Celtics’ home streak reaches 11 with 100-95 win over Jazz

The Celtics have won three of their last four games since the loss in Salt Lake City and are fighting for a top four seed and home court advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket. “I think, particularly for a player that they haven’t seen as much of, I think that surprised them”. “Not only that, but my teammates – they all believe in me”. “We got acclimated to each other and found out rotations”. Also, throwback to when Bradley did the same thing to Dwyane Wade back in the day.

When told of that statistic after the game, C’s coach Brad Stevens looked down at his personal copy of the box score, raised his eyebrows and simply said, “Wow”. “It was a good play”.

That’s certainly been the case in Boston, where the Celtics haven’t lost since January 6.

The trampoline had been put in place by the Celtics’ mascot, who uses it to entertain crowds during games and, as it happens, took the video which he then posted on Instagram. “It was big for our team, I am happy we got the win tonight”. After Shelvin Mack hit a 3-pointer to start the quarter, the C’s were down by four points against a stingy Utah defense. “Especially because Jae answered back”.

Isaiah Thomas added 18 points and nine assists for Boston, which shot just 37 percent from the field in a 111-93 loss to Utah on February 19.

It was the Celtics who showed the most maturity down the stretch, however. That created space on the wing for Crowder, the first option on the play. Forward Derrick Favors grabbed 16 rebounds and scored 11 points while center Rudy Gobert scored 12 points and hauled down 12 boards.

Trey Lyles had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Jazz, who have dropped three in a row. “We’re playing pretty well”.

For the second time in as many games, the Celtics found themselves in a deadlock entering the fourth quarter. They were down five and called timeout with 5.8 seconds left in the period before Thomas drove all the way for a half-ending layup, and it was three at the break.

“I thought Jordan gave us a great lift with that (backup) group”, Stevens said. “He had been guarding (Rodney) Hood most of the game and had done a great job on Hood and you knew they were going to one of those two guys and it just felt like he would be our best bet on Gordon (Haywood) late because Gordon had tried to drive it a few times there recently, at the end”.

NOTES: The victory raised Boston’s all-time February 29 record to 9-1…. He is expected to rejoin the Jazz on Wednesday.

Jazz: F Trevor Booker left the team so he could attend his grandmother’s funeral in SC.

With the Celtics up 96-95 following Jae Crowder’s go-ahead three-pointer, Jazz forward Gordon Hayward backed down Boston guard Avery Bradley and turned for a pull-up 19-footer.