Brad Stevens had a blueprint for success Thursday night, and the Boston Celtics all but executed it to perfection.
With defensive maven Jae Crowder back in his lineup for the first time since March 11, Stevens tasked Crowder and Co. with shutting down the Portland Trail Blazers’ dynamic duo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum and forcing their teammates to beat Boston.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.
The Celtics held both Lillard (14 points on 3 of 16 shooting) and McCollum (17 points on 8 of 19 shooting) to relative off-nights, but unheralded Blazers swingman Al-Farouq Aminu poured in a career-high 28 points to lift Portlan…