1. Jayson Tatum is Back
After 298 Days, Jayson Tatum is back playing with the Boston Celtics. TD Garden was buzzing hours before the game and once we heard his name in the starting lineup again, it felt like an ethereal experience. In his first game back Tatum played 27 minutes and finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists on 6-16 shooting from the field and 3-8 shooting from three.
Tatum started the game shooting
0-6 before scoring his first points of the season with a put-back dunk. The following possession, Tatum was able to fake, slide, and hit his patented side-step three to make the TD Garden go into a frenzy. He ended the first half with 5 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.
The second half saw Tatum trying to be more aggressive hunting his shot. He was able to cut through the defense to find his shots and make two tough catch-and-shoot threes over good contests from the Mavericks.
The most impressive part about Tatum’s return for me was his 7 assists. Even if the shot wasn’t falling, Tatum still looked to make the right play and his gravity alone allowed the Celtics to have a ton of wide open shots.
Postgame Tatum talked about being a step slow or a little too fast a few plays but that is expected coming off the injury. He described his return as “surreal” and said “This is a huge step. I’ve still got a long ways to go.” Tonight was a very special night but when Joe Mazzulla hugged him as he checked out for the final time, you knew that it was official: Jayson Tatum is back.
2. Jaylen Brown is Still Great
Leading up to this game, people were rehashing the age old debate between Jaylen Brown vs Jayson Tatum. They would ask “who’s team it was” or “who is the better player.” To quote the great Derrick White on his podcast: “As long as we win, I don’t care who 1A and 1B is” and guess what, the Celtics won.
This brings us to Jaylen Brown’s performance that looked pretty great alongside Jayson Tatum if you could believe it, finishing with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals on 9-17 shooting from the field and 2-5 from three. Brown looked absolutely fired up coming off a rough game against the Hornets and it looked like he fed off of the energy of the sold out TD Garden crowd.
This game gave me flashbacks to the 2024 NBA Finals, partly because they were playing the Mavericks, but really because of the aggression that Brown had when he drove to the basket. Whether he ended in a normal layup, a euro, or a dunk, Brown made it look effortless and it was a treat to watch.
3. Derrick White Hot Shooting Continues
Coming off a good game in the loss to the Hornets on Wednesday, Derrick White continued his hot shooting stretch as of late, finishing with 20 points on 8-16 shooting from the field. White did shoot 2-7 on threes but that wasn’t the part of his game that stood out. To me, it was the fact that he had Jaylen Brown like performance when it came to driving to the paint.
White had to be feeling the energy from the crowd because we saw him throw down two dunks in this game. On these dunks he did a great job when it came to driving hard to the basket and cutting. White has done a great job in the pick-and-roll this season but normally it ends with a pass to the roller. Instead, he decided to take the shots coming off the screen and was able to finish with a lot of easy baskets.
4. Monster Neemias Queta Game
Neemias Queta looked to have gotten injured in his last game against the Hornets, only playing 16 minutes and finishing with 2 points and 2 rebounds. Queta looked fine in this matchup against the Mavericks, finishing with a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds on 6-8 shooting.
We saw a glimpse of what the pick-and-roll looked like with Queta and Tatum where it looked like they have the potential to build some great chemistry. Neemias Queta is one of the best screeners in the game and when you pair that with an elite passer of Jayson Tatum’s caliber, it is going to make some beautiful basketball. He also did a great job when it came to finishing tough looks but Boston did a great job overall of finding open shots for Queta and it paid off big time.
5. Nikola Vucevic Injury
Midway through the first quarter, Nikola Vucevic hurt his hand after caught this pass. He looked to have hit his hand on the Mavericks defender and that is what caused the injury.
Later on during the game, Shams reported that Vucevic is expected to miss approximately one month with a fractured his right ring finger is expected to undergo a procedure on Saturday. This is a big loss to the Celtics in a few ways. One is the fact that they just won’t have his production available but the biggest thing is now he will have even less time to develop chemistry with Jayson Tatum. Vucevic is a veteran so I am sure he will be able to adapt but this is just a tough blow.
6. Luka Garza Stepped Up
To replace the production of Vucevic, Luka Garza stepped up in a big way. In 18 minutes off the bench, Garza finished with 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks. On offense Garza did a great job of being open and ready to shoot. This resulted in many plays where Boston found him open and he was able to make something happen. On defense, he was great at protecting the rim and contesting shots.
I have faith that Garza will be able to do a great job filling in for Nikola Vucevic over the next month. He was playing some great basketball before the Celtics made the move for Vucevic and has continued to impress in his time since.
7. Back to Celtics Basketball
The Celtics loss to the Hornets on Wednesday felt like a complete anomaly to the brand of basketball that we are used to seeing. Boston not only lost the turnover battle but they also just looked sluggish which is uncharacteristic of this group. However, they bounced back in a big way against the Mavericks, going back to their brand of basketball.
Boston only turned the ball over 8 times and were able to force 10 against Dallas. The Celtics defense was also locked in, blocking 10 shots and forcing 6 steals. They also shot 47-99 (48%) from the field, showcasing an offense that was clicking on all cylinders. Jaylen Brown said post game against Charlotte to “flush” the loss and I would say they did a pretty good job of that in this win over Dallas.
8. Dominated the Paint
A huge part of the Celtics success in this game was their dominance in the paint. On the boards, they out-rebounded the Mavericks 58-45, with 14 of those coming as offensive rebounds.
Boston did a great job on the offensive side as well, winning the points in the paint battle 52-30. Underneath the basket, the Celtics shot 21-27 (77.8%), doing a great job of finishing after that was a point of emphasis in their loss against Charlotte. Overall, the Celtics just outmuscled the Mavericks tonight on both sides of the ball, leading to their victory.
9. Cooper Flagg Homecoming
Cooper Flagg born in Newport, Maine and was a huge Celtics fan. He said in an interview, “I’m excited. I know there’s going to be a lot of people showing up from Maine & showing support. I’m really excited just to be up there for the first time & play in that arena. It’s the only arena I went to as a little kid. I’m really excited to get an opportunity & I’m just blessed.” You could tell there were a lot of people from Maine in the building because he got a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd, as a member of the road team.
This his first chance to play against his childhood team and he struggled, finishing with 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists on 7-23 shooting from the field and 0-4 from three. Flagg had a scary fall early in the game but was able to play through it. Boston did a great job of slowing him down and forcing him to take tough shots after he dropped 36 points in their first matchup of the season on February 3rd.
Although it probably wasn’t his ideal first game in TD Garden, Flagg said post game that it was a “cool experience” to be back in the place that he grew up going to games and thinks it will be “incredibly fun” to come back to Boston for the rest of his career.
10. TD Garden was rocking
The hype for this game was at an all time high and the Celtics fans in the building brought the energy. From the first time Tatum ran out of the tunnel, the crowd went nuts. When they announced Tatum in the starting lineup the crowd went into a frenzy. Finally, any time Tatum touched the ball the crowd wanted to blow the roof off of the place.
This had the atmosphere of an NBA Finals game and being in the building to experience this historic night in Boston Celtics history was incredible. You could see the players feed off the energy and use it to go on some insurmountable runs like their 36-12 run from the 4:16 mark of the third quarter to the 5:12 mark of the fourth quarter.
Boston knows when a moment is a special and can get loud to a level that not many other cities around the NBA can. This is why Celtics fans are the best fans in the world.
