This game was nationally televised because ESPN wanted desparately for Gordon Hayward to enact a REVENGE GAME against his former team. Or at least do some damage. That didn’t really happen, but it sort of happened in reverse, because Jae Crowder totally had a REVENGE GAME against his former team, the Celtics.
The best years of Crowder’s career were on the Celtics, and then he was included on the big Kyrie Irving-Isaiah Thomas trade. He wasn’t quite the same after that. His much-lauded defense took a hit (so they say; DTB does not care and will not ever care about defense), and his shooting numbers went into the toilet. It would seem the betrayal broke him. And the only thing that could get him going was playing against his former team and destroying them in a VENGEFUL manner with an end-of-game dagger three.
With this game, Crowder is averaging almost fifteen points per game, which is actually the highest mark of his career. So, if this continues, his best seasons will no longer have been with Boston, but with Utah. That’s weird to think about. I’m going to stop thinking about Crowder now.