Boston Celtics
Brown scored 41 factors in Boston’s win.
Jaylen Brown had his high-school jersey retired on Friday, and he spent Saturday night time beating up on the Hawks in a 132-106 Celtics blowout win.
Listed here are the takeaways.
Jaylen Brown was largely uncontested
The Hawks had completely nothing for Jaylen Brown.
That was all the time going to be the case when Dyson Daniels was dominated out for the sport, and it was maybe particularly possible simply 24 hours after Wheeler, Brown’s highschool, retired his quantity.
Brown had a monster recreation, albeit a brief one — 41 factors on 14-for-30 taking pictures to go together with six rebounds and two assists in simply 29 minutes since he sat all the fourth quarter. All through the season, he has achieved an ideal job of getting his teammates concerned, however his give attention to Saturday gave the impression to be placing his head down and getting the place he needed to go, shifting much less bodily gifted Hawks defenders out of the way in which with what gave the impression to be relative ease.
Brown was coming off three comparatively inefficient sub-30-point video games, which — by his requirements this season — counts as a chilly stretch. His customary could also be unreasonably excessive at this level, however to be truthful, he’s the one who put it up there by declaring himself the perfect two-way participant on this planet. An MVP candidate can undergo a quieter stretch, however to maintain himself within the dialog, he must bounce again in an enormous means, and Saturday’s recreation was an ideal begin.
The loss to the Spurs confirmed the boundaries of what even Brown can do when attacking one of the crucial distinctive and devastating defensive presences the NBA has seen. The win over Miami confirmed what the Celtics can do when another person takes over for Brown on an off night time.
However Saturday’s recreation was an emphatic reminder that the Celtics revolve round Brown this season, even when others get themselves going. Brown warps the protection, and he provides the offense each a focus when issues are going proper and an outlet when issues are going improper.
Brown called the experience of seeing his quantity retired “surreal.” Hopefully he loved himself, as a result of the probabilities are very excessive that it’ll not be the final time in his life that he watches his jersey raised to the rafters of an enviornment, and the following one must be lifted loads increased.
Sam Hauser caught fireplace (after which tried a bit of too arduous)
Sam Hauser appears to have discovered his taking pictures stroke, and he almost made Celtics historical past.
Hauser completed with 30 factors, all on 3-pointers. He shot 10-for-21 from deep, and his taking pictures helped push the Celtics into an enormous first-half lead, after which turned the second half of the sport right into a joke, which is without doubt one of the greatest issues about Hauser’s ability set — few different gamers can utterly alter the trajectory of a contest over a four-minute span, and generally Hauser does it just a few occasions in a recreation.
The Celtics’ file for 3-pointers made in a single recreation was set by Marcus Good in 2020, a really humorous piece of Celtics lore on condition that Good was all the time much more satisfied of his means to make 3-pointers than anybody else, together with the individuals who calculate advanced stats like “3-point proportion.” That Good bought sizzling sufficient to carry the file for a franchise that has employed the likes of Larry Chicken, Ray Allen, and any variety of different shooters within the 3-point-happy Joe Mazzulla period is a stat that we right here hope stands for a few years nonetheless merely for comedic functions.
Hauser did his greatest to barge within the historical past books within the fourth quarter — his tenth 3-pointer was very deep curling off a display screen above the break — however the file stubbornly refused to fall.
Hauser was clearly nicely conscious of the summit he was near reaching, and he began firing up pictures at any time when he touched the ball. He missed 4 wild makes an attempt which appeared to value him fairly a little bit of his power, and when two natural alternatives got here to him throughout the stream of the offense, he left each of these quick as nicely.
The lesson, as all the time: By no means chase a statistical achievement, as a result of the extra you need it, the extra possible it’s to elude you.
Hauser was, in fact, phenomenal. When he will get in a rhythm, his 3-pointer is a factor of magnificence.
Derrick White is a defensive menace
White had an odd recreation offensively — he scored simply seven factors and took simply 4 pictures, however he completely picked the Hawks aside along with his passing. He dished out 12 assists and appeared in full management of the sport towards a Hawks protection that had few solutions and seemingly little or no motivation to seek out any. The Celtics made 22 3-pointers, and White’s fast passing arrange seven of them.
Defensively, White made three notably impactful performs (if any play in what was at one level a 43-point blowout might be thought-about “notably” impactful). Two have been in transition, poking the ball away from Jalen Johnson because the Hawks star tried to get out and run. These sorts of steals usually are not solely infuriating for the offensive participant, in addition they reverse a quick break in its tracks.
White additionally picked off a go on the primary play of the second half and ran it again for a layup, setting the tone for the second half. On the time, the Celtics held a 31-point lead. If there was any query as as to if the Hawks have been going to discover a option to whittle it down earlier than the Celtics’ starters have been eliminated, White eliminated them with one fell swoop.
Baylor Scheierman bought the beginning and performed nicely
With Payton Pritchard sidelined resulting from an ankle damage, Scheierman stepped in and stuffed his position admirably with 9 factors, together with three 3-pointers. Scheierman’s means to deal with the ball in transition is useful, his measurement and lateral motion make him a extremely strong defensive choice, and he seems to be working arduous on an identical no-dip 3-pointer to the one which we see Hauser hoist once in a while.
In your periodic replace on the weird musical chairs Mazzulla appears to be taking part in along with his wing rotation, Scheierman and Hugo González performed 32 and half-hour respectively, whereas Jordan Walsh performed 11. Josh Minott obtained one more DNP-CD.
Jayson Tatum LOVES the Anfernee Simons expertise
When Simons went wild towards the Warmth and dragged the Celtics again for an essential win, Tatum might be seen overlaying his face along with his arms and working up the sideline.
Within the first half, after Simons buried a closely contested three proper in a defender’s face, Simons and Tatum got here nose to nose, and Tatum shoved Simons in celebration.
Simons adopted up his 39-point masterpiece in Miami with a quieter 14-point night time on 5-for-10 taking pictures as Brown and Hauser exploded, however he briefly ignited within the second quarter in the course of the stretch when the Celtics began to place actual distance between themselves and the Hawks.
Jayson Tatum seems to be absolutely aligned with this author on the Anfernee Simons expertise: Preserve him round. Scorers of his high quality merely aren’t straightforward to seek out.
What’s subsequent
Regardless of dropping three of 4 to the Nuggets, Spurs and Pacers, the Celtics are nonetheless second within the East, main the flailing Knicks by 1.5 video games after Saturday’s win.
With Saturday’s beatdown behind them, the Celtics can now check out Monday’s monster showdown: An 8 p.m. recreation towards the Pistons in Detroit on NBC and Peacock. They are going to then return dwelling for a one-off recreation towards the Pacers Wednesday earlier than hitting the highway once more for an odd back-to-back in Brooklyn and Chicago subsequent Friday and Saturday.
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