds on the shot clock), then came out of it with a missed dunk from Brown. DeMar DeRozan, fouled with 56.8 seconds left, hit twice from the line for a 103-101 San Antonio lead.

Brown drove and fed Daniel Theis for a game-tying dunk, and San Antonio took a timeout with 33.2 seconds left.

DeRozan immediately hit a pull-up over Thompson for a 105-103 lead with 27.9 seconds left. Murray then stripped Walker and dunked for a 107-103 Spurs lead.

Tatum drove and converted a three-point play with 12.4 seconds left, cutting the Spurs edge to 107-106.

Rudy Gay was fouled with 8.6 seconds left and hit twice for the three-point lead, and Smart missed form the left corner at the buzzer.

The Celtics, with a huge boost from a 21-3 run over the last half of the third quarter, carried an 84-82 lead into the fourth. Brown had 21 points, to go along with another 15 from Tatum and 14 from Smart.

Rob Williams converted a Walker pass for a four-point lead, and played a massive role on the offensive glass, but San Antonio didn’t fade, taking a one-point lead on a Rudy Gay jumper.

The Spurs pushed their lead further, including a Patty Mills drive for a five-point lead that triggered a Celtics timeout with 7:44 left.

Mills hit again, this time from the foul line, extending the San Antonio run to 10-0, before Brown came back in off the bench to cut the Spurs lead to four points twice in the next minute.

But Keldon Johnson drove for a six-point Spurs lead, before Tatum spun for a three-point play that cut the edge to three with 5:51 left.

Brown missed the next time down, Johnson drove to the same result, and both sides went cold until, with 4:03 left, Tatum drove from mid-court and finished over Jakob Poeltle.

A late run by Lonnie Walker – he scored nine points in the last three minutes – boosted the Spurs’ lead to 61-47 by halftime. This time around, Tatum (3-for-10) and Brown (2-for-9) were off to slow starts against a very good defensive team.

San Antonio hit its last 10 shots of the second, and applied enough pressure down the other end to slow the Celtics to a sloppy, turnover-pocked finish.

The Celtics finally cut the Spurs lead to 10 points on a Tatum fadeaway, and heading into the last five minutes of the quarter Brown cut the lead to nine. Tatum’s fallaway cut it to 78-71. His post-up cut it to 81-76.

The Celtics extended the run to 16-3 on a Brown jumper that cut the margin to three points (81-78), and then one on a Brown transition drive off a Smart steal.

The Celtics’ zone coverage had changed the pace, and finally Walker, with a 3-pointer, gave the Celtics an 83-81 lead, extending the run to 21-3.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3qXTw5x