Avery Bradley emerging as a ray of hope for the Boston Celtics - NBA Update
Avery Bradley, the Boston Celtics guard, has been turning into a strong support for turbulent Greens. Celtics are sailing in the murky waters and they have to fix a lot if they want to make one final run in the playoffs.
Struggling around 0.500 and having an injury riddled season, they still have to discover their winning touch that can make them worthy of a deep run into the playoffs. Mickael Pietrus, Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox have suffered
season jeopardizing injuries while Ray Allen is struggling on court with a soared ankle.
After losing their depth, surrounded by clouds of disparity they found Bradley. He is shining bright, averaging 14.6 points with 52.8% shooting rate in last five games.
Even though he had a slow start as he went scoreless in his first 4 games and the sceptics started to say that he should have stayed another year in school. But he silenced them with his consistent and confident ascension. On Sunday
night he played a pivotal role in C’s milestone 91-72 victory over Miami Heat. He even stood up against Dwyane Wade, retaining him to just 15 points on 6-for-17 shooting.
Paul Pierce lavished him with praise.
Avery’s just a tremendous defender,’’ Paul Pierce said. “Just having him on D-Wade, we knew he could guard pretty much a lot of these [shooting] guards in the league and the [point] guards. I think [Sunday] really gives him confidence
to know he can guard the best. He should be on the all-defensive team if he continues to go like this. Not a lot of people know about him but I think everybody was able to see what he’s capable of.’’
Since Bradley assumed the starting role Greens are 5-0 and he has been playing a solid role with a gradual improvement. He is averaging 5.4 points, 1.3 assists and 1.5 boards in a total of 50 games while he started 15 of those.
Scoring as high as 23 points against Washington Wizards on March 25th, he paced his shorthanded team to hand a double digit 88-76 defeat to Wizards.
The 22 years old was the 19th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, later on he was assigned to the Maine Red Claws of NBA D-League by the C’s. He got his shot with Greens on February 6, 2011 after Marquis Daniels was
sidelined due to spinal injury.
He is and will prove to be a phenomenal support for Boston, especially after gathering acclamation from LeBron James; we can count on one thing that the kid has potential.
He's a really good young player. I think defensively he's one of the best guys we've seen as far as baseline to baseline, he's really good."
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