When Jae Crowder arrived in Boston, he was a throw-in player to a trade that centered around Rajon Rondo.
While he established himself as a do-it-all player defensively, his play has been overshadowed by the dynamic Isaiah Thomas and the arrival of Al Horford.
But with Thomas (knee) back in Boston healing up, Crowder had his chance to take center stage for Boston.
Did. He. Ever.
Crowder delivered one of his best performances of the season as Boston held off a late charge by the Brooklyn Nets to escape with a 98-95 win.
Crowder had his seventh double-double of the season, finishing with season highs in scoring (24 points) and rebounds (12 rebounds).
"We had one of our leading scorers out, so someone had to (pick it up)," Crowder told CSN's Abby Chin after the win.
Boston Celtics
With the scored tied at 85, Crowder – who had left the game earlier after taking a Quincy Acy elbow to the midsection – drained a 3-pointer and followed that up with a 3-point play.
The Nets were able to chip away at Boston’s lead, but the Celtics made all the necessary plays at both ends of the floor to keep Brooklyn at bay.
Marcus Smart, filling in for Isaiah Thomas, made a pair of free throws that put Boston ahead 95-91 with 24.1 seconds to play.
Brooklyn called a time-out, knowing they needed a quick score to keep their comeback hopes alive.
Former Harvard standout Jeremy Lin drained a bankshot jumper to make it a one-possession game, leading to a Celtics time-out with 16.5 seconds to play.
Smart was back at the free throw line and once again drained a pair of free throws that made it a 97-93 game which led to the Nets calling a time-out with 15.1 seconds to play.
A driving lay-up by Brooklyn’s Randy Foye made it a one-possession game again.
Crowder had trouble in-bounding the ball, so he called a time-out before a five-second violation was called.
Following Boston’s last time-out, Avery Bradley was set to go to the line with 9.1 seconds to play. He missed the first of two free throws, which made it a three-point game.
Brooklyn called another time-out, needing a 3-pointer to tie the game and potentially force overtime.
The Nets got a pair of 3-point attempts (one from Brook Lopez and the other from Acy) that each hit the back iron, literally inches away from forcing the game into overtime.
Boston spent most of the first half playing with a lead which is surprising when you consider how they played through the first two quarters.
In the first half, the Celtics shot less than 40 percent (36.4) from the field, less than 25 percent (23.1) on 3’s and turned the ball over eight times (for 10 points) … and they were up by eight points?
And as much as the Celtics seemingly played down to the Nets’ level most of Friday night, bad stats across the board doesn’t necessarily spell defeat.
Brooklyn opened the fourth quarter with a trio of 3-pointers, the last of which put them ahead 74-71.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens had seen enough and called a time-out with 10:32 to play.
The Celtics had played one of their worst games of the season offensively, struggles that were certainly aided by the absence of Isaiah Thomas.
Thomas (knee) did not travel with the team and in addition to missing tonight’s game against Brooklyn, he’ll be sidelined for Sunday’s game at Philadelphia.
Making his absence even more pronounced was the fact that the Celtics were in a close battle, one that they would have to finish without Thomas who is the league’s best scorer in the fourth quarter.
It was far from a thing of beauty, but give the Celtics credit. They did what they had to do and that was find a way to win without their best player.