Eastern Conference Semis - Game 3
Wizards 116
Celtics 89
May 4, 2017 - Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
No team in the NBA has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit. The Washington Wizards will not try to be the first to break the streak because they took care of business in impressive fashion against the Boston Celtics to defend home court. The Wizards won 116-89 and look to even the series on Sunday at 2. A cherry on top of it all was Scott Brooks able to rest Death Row DC, John Wall, Bradley Beal, Markieff Morris, and kind of Kelly Oubre Jr., the entire fourth quarter as Tomas Satoransky played the entire fourth quarter to close things out.
FIGHT!
It started early with Ian Mahinmi and Jonas Jerebko coming forehead to forehead, Nene and Jimmy Butler circa 2014-esque, and it ended with Brandon Jennings and Terry Rozier both being ejected after a second set of double technicals.
In the middle, a charge from Kelly Oubre Jr. on Kelly Olynyk through head official Monty McCutchen resulted in a full layout of Olynyk, as part of a mild flop. Oubre was appropriately ejected with a flagrant two foul and will be fined heftily, although Bradley Beal said he might bite the bullet for his teammate. Oubre may be suspended for Game 4 of the series.
"I think we've got to control our emotions,” Scott Brooks said. “We can't respond that way, but when you get hit in the head a few times… We're very competitive guys out there, both teams are very competitive. When you keep getting hit in the head you might respond that way, and I think that's what he did. I'm not saying that was the right thing to do. We have to focus on playing basketball, we can't control what they're doing. We just have to control within our game-plan and stay focused. I haven't talked to him and I definitely will talk to him. We have to keep our control, and you have to let the referees call those calls and at that particular time, they did call the right call.”
“We have to do a better job, he’s important to our team, he’s an X-Factor,” Wall said about Oubre’s reaction and meaning to the team. “We told him, we understand he gets frustrated. There’s plenty of times throughout the game that I want to do stuff, but I know how much I mean to the team. I think it’s just a learning experience for him.”
“I was encouraging him because in a situation like that, you just gotta be smart,” Beal said. “You got the call, as much as it may frustrate you, you know, you just gotta continue to do what you are doing. At that point, that’s what they wanted it to be. They wanted it to be physical, get out it out of hand a little bit. We were up 20, whatever it was, and so they were kinda playing angry. They were fouling, setting moving screens, that’s going to happen throughout the course of a game and I told him, ‘We need you. You are one of our best defenders. You are constantly getting better. You are a threat out here on the floor and we need you, so just make sure, moving forward that you are smart about it. If somebody hit you, move on, you know what I’m saying, and just continue to play smart.’”
“I don’t know because I thought they were cool,” Beal continued. “That’s what kinda threw me off, so it really takes K.O (Kelly Oubre Jr.) a lot. I always see him shake hands. Like in the regular season they would shake hands before the game and talk a little bit. It kinda through me off, but it’s the playoffs, so I do understand KO whole heartedly and I support him.”
“I don’t know what he [Oubre] was doing,” Isaiah Thomas said. “The screens we’ve been setting, for the most part I feel like they’ve been legal. It’s just those guys fall and refs call an offensive foul. I don’t know why he reacted like that, especially to Kelly [Olynyk], he’s just not like that. … We don’t like them and they don’t like us.”
Another quick start and, more importantly, holding onto it.
Washington got off to another fast start and Celtics head coach Brad Stevens foreshadowed yesterday that Boston would be unable to comeback on the road. It was not a 17-0 start, but actually Game 3 was tied at 12 midway through the first quarter. The bright side was Bradley Beal scoring the Wizards first seven points.
“It was important,” Beal said. “I just wanted to get off to a good start, a good rhythm. John (Wall) and I talked a lot, a little bit and that was something that we wanted to get going early. I gotta make sure I have some clean ones, some open ones and just be aggressive. I just came up and made the first seven points. I feel like I ain’t made ‘mmm’ since. It was good, it was a good start.”
Over the next five minutes, the Wizards went on a whopping 22-0 run. The difference between the first two games? Playing together according to Marcin Gortat, which allowed Washington to earn a 30 point advantage in the second half. Markieff Morris alluded to the say idea as Stevens did yesterday at practice, “we got the whole crowd behind [us]. They don't have no crowd to get momentum, we got all the momentum. I feel like we had the momentum the whole game from jump ball.”
“We’ve been in that situation the first two games being up,” Otto Porter said, “but being home we had the crowd on our side. We were just locked in. We knew they were going to try and make a couple of runs. We decided to stick with our game plan and go from there and play hard.”
“I hope we’re not going to jinx it and say that today we played together the first half and the second half,” Marcin Gortat said. “The game before we showed up in the first half, and the second half we didn’t have the same [energy] we had the first two games. We just played together. We played and we executed the game plan and we played hard [and] we didn’t stop. Like Otto [Porter] said, we’ve been in this situation. We had the lead almost 20 points in the first quarter and we lost the lead, and then we lost the game. We understood what we had to do and we were locked in. As Otto said, we were playing in front of our own crowd, which was definitely helpful.”
Washington has lost just five games at home in nearly five months, dating back to December 7th, so there is reason to think this series is over despite falling 2-0 to start.
Otto Porter making a late push for a max contract?
Pre All-Star Break, Porter was shooting a blazing 46.6 percent from beyond the arc, but just a mediocre 34.1 percent to end the regular season, which quieted talks of the former Georgetown star receiving a lucrative max contract this summer. In front of his former college head coach, John Thompson III, Porter began the game 7 of 7 from the field and took advantage of the Celtics trying to hide Isaiah Thomas’ lack of defensive skills on him. Porter worked the smaller point guard with post moves.
“Definitely,” Porter classically said about if he had worked on his post up game, something he is not typically known for. “We watched a lot of film and just tried to figure out how we can make adjustments – especially with Isaiah guarding me, or whoever is guarding me trying to attack that side. If they double-team me then I need to look for a shooter. It was just a good adjustment that we made.”
“But I think that it was great – OP [Otto Porter Jr.] was being aggressive [and] got into the paint,” Wall said. “I think that’s what you have to do. I think the first two games we kind of let Isaiah [Thomas] off the hook and just let him rest on the other end. Otto did a great job.”
“They are trying to hide him a little bit We wanted to expose that,” Beal said about Thomas’ defense. “Otto (Porter) gave him some trouble in the post, John (Wall) did, too. We were able to move the ball out of it and that’s a good look for us. Of course, we are going to continue to stick with it if they are going to continue to hide him.”
The return of Ian Mahinmi.
Washington’s biggest new offseason signing over last summer has missed all of his games since April 10 due to a left calf strain. After getting in some good work yesterday and today, Scott Brooks announced pregame that he would be a game-time decision. Mahinmi finished with 2 points in 9:38 to go along with a rebound and assist, but his presence was surely felt on the defensive end as he protected the rim with two blocks. Even though he was on minutes restriction, it was certainly a step in the right direction.
“He’s wanted to do this for the last couple of games,” Brooks said. “And we were just, ‘no, no no, no,’ but I’m glad he came back. I’m glad we waited. Hopefully he feels better tomorrow and comes back Sunday.”
Washington winning in the paint and on defense instead of the three-point line.
Take away a couple of garbage time three-pointers from Sheldon Mac and the Wizards only shot 1 of 11 from beyond the arc in the second half. Take away Bojan Bogdanovic, who had a great game at 4 of 7 shooting from his specialty range, and Washington only shot 2 of 16 from deep. The home team was able to score 56 points in the paint and have averaged 51.3 points near the rim in the three games of this series.
That and playing better defense as the Wizards held their opponent under 100 points for the first time this postseason. Thomas was held to 13 points on 8 shot attempts, which is 9 times out of 10 going to end in a Wizards victory.
“We made them miss shots,” Brooks simply put it. “We were contesting the three-point line, and we were doing a good job of staying in front of the basketball. I thought our weak-side was locked in. Against this team, if you relax for four or five seconds in any given shot clock, you're going to give up an open shot. I thought our guys were locked in for the entire shot clock until they took the shot, and they were rebounding the ball much better.”
“I think we just did a great job of just trying to deny him as much as possible [and] keep two guys on him,” Wall said. “I don’t think he was as aggressive as he was the past two games – usually when the game gets close in the fourth quarter he gets real aggressive. The game was kind of out of reach then and they had reserves in and he didn’t have an opportunity to have a big scoring night.”
“We were in[to it],” Porter said about the team’s weak-side defense. “We watched film. They weren’t really making that extra-long pass to the corner. We were just in early and made sure that we secure the ball when they do shoot it. On the back side we just have to get our rotations down. We definitely emphasized that today.”
“We had a bad situation last game where they would just come in the paint and finish up,” Gortat added about weak-side defense. “We have to go by the percentages – we can’t let them score inside on the pocket passes, or the rolls, or let Isaiah Thomas or someone else drive to the paint and score. We had to sit in the paint and make them kick the ball to the three-point line and make them shoot the ball. Percentage-wise, that’s what we have to give to them. Today, I thought they didn’t shoot the ball the way they shot the ball in the first two games. It was a good decision.”
“I don’t think it was as much about Isaiah as it was the whole team,” Brad Stevens said. “They were really into the passing lanes, they were really into the ball [and] they were really aggressive. [They] obviously set the tone for how the game was going to be played [and] dominated the game. They played great.”
“They had three guys on me so I couldn't really do anything,” Thomas said. I'll make the adjustments, it's fine. They were very aggressive on pick-and-rolls and me coming on down screens and things like that. And we didn't adjust in the game. I don't think we did a good job of screening and getting not just myself open but anybody else open on our team on the offensive end. So we have to do a way better job on that. But, other than that, they did what they were supposed to do. They hit first, they set the tone and then the rest kind of controlled the game after that.”
Isaiah Thomas also went on a mini rant on the referees post game. “Avery Bradley is a first team all defender. He doesn’t get the respect he should get on that end of the floor. We are playing just as physical as them, but we are the ones getting all the fouls called on us [Boston has only been called for three more fouls, 72-69, through three games]. … They foul every now and then as well as we do, so we feel like it should be a little more even.”