Celtics’ Jae Crowder works graveyard shift to bury shooting woes

8:40 PM ET

BOSTON — Boston Celtics swingman Jae Crowder, a friend in tow to rebound, returned to the team’s suburban practice facility in early hours of Saturday morning, just after Friday’s Game 3 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, and engaged in a 45-minute shooting session aimed at breaking him out of a postseason slump.

Crowder has made just 7 of 36 attempts in three postseason games, a meager 19.4 percent. Still dealing with the effects of a high ankle sprain that caused him to miss eight games in March, Crowder has admitted his ankle is at about 70-percent health, but he won’t allow that to be an excuse for his shooting struggles. In the last two games, Crowder is a mere 2-of-20 shooting overall and made only 1 of 11 3-pointers.

So even after a big victory at TD Garden on Friday night that trimmed Atlanta’s series lead to 2-1, Crowder shunned shuteye for some extra shots.

“I got here like 1, 1:30 [a.m.] last night. The win was great. I was very happy with that, but I wanted to prepare myself for Game 4,” Crowder said. “It’s a big game for us and I wanted to really step into my shots and be a force in my offensive game. I’m doing great on defense and guys are still applauding me on that, but I just want to lift our team up a little more in the offensive end. I just wanted to see the ball go through the hoop.”

Crowder has been stellar defensively, particularly against the likes of Paul Millsap, helping the Celtics hold Atlanta’s dynamic big man to an average of 8.7 points on 31.3-percent shooting over the first three games of the series. Crowder is limiting his opponents to 38.9-percent shooting (14 of 36) overall and a mere 15.4 percent (2 of …

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