#1 – Continuity or convenience?
For the second straight game, Joe chose to roll with a starting lineup of Pritchard, White, Brown, Minott, and Queta as the Celtics hosted the Cavs at TD Garden.
Prior to the start of the season, the CelticsBlog
writers all postulated about what the starting five should be, and while consensus anointed Sam Hauser as the nominal power forward, it seems that in a league that’s becoming more frenetic than ever, Josh Minott may have gone from an end-of-bench player in Minnesota to a vital part of a feisty Boston team for this new NBA season. I don’t know if this starting five is set in stone. Minott did an excellent job guarding Evan Mobley tonight, and there’s a chance that Mazzulla realized pre-game that Hauser against a Cavs double-big lineup may be a recipe for disaster but after tonight, it’s going to be very difficult to take Minott’s starting spot away.
#2 – Minott sets the tone
Less than a minute into the contest, Cleveland ran a Hunter–Allen pick-and-roll, and with Jaylen Brown getting caught on Allen’s screen, it looked like Neemias Queta would have a lot to do to stop Cleveland’s big man from making an easy two as he rumbled down the lane.
Cue Josh Minott. Minott slid over from the weak side in good time, leaving Evan Mobley open in the corner, and vacuumed up any space Allen thought he was privy to. As Allen got into his up-fake bag, Minott remained vertical, remained strong, stuffing Allen’s shot and corralling the rebound in an instant. Not satisfied, Josh cavorted downcourt, navigating pressure, leading his own one-man fast break, and got aggressive, taking the ball all the way to the rim to finish off glass in a crowded Cleveland paint. See it for yourself down below:
Prior to the start of the season in interviews with the media Mazzula was explicit in saying that he wanted this Celtics team to play with pace. While this roster may not have as much shooting talent or creation upside as in previous years, Boston can win this year by outworking and outrunning opponents on a night to night basis. Josh Minott may be the player to embody that.
#3 – Fireman Sam
Whilst last nights win served as a Josh Minott coming out party, Sam Hauser, Minott’s main rival for the four spot, was pivotal in keeping Boston in the game early. Hauser equalled Donovan Mitchell in first quarter scoring, lighting the Cavs up for 15 all inside the first twelve minutes of action. The first of which ended a four minute, twenty-eight second spell, in which Boston had only made one jump shot having started the game off brightly in the opening ninety seconds.
Hauser immediately changed the game for Boston. Ending a real barren spell of offence in which loooks were forced rather than found. Balancing the need for athleticism and the spacing Sam provides to jumpstart this C’s offence will be one of the biggest challenges Joe faces this year.
I do think it’s important to note that far more than a sweet stroke goes into Hauser’s proficiency from the corners. Watch his next few three’s from that first quarter to see what I mean:
As much as Pritchard runs the show in the clip above, the connective passing that had sewn together so many plays last season as Boston put teams in the drive and kick blender was clear to see from Hauser. The flash from wing to corner bails Pritchard out of trouble and the poise to stay put as De’Andre Hunter went to help with the Payton drive allowed Sam to knock down his second corner three in the space of twenty seconds.
The subtle movements were on display again for the third three of the quarter. Hauser working his way from baseline to baseline Danny Green style as Luka Garza found him this time in the right corner:
The fourth was the best of the bunch. The ultimate sign of a sharpshooter from below the break is the infinitely cool “no-dip three”. If you were to look up no-dip three’s in the basketball dictionary this effort from Hauser may just appear as the definition:
Both Hauser and Minott had great starts to this game and in doing so posed that difficult but welcome question of who should claim that starting berth. Let me know who you’d be rolling with down below.
#4 – Payton (Steve Nash) Pritchard
Perhaps this one is a little bit overzealous, but Payton’s playmaking leapt off the screen against Cleveland last night and is worth taking note of. Prior to this season, Pritchard’s career high in assists per game was 3.5. Against New Orleans earlier in the week, Pritch recorded eight assists, and in the first half alone against the Cavs, he recorded nine! Whilst the three-ball isn’t falling quite yet, all the signs are there to show us that Payton can handle that additional playmaking burden as the roster relies more heavily upon his ball-handling and passing ability.
Pritchard was pivotal in setting up the first few Hauser shots of the evening, and he laid on decent opportunities for JB in transition, but my favourite pass of the night from PP was a well-timed bounce pass to Sam Hauser cutting from the corner.
It doesn’t get recorded on the stat sheet, but these are the kinds of reads that primary ball handlers have to make night after night. I loved watching Lonzo zip the ball around for the Cavs yesterday, and Pritch seems to be making great strides in creating plays — nurturing them as opposed to finishing them, as he has done so successfully in the past for this C’s team. Last night’s ten-assist, one-turnover outing shows this better than any game of Pritchard’s 25/26 so far.
#5 – The Cavs disrespected our handoff game
Last night was an overwhelmingly positive game for the Celtics, but I did feel that some of our weaknesses were highlighted by a strong Eastern Conference team. It felt to me like Boston were far more comfortable operating out of drive-and-kick or isolation last night because the Cavaliers ratcheted up the pressure when Neemias Queta had the ball in his hands above the break for Boston.
Those handoff play-type possessions only led to two of Boston’s nine turnovers, but the majority of the time that Boston tried to play out of the handoff, the Celtics’ offense looked stifled.
To start the game, the Cavaliers were pressuring these play types, not allowing anything to come easy, perhaps realizing that the Celtics are trying to incorporate that handoff action into their offensive arsenal this season, and five minutes in, that pressure paid dividends:
Later on in the first quarter Luka Garza handed off to Anfernee Simons instantly trapping him on the baseline, creating that second turnover:
If Boston wants to find success in running handoff action this season, one of two paths has to be chosen. Option A would be leaning into far more deliberate action. When Denver faced off with Oklahoma City last year in the postseason, it felt to me as though Nikola Jokić and David Adelman eliminated as many opportunities for mistakes as possible. Whereas Denver may have typically run three-man sequences with MPJ cutting and screening for Jamal Murray to break free during the season, to keep turnovers down that handoff game was run very carefully by Jamal and Nikola every single time. It stifled some of the creativity and spontaneity of the Denver offense, but it also stopped OKC from generating turnovers at their usual rate, evening up the series. Boston could take a page out of the Nuggets’ playbook and operate with that same methodical approach through the season.
Option B would be to ramp up the pace and intensity with which they run the action. I struggled to pull clips showing Boston’s handoff game because they didn’t really create the advantages that lead to highlights that get cut up for us to peruse after the game. To me, this is because there was real hesitancy in running that offense. Whether it was Neemias Queta pondering whom to release from above the break or a perimeter trigger man taking a second too long to initiate the action, it felt as though Boston weren’t one hundred percent confident in playing that style of basketball. If decisions are quickened and intensity is layered in, more turnovers may come, but more advantages will be generated at the same time.
#6 – Board brothers
I think a lot of us worried, looking at this game on the calendar, seeing that Boston’s new-look frontcourt would be facing off against a super high-level twin-towers pairing in Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Given the Celtics’ rebounding struggles to start the year, I worried that this game would be lost on the boards, but on the contrary, that’s where Boston won the contest. Josh Minott and Neemias Queta became the first Celtics duo to grab thirteen rebounds apiece last night since Rob Williams III and Tristan Thompson back in March 2021.
Queta and Minott bullied and outworked both Allen and, particularly, Mobley last night, bringing a level of physicality that the Cleveland duo just weren’t ready for. In the first half, Boston only allowed two offensive rebounds: a far cry from the twelve that New York grabbed in the first half of our season opener.
Jaylen was also impressive, flying through bodies to grab tough, contested boards, high-pointing from the sky on a number of occasions. But there’s a reason why Neemias Queta was a team-high +25 for Boston last night. Together with Minott, they controlled the glass and gave the C’s the platform to win this game.
#7 – Jaylen Brown, our fearless leader
Man, JB is a phenomenal basketball player. On a night where Brian Scalabrine was asking how he could watch Brown on Twitch #7 baldly, sorry boldly, led the charge as Boston smashed the conference favorites. Sixty percent from the field, four of nine from three, thirty points in just under thirty-two minutes. The statline is a glorious one for JB but even prior to covering the Celtics I’ve always felt that Brown is a moments man. Jaylen’s ability to snowball a lead, press home advanatge and light a building on fire is up there with anyone in the league and to close the second quarter against Cleveland he was truly electric.
Following a timeout from Joe at the 3:51 mark, Brown spearheaded a 20-3 run, grabbing two rebounds, making two free throws and scoring four mighty buckets. The first two were great but in the final twenty seconds of the quarter watch the man of the moment:
If you look closely in the second clip you can see the smoke, fire and lightning bolts that Jaylen is exuding. That man was hot!
A big player for the big moment. TD Garden was electric, and the Celts went into half time up by fifteen. Jaylen Brown, take a bow.
#8 – The good and the bad of Luka Garza
To close out his college career Luka Garza won back to back Sporting News Player of the Year awards. The first player to do so since… You guessed it, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. A supremely talented offensive player in college; Luka showed us why he was worthy of those accolades in the third last night.
A series of moves and a sweet post hook that Kevin McHale would’ve been proud of. Luka was a strong offensive presence for the Celts last night, particularly when catching in floater range. But there’s a reason he’s not quite on track to be a six-time MVP like MJ , on the very next possession, we saw this:
I love Luka Garza. I got to say hello to him during Summer League on the concourse, and he was happy, albeit confused, to be told that he looks like a war hero from World War Two. But there are definite limitations to his game, and that and-one wasn’t the hardest to come by for Jaylon Tyson. There’s a reason Queta has the starting job for the Celts this season.
#9 – A second half slog
The first half of that game last night was as entertaining and high-energy as any you’ll see at the Garden this season. Combined, in the first quarter, Cleveland and Boston made eighteen threes! The ball pressure was rampant, and, as mentioned above, Boston controlled the glass through really high effort and energy from Minott and Queta.
While Minott may be America’s next best source of energy behind oil and gas, I felt like Neemy got a little tired (as did everyone) during the second half last night. We allowed six offensive rebounds in the third quarter and shot 29.2% from the field. If Cleveland had their druthers, perhaps a second-half comeback could have been on the cards, but they too only shot 33.3% from the field.
After an electric start, the game petered out (thankfully), but against more motivated opponents, Boston could run into trouble in the future.
#10 – We’re not going away
While Indiana have got off to an 0-4 start this season, last night’s performance showed that Boston will not relent this year. A gap year to some, a Tim Duncan–style tank year to others, this team has talent, commitment, and ambitions of staying a great basketball team this year. They’re going to stick around and fight for a spot in the postseason, and if the games are anything like last night, we’re in for a treat.
