The Boston Celtics played some of their best basketball this season, when they beat the Orlando Magic on Friday night in the TD Garden in the first of a home-and-home standoff.
The Celtics' second unit was especially impressive in the 113-94 victory. They crushed both the Orlando bench and their first unit during the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. During that stretch, Magic coach Scott Skiles turned to his starters after a little more than three minutes, but pulled them again less than two minutes later, after the Celtics had extended their run from 10-4 to 19-4. So Orlando has a blemish to wash off.
That might not be so easy, given their current form. On New Year's Day they looked like a playoff team, holding a strong 19-13 record. But in 2016 they have lost 12 out 13 games including their last 8. Their schedule has indeed been tougher, but the losses include several teams, that should be beatable for Orlando.
Boston holds a five-game win streak
Meanwhile Boston has been surging. After a four-game losing streak in early January, they have recovered their form. Friday's victory secured their longest winning streak yet this season at five games. That is also the third longest living win streak in the league behind only the Toronto Raptors (11 wins) and the Golden State Warriors (6 wins). Boston is currently tied for 4th place in the Eastern Conference with the Atlanta Hawks and only half a game behind the third place Chicago Bulls.
There are several factors that have come together for Boston during the last couple of weeks. First of all, the rotation has settled on nine regular players with David Lee's benching since January 6th. Many veteran players would become disgruntled by this treatment, but like Gerald Wallace last season, Lee has apparently taken the adversity in stride.
One of the benefactors of the surplus minutes is Jonas Jerebko, who is a true stretch four with three point range, while Lee is the superior inside-out player with a solid mid-range game.
Jerebko's range gives more space for especially Evan Turner and Kelly Olynyk in the second unit to attack the basket. And when you add that Marcus Smart has suddenly found his three point stroke again, you have a very strong and versatile second unit.
Kelly Olynyk is on fire
The second unit is also quite unique and causes a variety of match-up problems:
- First of all, Kelly Olynyk is in the middle of a breakout-season, to put it mildly. His defense has improved dramatically, and he's scorching hot on offense, hitting three pointers at an elite rate (52.8 % in January). This means that whoever is guarding him has to close-out, and very few bigs can do that and recover, when Olynyk attacks the basket, using the point guard skills he learned as a youth player. Olynyk is also capable of coming off screens for a catch-and-shoot, which is quite difficult to defend.
- Secondly, Evan Turner has looked better than ever in January with a true shooting percentage at 53.2 %, which is well above his career average. This is quite remarkable since his three-point shooting this season has gone down the drain. Instead, his points are coming from mid-range, sometimes by posting up smaller guards and shoot over them from baseline, and around the rim or from the foul line, when he attacks.
- And finally, Marcus Smart presents a different kind of match-up problem altogether. His defense is so aggressive and disruptive, that you can't just throw any guard at his mercy as a ball-handler.
This is a trap game for Boston
These are some of the problems that Orlando have to solve, and it will be interesting to see Scott Skiles' solutions.
For the Celtics, this is a trap game. They come in riding on their win streak, and with the knowledge that they destroyed Orlando just two days before. They have to be ready to face highly motivated opponents, who probably feel, that they have nothing to lose. And it's always difficult to win both games in a home-and-home.
