1. Jaylen Brown Big 2nd Half
After his 3o point streak came to an end against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, Jaylen Brown started the game off cold in the first half against the Kings, scoring 10 points and shooting 4-12 from the field. Then after halftime Brown found his stroke as he scored 11 points in the third quarter and 8 big points in the fourth quarter to help close out the win for the Celtics.
You could tell Brown had a different energy about him on his first basket of the second half when he put Precious Achiuwa in the weight
room underneath the basket for a layup.
I would say his best baskets of the game came in the fourth quarter when the Celtics needed them most. His first bucked of the quarter was a fadeaway jumper over Keon Ellis where he was fouled and hit the And-1. Brown’s other basket was him once again bulldozing his way past Dennis Schroder to the paint and finishing a nice layup over the out stretched arms of Keegan Murray.
2. Derrick White 4th Quarter Closer
Although Derrick White was making an impact on defense, he had a rough first three quarters of this game on offense. With 2 points on 1-6 shooting it was looking like a bad night for White, until the fourth quarter hit and he turned into 2017 Isaiah Thomas. White had 14 points in the fourth quarter and squashed any chance of the Kings making a comeback.
Fourth Quarter Derrick White made his first appearance at the 10:45 mark of the quarter as after Hugo Gonzalez made a great athletic play to keep the ball in bounds, White hit a three over a late closeout by Maxime Raynaud. His second basket came on a great play design where Luka Garz and Sam Hauser set a screen for White as he took on Raynaud under the basket for a nice finish on a layup.
You could tell White was feeling it on his last two baskets of the game. The first came when the Kings were trying to switch Raynaud off of White but he buried a deep three over the contest of Keegan Murray. His second shot was an incredible isolation midrange pull up that had Raynaud in hell trying to guard him.
3. Neemias Queta Revenge Game
On September 12th, 2023 the Sacramento Kings waived Neemias Queta after he played 20 games over 2 seasons. On the NBC Sports Boston broadcast, they said that his lack of being able to navigate the pick and role quickly was a reason the Kings gave for waiving him. Boston put a claim for Queta on September 17th, 2023 and he has turned into a starting caliber center for one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
This game was a chance for Queta to show the Kings what they gave up on and he had a solid game, finishing with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks on 5-6 shooting. One of the plays that stood out to me the most in this game was at the 7:44 mark of the first quarter where Queta ran the two man game with Derrick White to perfection. After setting the screen, White found Queta cutting to the basket on a bounce pass and Queta finished with a dunk through contact for an And-1.
My other favorite play of the night from Queta came at the 3:54 mark of the second quarter. Jaylen Brown dribbled into traffic and passed the ball out to Queta who had to reach out for it to save a turnover. Queta then turned around and like a rocket threw down a monstrous dunk that made Precious Achiuwa move out of the way to avoid a poster.
4. Celtics Bench Stepped Up
The bench has been inconsistent for parts of the season so far for the Celtics but in this game vs the Kings they really stepped up big time. Sam Hauser, Luka Garza, Anfernee Simons, Hugo Gonzalez, and Baylor Scheierman in total scored 46 points on 17-29 (59%) shooting from the field and 12-17 (71%) from three. This scoring out put from the bench was huge in the first half with Brown and White struggling. A cool stat to keep track of via Steve Bullpett on X, the Celtics have improved to 15-3 when the bench scores at least 35 points and 16-2 when the non-starters deliver at least seven three pointers.
In Derrick White’s postgame interview he praised the bench saying: “All year they’ve been huge for us. They come in, kind of change the game, bring energy, 50-50 balls, make shots. They do a little bit of everything for us…We’re a complete team and we need everybody.” Overall a great showing from the second unit.
5. Big Sam Hauser Game
There are times where Sam Hauser can seriously be the Celtics most dangerous offensive player on the floor and tonight was a great example. Hauser finished with 15 points and 5 rebounds on 5-7 shooting from three as he was on fire all night long.
Hauser’s second three of the game was the first that really impressed me as the entire play was beautiful. As Hauser was going around a perfect screen set by Luka Garza, Derrick White made a bullet pass into the corner and all one motion led to a wide open three.
A good example of how dangerous Hauser can be when he’s hot came at the 9:00 minute mark of the third quarter. After getting a pass from Pritchard, Hauser pump faked DeMar DeRozan and relocated to the wing where he was able to get off a wide open three.
6. Luka Garza is Awesome
Luka Garza has been playing some of his best basketball of his NBA career over this most recent stretch of games. NBC Sports Boston ran a segment on him during the game where they said in the Celtics last five games, their Net Rating was a +29 when Garza was on the court, which is absolutely insane. Garza once again found success against the Kings as he finished with 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals on 5-6 shooting.
A good example of the development of Garza over this recent stretch of games came at the 8:11 mark of the third quarter. Garza set a great screen on Keon Ellis and cut to the basket where Derrick White found him on a bounce pass. Then for maybe the first time all season, Garza went up and dunked the ball with one hand, giving the Celtics their first lead of the game and forcing the Kings to call a timeout.
Garza’s development in the Celtics system kind of reminds me of the way Luke Kornet was able to evolve his game. I don’t think Garza will turn into a rim-running God like Kornet, but Boston’s player development staff has definitely turned him into a playable big man and that is all the Celtics need right now.
7. Beasts in the Paint
The Celtics had a great night when it came to both scoring points in the paint and rebounding the ball. Boston scored 50 points in the paint in total and won the rebounding battle 40-32. It was also good to see them finish with 6 blocks as their defense was locking down. The only real failure they had in this position was in the fourth quarter when Hugo Gonzalez smoked a fast break layup and Joe Mazzulla called a timeout immediately after to yell at him about not dunking it. This wasn’t the main reason Mazzulla called the timeout as it was a use it or lose it situation but it was both a lighthearted and good teaching moment for the rookie.
8. Kings Three Point Luck Ran Out
When the Celtics played the Pacers they were able to find success early in the game due to a hot start from beyond the arc despite being one of the worst three point shooting teams in the league. They eventually regressed to the mean in the second half, leading to Boston being able to win. The Kings followed a similar sentiment in this game, shooting 12-26 (46%) from three through the first three quarters of the game despite averaging 10.7 a game on the season. The fourth quarter was where Sacramento’s luck ran out as they shot 0-10 from beyond the arc and the Celtics were able to take advantage of their slow offense to close out the win.
9. Another short night for Jordan Walsh
Jordan Walsh’s minutes have been very weird for a while now and it looked like he got benched after playing the first 5 minutes of the game and not seeing the court for the rest of the night. Walsh normally would only play a short amount of time in the first quarter when he got into foul trouble but that wasn’t the case tonight as he had no fouls. I don’t know if there was an illness or injury that wasn’t reported or if it was due to a lack of hustle when the Kings started the game hot but Mazzulla must have seen something that made him want to pull him from the game early.
The only thing I can think of when it came to his on the court play was when Walsh was blocked on a layup attempt and was late getting back on defense, leading to a put back layup for the Kings. I don’t know if this means anything for certain or the rest of the bench guys being on fire led to Mazzulla riding the hot hand but it is a confusing situation.
10. Celtics solidifying a rotation?
Joe Mazzulla ran a 9 man rotation in the Celtics win over the Kings and it makes you wonder if he’s finding a rotation that he wants to stick with. Mazzulla said earlier in the year that the rotations will always be changing but he’s been riding the same starting lineup for a while and found what looks like a good mix of bench minutes from Anfernee Simons, Sam Hauser, and Luka Garza with Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman coming in for energy at any amount of time.
I wonder if Walsh playing only 5 minutes and Josh Minott continuing to get DNPs means that Joe has found a rotation he likes and will be riding it for a while. Either way it is impressive to see Mazzulla push all of the right buttons on any given night and find enough minutes for the Celtics have a 21-12 record.
