Boston Celtics
Queta led Boston with 24 factors Saturday.
It didn’t all the time look fairly, however the Celtics dealt with enterprise at residence towards the Wizards on Saturday night time, 111-100, thanks largely to Neemias Queta.
Listed here are the takeaways:
Neemias Queta dominated the paint.
Washington had no solutions for Queta on Saturday.
Boston’s beginning middle completed with a team-high 24 factors and went 11 for 13 from the sphere. He added 10 rebounds and two blocks, making his presence felt everywhere in the paint.
He bought nearly all of his work completed within the first half, scoring 22 factors in these first two frames.
Nikola Vucevic is lacking a majority of the common season along with his current hand harm, which suggests Queta should deal with a bigger workload for the foreseeable future. He had no points along with his 31 minutes on Saturday.
Jayson Tatum continues to be trying to find his deep ball.
Tatum’s night time was filled with small victories in his acclimation to the lineup. He performed 32 minutes — second most on the Celtics — and completed with a team-high 14 rebounds.
His Achilles doesn’t look like bothering him, and he posted 20 factors on the night time. What he’s nonetheless trying to find, although, seems to be his jumper, particularly from lengthy vary.
Tatum went 8 for 19 from the sphere and solely made two of his 9 3-point makes an attempt. He’s solely capturing 29 % from past the arc since returning.
His capturing vary has rounded out his sport for years now; with it, he’s a severe risk to attain from anyplace on the ground. He’s been out of sport motion for nearly 10 months, so it’ll take time to search out that rhythm once more.
The Celtics as a crew, weren’t a lot better.
To Tatum’s credit score, no one in Boston’s lineup had any success from 3-point territory towards the Wizards.
Sam Hauser went 4 for 11 and his solely area purpose makes an attempt had been 3s. Jaylen Brown didn’t see one undergo the ring, capturing 0 for five from downtown. Pritchard adopted swimsuit at 0-4. Exterior of Luka Garza, who went 2 for two, Derrick White had the very best 3-point proportion on Saturday, going 3 for 8.
Boston depends so closely on 3-point capturing that it’s laborious to think about the way it scored 111 factors with out that degree of success. It additionally goes to indicate how ugly Saturday’s sport may have gotten if the Celtics caught fireplace at any level.
Luka Garza gave Boston 15 strong minutes.
Talking of Garza, his quick time on the ground was very significant to Boston’s success. He scored 15 factors in quarter-hour on environment friendly capturing (83 % from the sphere, one hundred pc from three, 75 % on free throws).
Like Queta, Garza has the good thing about added minutes whereas Vucevic is out of the lineup. And like Queta, he was actually as much as the duty on Saturday.
The Celtics held Wizards stars in test.
The principle purpose Boston’s spotty offense wasn’t a difficulty Saturday is as a result of Washington’s offense was even spottier.
The Celtics held each of the Wizards stars, Alex Sarr and Trae Younger, in test on Saturday. Sarr completed with simply 4 factors, going 1 for 9 from the sphere, and Younger had 11 factors however by no means bought going from lengthy vary, the place he can do his actual injury. He was solely in a position to try two 3s, and missed each.
Guards will all the time have a tall job towards the Celtics between matchups with White and Brown as a rule. However Sarr is a former No. 2 general choose and was utterly outmatched by Queta on Saturday, which speaks volumes to Queta’s growth on each ends of the ground.
Payton Pritchard struggled.
Pritchard has stretches of brilliance the place you surprise if he might be a future All-Star if handed the keys to an NBA offense. After which he has nights like Saturday.
Nothing appeared to go Pritchard’s means on the Backyard. His three wasn’t falling, and neither was his jumper generally. The guard went 2 for 11 from the sphere and didn’t ever get to the free throw line. He did tally 4 assists, however the offense wasn’t coming straightforward for him towards the Wizards. His most notable stat line on Saturday was his two steals.
The week forward.
Boston has one other jam-packed week forward of it with 5 consecutive matchups towards Western Convention groups. It’ll host the Suns on Monday and the Warriors Wednesday at TD Backyard.
After that, the Celtics will hit the street for the weekend to battle the Grizzlies Friday and Timberwolves on Sunday.
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