Not beating the Bulls, I think we all figured that would happen.
Well last night even I can admit, the tournament aspect of the game was entertaining.
Most importantly, it worked!
Let’s talk about it.
That’s a trend I think we can all support.
Remember, Jaylen’s primary role on this team is to get buckets.
That’s what he’s out there for.
He didn’t need to be Tatum, but he couldn’t be completely useless in that area.
I’d say so far things look pretty good in that department.
It was also nice to see Jaylen set the tone.
- Of course, so did Jayson Tatum.
That’s the beauty of having both of these guys on your team.
That’s also an option too if you weren’t aware.
There doesn’t have to be this weird Jaylen vs Tatum debate.
They are both Celtics!
Not only that, they are both pretty fucking good!
This wasn’t even a massive offensive showing from Tatum, and that’s perfectly fine.
It didn’t need to be.
He still finished with 21/7/4 on 8-16 (2-8) and was a +18 in his 35 minutes.
Exactly what you wanted to see from the best player.
When it came time for someone to throw the knockout punch, Tatum was there with his timely 3s.
- We’re reaching the point where Al Horford has played his way into a lifetime contract.
Find me a complaint right now about Al Horford, you could’t.
Elite as ever
His rebounding?
He has the 2nd highest REB% since the 2014-15 season
His shooting?
Heading into last night, it was 47.7%.
With so many weapons around him, he’s going to get the easiest looks of his life.
For Jrue, it makes a world of difference.
- Fortunately for us, Jrue is just one half of the Stock Exchange.
When they get elite play from their backcourt, good fucking luck.
It’s simply too much.
We say it all the time, but watching Derrick play truly is a gift from the Basketball Gods.
He just always does the right thing, it’s crazy.
Whenever there’s a smart play to be made on a possession, chances are Derrick is making it.
That’s the best way I could describe White.
He’s a winning player.
Both in his skillset and his basketball mind.
Essentially, I don’t care what the price is on his extension.
Pay the man his money.
He’s arguably their 3rd most important player and that might even be low.
- Joe Mazzulla going with a hack-a-Drummond up 32 was everything I love about Joe.
It’s not his fault those were the rules and it’s not his fault Drummond stinks at FTs.
As always, Joe was just a step ahead of everyone.
It was just business.
Year 2 Joe man, he really is different.
It was great to see the Celts get back to dominating the margins.
We also shouldn’t ignore the insane 36 total assists.
That’s a big time number.
Every starter finished with at least 4 assists, something that usually doesn’t happen all that often.
Hitting the magic 120 number never fails, and the Celts never had a quarter under 27 points.
- The Celts didn’t shit their pants in a 3rd quarter.
Honestly, that might have been the most surprising part of the entire night.
12 minutes that are usually a disaster turned out to be a 28-18 quarter.
- What are the odds Sam Hauser gets drug tested by the NBA?
They just don’t know that Sam has it like that I guess.
That was a man who clearly wants the 500K considering he only makes $2M this season.
- In a real life NBA quarter, the Celts put up 78/62% splits.
They missed a total of 4 shots in the 2nd quarter of this game.
Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser combined to shoot 7-22 (5-17) and it literally didn’t matter.
So to hit the +23 goal while your two bench shooters were cold as shit was certainly surprising.
- It’s too bad we didn’t get any Queta minutes.
16 is still way too many.
In the end, the win was big and it’s cool that the Celts are moving on.
