Celtics enter All-Star break with 50-point blowout over Nets: 9 takeaways
How big was the blowout? Payton Pritchard scored 28 points, and Jordan Walsh got 1st-quarter minutes.
The Celtics smacked the Nets in their final game before the All-Star break on Wednesday, claiming a 136-86 blowout victory.
Here are the takeaways.
1. The Celtics led 7-0 after the first minute-and-a-half. They led 16-4 at 6:56 remaining in the first quarter after Sam Hauser’s pull-up baseline jumper. They led 24-8 after Derrick White’s floater with 4:02 left. They led 29-12 with 1:13 remaining after a three by Kristaps Porzingis. The only reason the Nets reached the teens in the first quarter is because Mikal Bridges buried a triple with 30 seconds remaining. Boston led 39-17 with 8:32 left in the half, and then they scored the next 13 points, capped off by Jayson Tatum’s triple 4:39 remaining. They reached 60 before the Nets reached 30. They went into halftime up 68-32 … and then scored the first nine points of the second half on back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers by White, Tatum and Hauser.
We say all that to say that Wednesday’s game was a beatdown from the opening tip. The Celtics played well, and the Nets played like 3 p.m. on the Friday before a week of PTO.
“Probably two of the hardest games to play in the NBA is a back-to-back right before the All-Star break, and I thought our guys handled both of those games really, really well,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I thought especially tonight, you couldn’t tell the score of the game based on our effort. And you can’t take stuff like that for granted.”
2. Mazzulla won his 100th game as coach of the Celtics in just his second season, and he was handed the game ball afterward by Tatum. Mazzulla looked genuinely happy as Tatum embraced him.
“I think it’s a testament to the people you have around you,” Mazzulla said. “I think in a business where individual success is highly talked about on a nightly basis, the box scores and stuff like that, to have a group of people that you can share your success with is important. It really starts with the players and I always tell them, I can’t be who I am if they don’t let me and I appreciate that. That’s a gift in coaching, you can always be in a situation where you don’t have empowerment, or you don’t have guys that allow you to be yourself.”
Kristaps Porzingis noted that it can be easy to write off Mazzulla’s success as a coach given the Celtics’ talent.
“I think he’s very underrated,” Porzingis said. “People don’t appreciate who he is and how he coaches because he’s very young, you can always blame it on him and stuff like that. But he’s a very underrated coach. Very underrated and different.”
3. Porzingis rolled his ankle in the first half on Cam Johnson’s foot, and he only played 16 minutes, but he assured reporters that his absence was due to the big lead.
“Nothing serious, was available for the second half,” Porzingis said. “The decision was made to keep me out.”
Porzingis scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting in his 16 minutes.
4. Derrick White led the Celtics’ starters with 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting, 5-for-10 from three – a fitting send off into the first All-Star break in which he had his first chance to make a roster.
“Just being in the conversation and hearing all that, that was good enough for me,” White said. “I knew it was probably going to be a long shot. But to be in the conversation was cool. Obviously, it would have been cool to play in the game, but I’m gonna enjoy this time off, spend some time with my family, and try to get ready for the second half. So I’m not too bummed out about it, but it was definitely cool to hear.”
A reporter asked White if the Celtics are having fun.
“Honestly, we’re all locked in and we know what the big goal is,” White said. “But it is a game, something that we’ve done since we were little kids. I think for most people, you play better when you’re having fun, competing but having fun with it. So that’s always a good reminder.”
5. Jordan Walsh got minutes in the first quarter, and he looked very uncomfortable on the offensive end. He missed a 3-pointer and blew a transition layup in cringe-inducing fashion, and he traveled as he started to drive to the basket – a common mistake by young players.
“Shoot the ball,” Mazzulla said, when asked what advice he gave to Walsh. “You can’t travel if you shoot it.”
Still, Walsh showed real flashes of the long, aggressive defensive player that he has the potential to be. After Mikal Bridges hit him with an early basket, he forced multiple tough shots, and he made dribbling a challenge on multiple occasions.
Mazzulla said the coaching staff wanted to reward a young player for his hard work and his openness to being coached.
“What you do in the G-League from a statistical standpoint is important, but it’s more important about your daily approach – your professionalism and your defense – and I think he’s just really, really grown in that area,” Mazzulla said. “In the games I’ve watched, and in the feedback from Maine, and his approach here with us, his defense has drastically improved.”
6. Here’s Oshae Brissett escaping for a windmill dunk in transition.
7. Payton Pritchard scored 28 points on 11-for-16 shooting, contributing both in garbage time and when the regular rotations were in place.
He knew he was close to 30.
“I wasn’t really pushing to get it,” he said. “I could’ve shot it at the end, too, but dumped it to Neemy to get a dunk. So it’s not that big of a deal.”
Pritchard has had a surprisingly large impact on the Celtics this season as part of a bench unit that has been much more competent
8. Luke Kornet finished with eight points, eight rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and a number of very funny segments on NBC Sports Boston as their mic’d up player of the game. We could encourage you to watch them.
There is something very refreshing about someone who is comfortable being himself and playing his game. Many of Kornet’s jokes seem to largely be for his own amusement, which makes it doubly impressive that they have crossover appeal for everyone else.
You know, historically speaking.
9. The Celtics will be back in action in one week when they take on the Bulls in Chicago at 8 p.m.
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