BOSTON – The game wasn’t even 30 seconds old and Jae Crowder was finishing at the rim while drawing a foul.
Shortly after that he hit a 17-foot pull-up jumper with a running finger roll coming 19 seconds later.
Brad Stevens has a team full of catalysts who can spark the team on any given night.
On Thursday, it was Crowder’s turn.
The only thing that seemed to slow him down was foul trouble, which still wasn’t enough to contain the Celtics who extended their home winning streak to nine straight following a 112-107 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Crowder, whose foul trouble limited him to just 23 minutes, still managed to score 20 points on an impressive 8-for-10 shooting.
“I really wanted this game,” Crowder said. “I mean to start this home stretch on the right foot and take care of it tonight and I just did not want to leave any doubt in our team and start the first quarter real good.”
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Real good?
As in, 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting good?
That was Crowder’s line after the first quarter which ended with Boston ahead 35-25.
And while Boston continued to lead the entire game, the fouls began to stack and reached a crossroads moment in the third quarter with 8:45 to play.
That’s when Crowder picked up his fifth personal foul and was hit with a technical foul moments later for uh, voicing his displeasure with the call.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens immediately took him out of the game, and didn’t bring him back until the 5:31 mark of the fourth quarter.
In the past, Stevens said he would have taken Crowder out after he picked up his fourth personal foul and “been nervous to put him back in and I just … if it happens, it happens. If they foul, they foul. We’ll figure it out. And a lot of times, and really it hasn’t hurt us until today when Crowder picked up his fifth and had to be out so long – prior to that, we’re just going to let guys play and if they foul, they foul.”
Crowder was upset at the fifth personal foul call against him, but that was in the past. Even though he was on the bench, that didn’t mean he couldn’t contribute still.
“I was just trying to stay locked in and be vocal on the bench, talk to the guys because the defense was right in front of the bench,” Crowder said. “So, I was trying to stay engaged and I knew come fourth quarter, at some point I was going to go back in the game and just try to be ready.”
Was. He. Ever.
Stevens brought him back in with 5:31 to play because the game “wasn’t going our way.
He added, “It was a five-point game and it was time to bring him back.”
Crowder only hit one shot, but it was arguably the biggest one of the night.
With Isaiah Thomas penetrating into the paint, he threw a no-look pass over his shoulder to Crowder in the corner.
He was ready for the pass, draining a 3-pointer that put the Celtics ahead 109-102 with 50.6 seconds to play.
“That play right there describes our team,” said Boston’s Avery Bradley. “We always knew we were going to win the game. We do whatever it takes to win the game and we all want to play for each other.”
