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In this march (and April) to the playoffs, head coach Joe Mazzulla has been checking items off his to-do list.
First and foremost has been the assimilation of Jayson Tatum back into the rotation. It hasn’t exactly been seamless. There’s been the expected rust and acclimation to the speed
and timing of the NBA game. He’s had to get his legs underneath him and after fourteen games, he’s starting to look like he’s got his quick twitch back.
Second, Brown’s game has shifted slightly to more scoring and less playmaking with his partner-in-crime back into the fold. During his Player of the Week campaign, he averaged he averaged 31 points, 5.5 rebounds, and (still getting his teammates involved with) 5.8 assists.
Third, Mazzulla has also trimmed the rotation. Before Tatum’s return, the Celtics routinely went ten-deep. But with everybody back and the injury list clean, Boston has gone to an 8-to-9-man depth chart:
- Jaylen Brown
- Jayson Tatum
- Derrick White
- Neemias Queta
- Sam Hauser
- Payton Pritchard
- Luka Garza
- Baylor Scheierman
- Jordan Walsh
Now, with Nikola Vucevic back from a fractured finger that has had him out since Tatum’s return, will anything change? On Sunday, Vucevic replaced Garza in those backup big minutes. We’ve also seen Hugo Gonzalez effectively phased out over the last two weeks.
In a seven-game series, teams will systematically take things away and force teams to do something different. One of the benefits of this “gap year” has been getting intel for every player, from Jaylen Brown all the way down to Ron Harper Jr. who just signed a standard contract to be eligible for the playoffs. So, come Game 4, 5, 6, or even 7, Mazzulla could throw an unexpected curveball — or shall we say “uneXpected?”
X-factors have littered the Celtics long-storied history. Danny Ainge dusted off a retired P.J. Brown to join the 2008 run. The aptly named Xavier Tillman helped put Dallas on the brink in just twelve minutes in Game 3 of the Finals. Throughout the regular season, we’ve seen nearly every player either start or make an impact on the bench, so who’s your favorite x-factor heading into April, May, and June?
