On his birthday, the Celtics take care of business against the Grizzlies, as they get 37 points from Jayson Tatum. The song is called "2.
Marcus Smart said his approach becomes a simple one when he sees the All-Star forward get going in the fourth quarter.
Smart said to make sure he was staying out of his way.
Smart and the Celtics did just that Thursday night, as they were able to overcome Ja Morant's 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting in the second half and beat the Memphis Grizzlies 120-118.
One of the best victories of the season was the one that moved the Celtics into sole possession of fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics knocked off one of the best teams in the league in the Memphis Grizzles, but they did so without Jaylen Brown, who injured his ankle in the opening moments of the victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
It was a win Boston picked up thanks to Tatum, as he went shot-for-shot with Morant and came out on top.
The back-and-forth with Morant was a lot of fun. I think it was just one of those moments, two guys just going at it, doing what they can to help their team win, and it just so happened that it was a back and forth thing.
Morant had a slow start as he went into the halftime break with just eight points on 3-for-14 shooting. He scored 30 points in the second half.
Morant did his best to get Memphis back into the game on a night when the team struggled against the league's second-ranked defense. For one obvious reason, Morant didn't enjoy the battle in the same way as Tatum did.
He said that he wanted to win.
While Boston broke the game open in the third quarter after holding a two-point halftime lead, it was mostly done with Tatum sitting. In the fourth, he got going by attacking the rim and finished 8-for-10. His triple in the quarter that put Boston up 115-100 was the exclamation point of a late-game surge that mirrored the way the Celtics have turned their season around over the past several weeks.
As a competitor, you look forward to someone doing big things in the league. I wanted to make the right play in the fourth quarter to win the game. Sometimes it is for yourself, and just try to get the job done.
The game proved to be a teachable moment for Morant. Morant has been one of the league's best interior scorers this season because of his combination of agility, speed and quickness. Boston was happy to force him to take one shot after another from the perimeter. The two of them, who went 4-for-21 in the first half, struggled early in the game.
Morant said that when teams try to force him to shoot jump shots, he will have one reaction.
Morant said he shoot the ball. I put in a lot of work shooting behind thearc. I shoot the ball, shoot it with a lot of confidence, and the shots start to fall.
They began to fall in the second half as he tried to get them back into the game. It was too much for Morant and the Grizzlies to answer.
Morant said that if Memphis did anything wrong defending him down the stretch, he was getting going.
No disrespect, but the same with me. At the beginning, I was shooting terrible, I saw some go and shots started falling. It's the same thing with him. He got going, got to his spots, and made some big-time shots for his team to keep the lead and come out with the win.
The win, which came the same day Celtics coach Ime Udoka was named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for February, was the latest example of Boston's remarkable about-face. After a loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics were at.500, but have won 13 of their last 15 games to move into fifth place in the East.
There have been a lot of reasons for the change, from Boston's defensive improvement to the acquisition of Derrick White to Udoka settling on a narrowed rotation and the Celtics getting healthy, but it's also coincided with Tatum playing much better, as Memphis saw Thursday night.
When you win, you tend to play with a little more enthusiasm. At the beginning of the season, it was not happening a lot.
This is basketball, at the end of the day, and it is supposed to be a lot of fun. We have been having a lot of fun.
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