Jrue Holiday is the Celtics’ glue. His selfless play is worthy of a salute.
The five-time All-Defensive selection and two-time All-Star has come to Boston and carried himself like an unassuming role player, here to do whatever is best for the team in a given situation.
Jrue is the glue.
Oh sure, Derrick White is too, of course. We know this, and we’ve known this for a while, even before Brad Stevens altered the roster and chemistry in all the right ways in the offseason.
The Celtics wouldn’t have rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit — or a remaining 8-point hole with just under eight minutes remaining — in Monday’s victory over the Pelicans had White not awakened from his shooting slumber, scoring 13 points on five shots in a 4:03 span starting midway through the fourth quarter.
But White has received his due acclaim this season as someone who plays basketball The Right Way. He is an incredibly easy player to root for.
The same is true of Holiday. And I wouldn’t say it has gone unnoticed per se, but the sacrifices and adjustments he has made to fit in with the Celtics warrant a salute. He is a five-time All-Defensive selection, a two-time All-Star, and the lone player on this Celtics roster who has earned a championship ring, which he achieved as the second-best player on the 2020-21 Bucks.
And yet for all that he has accomplished, he has come to Boston and carried himself like an unassuming role player, here to do whatever is best for the team in a given situation. He is a more talented Marcus Smart, with more conscience and less chaos. And though his role, skill set, and demeanor are different, his Celtics-first approach is somewhat reminiscent of what James Posey brought to the Collectors of the 17th Banner 16 years ago.
It is not a surprise that Holiday has taken this approach in his 15th NBA season. (How in the name of Hasheem Thabeet did a player of his defensive skill fall all the way to No. 17 in the 2009 draft?) He’s renowned for his selflessness, and has been named Twyman-Stokes NBA Teammate of the Year three times in the past four years.
But the expectation of it doesn’t make it any less fun to witness, in part because there aren’t a lot of decorated players who are willing to shape-shift based on what their team needs in a particular circumstance.
I’m not sure there’s a perfect parallel for what he’s doing. It’s kind of like Ray Allen sacrificing shots for the 2008 Celtics … and Tim Wakefield taking one for the team in Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS … Troy Brown and later Julian Edelman playing defensive back when the Patriots were a bit short in the secondary.
The Celtics’ 118-112 victory over the Pelicans offered a good example of Holiday’s adaptability in the pursuit of victory. White’s torrid streak in the fourth quarter was crucial in securing the win, and Jayson Tatum (28 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) and Jaylen Brown (22 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists) filled up the box score and wore out the Pelicans.
But it was Holiday who picked up the offensive slack in the middle frames, scoring 8 points in the second quarter — the frame Joe Mazzulla identified as the point when his team came to life — and another 12 in the third, when the Celtics’ intensity ratcheted up another notch. He also often had the unenviable task of playing the obstruction to Zion Williamson’s wrecking ball, and at the least contributed to wearing out the super-talented but not always serious big fella.
Holiday, and White too, were out there again Tuesday night in the 129-124 win over the Pacers, making assorted winning plays the way Dennis Johnson did so often in the ‘80s. A block followed leading to a pull-up 3 with just over 9 minutes left in the first half … A steal and a clever one-handed bounce-pass to Jaylen Brown for a dunk 6 minutes later … a relentless defensive sequence with less than a minute to play and the Celtics up 127-124 that led to a White block and eventually a shot-clock violation. Winning plays. Holiday plays.
Holiday’s selflessness — save for the occasional misguided 3-pointer early in the shot clock — bonds this team. The biggest reason to believe that the Celtics can collect that elusive 18th banner this year is the addition of Kristaps Porzingis, a high-post cheat code who is worth 2 points every time his teammates remember to activate him. He offers an element this team has not had in its previous unfulfilled championship quests.
Maybe this is nuts, but I’m just fine with Porzingis missing as much time as needed with this ankle injury, if only because it minimizes the possibility of a more damaging injury before the postseason. The Celtics, at 36-11, don’t need him now. They need him when the possibilities and stakes are real.
The other reason that this feels different from championship quests of the recent past? Tatum and Brown trust their teammates. They know that if they give the ball up, there’s a better-than-decent chance it ends up back in their hands in a better spot. They trust White, a near-flawless decision-maker. They trust Porzingis, who plays with much more of an edge and is a more deft passer than his reputation suggested.
And they trust Holiday, a champion before, who is doing everything he can — even if it means doing a little less than he is capable of — to become a champion again.
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