With 6:08 remaining within the third quarter of Friday’s recreation, Al Horford sank a pair of free throws to place the Boston Celtics up 30 factors over the visiting Indiana Pacers, 87-57. That’s proper, the Pacers had simply 57 factors by means of two-and-half quarters and solely wound up with solely 105 on the finish of the night time.
Boston entered the matchup after two straight days of continuous criticism. They dropped a really winnable recreation on Christmas Day, falling 118-114 to the “rival” Philadelphia 76ers. It was a day the place many felt that lapses in focus and depth served because the Achilles heal for the Cs, together with Jayson Tatum.
“We received to look within the mirror and man up,” he informed reporters on Wednesday. “And we simply received to be higher. We absolutely imagine in ourselves, , the issues that we will do after we’re absolutely locked in, and we’ve performed it time and time once more.”
Tatum led by instance and set the tone on the sport’s first possession when he stole the ball from Benedict Mathurin, his first of three takeaways on this one. The remainder of the Celtics adopted swimsuit and put the clamps on Indiana. By the halftime buzzer, Boston had accrued 10 whole shares (seven steals, three blocks) and made the Pacers work for each single considered one of their 45 factors.
In the meantime, on the alternative finish, the Cs performed lovely basketball, rapidly constructed a lead, and by no means seemed again. They created glorious appears possession after possession and the Pacers had no reply.
The kind of creation that we noticed from the Celtics was night time and day from what occurred on Wednesday. There was no stagnation, compelled pictures, or sloppy possessions — simply connectivity.
“The sport is linked, and you may’t have a look at it from a static scenario of it’s this aspect versus that aspect,” mentioned Joe Mazzulla. “If you happen to’re having stay ball turnovers and never enjoying bodily on the offensive finish, it’s going to influence the opposite finish. If you happen to’re not doing issues on the different finish, it’s going to influence offense… I assumed you noticed only a higher connectivity between either side of the ball, to the place we had been in a position to maintain them out of transition and maintain them off the free throw line.”
In order for you an instance of 1 aspect of the ball impacting the opposite, look no additional than Jaylen Brown. Brown, very similar to Tatum, set the tone immediately. His first half efficiency (and likewise the sport as a complete) was legendary. JB sank his first 9 pictures, together with a pair of loud dunks, en path to a 44-point outing in opposition to Indiana. It didn’t cease there for him both. He led the group in steals with 4 takeaways and had no real interest in letting followers down once more after a troublesome Christmas loss.
“We simply needed to be able to go,” defined Brown. “You recognize, nevertheless the sport was going to be performed.”
If you happen to ask Payton Pritchard, the sport was performed with depth.
“The depth we play with, the tempo we play with the ball stress, after which simply being lively off ball, like serving to our guys out, say, if we see man get beat, we’re recovering. We’re having a number of efforts. And I believe tonight we confirmed that we had numerous deflections. I don’t know what number of steals JB had, however like, it was simply lively, and it makes a distinction we get out and operating after that, so one thing we simply received to be conscious of, and maintain enjoying that manner.”
Boston can have an opportunity to maintain up their depth on Sunday night time after they get one other have a look at the Pacers. It’s powerful to think about that it’ll be simple to close them down in again to again video games, however we’ll simply must see.
