After a lackluster first half Saturday evening towards the Lakers, Joe Mazzulla determined to offer his Celtics unit a contemporary look to start the second half.
The coach took starter Grant Williams out of the lineup, as a substitute inserting Malcolm Brogdon to start out the half. It was an fascinating little bit of gamesmanship. The Lakers, after bringing huge man Anthony Davis off the bench in his second sport again from harm, began him for the second half. Mazzulla countered with the smaller Brogdon.
“It kind of was a little just back and forth between each other,” Mazzulla stated. “But I thought (Brogdon) just did a great job of giving us another ball-handler out there and another guy that can dribble drive. And so with Al (Horford) at the five, we were able to space Davis a little bit better in the second half because of that lineup, and it gave us some driving angles.”
Mazzulla’s choices have been restricted and depth was examined once more on Saturday. Marcus Smart missed a fourth straight sport on account of his proper ankle sprain. Robert Williams was out, too, making the matchup towards Davis more difficult. But the presence of Brogdon, prefer it has so many occasions this season, as soon as once more paid off for the Celtics of their wild extra time victory over the Lakers.
Jayson Tatum lastly awoke within the third quarter and Jaylen Brown was the hero within the fourth quarter and extra time, however Brogdon’s steadiness on each ends of the ground was essential within the Celtics’ comeback victory. Brogdon scored 26 factors, together with 19 within the second half as he made large baskets both from 3-point territory or making the most of the spacing with drives to the basket. At occasions, he was even matched up with Davis defensively down low, and held his personal regardless of the dimensions distinction. He performed all however 35 seconds of the second half/extra time whereas making huge performs.
The Celtics actually miss Smart. Their offense has stalled with out him. They had back-to-back video games scoring fewer than 100 factors final week, and recorded simply 18 assists on 39 subject targets on Saturday. The level guard’s return, which might come this week, can be much-welcomed. But on Saturday, Brogdon continued to point out that he could be trusted to offer what the Celtics want in virtually any state of affairs. His efficiency capped off a powerful January through which he scored 17.3 factors per sport off the bench, persevering with to be a essential piece with regulars out and in of the lineup.
“I’m more of a scoring guard, I think I give us that edge,” Brogdon stated. “But for me, I defend well with size, I defend the bigs well. So I think that’s going to be my strength with this team, with this starting group. So I just tried to do that to the best of my ability.”
Thoughts in Memphis
Brown, in addition to he performed together with his 37-point efficiency to raise the Celtics, admitted it was more durable to focus than common. His thoughts has been on Memphis, the place Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died earlier this month after being severely crushed by law enforcement officials throughout a visitors cease. The metropolis of Memphis launched video footage of the beating on Friday, which has sparked outcry and protests across the nation.
“It’s tough to come out and play a game in the midst of a viral video that’s floating around and creates that sort of trauma,” Brown stated after Saturday’s sport. “I might be mendacity if I stated one thing like that hasn’t occurred earlier than or probably can occur once more. I believe it’s a systemic difficulty. I believe we will proceed to make use of the phrases like reform and till we have a look at the inspiration and the way issues have been initiated and created and designed, I believe we’re going to proceed to run into the identical difficulty.
“I break it down as like, there’s certain people that want the world to change and continue to move forward, and there’s certain people that’s OK with where the world is at. I’m going to continue to challenge those people, because it doesn’t matter if it benefits your pockets or benefits your financial opportunities. We have to push our society forward and we gotta do better in a lot of regards. So, in terms of what happened in Memphis, I send my condolences to the family. I couldn’t really make it through the video, but as we’ve said many a times, and we’re going to continue to say, our society needs to be better.”
Minutes piling up
Before Saturday’s sport, Mazzulla was requested how the Celtics are working to handle Tatum’s minutes, balancing successful within the short-term with ensuring he stays wholesome for the lengthy haul.
“Don’t let the games go to overtime,” Mazzulla cracked.
Just a few hours later, although, the Celtics have been caught in one other extra time sport, the third one of their final six video games. Tatum, similar to the victory over the Warriors on Jan. 19, didn’t take a break after the primary quarter and performed 47 minutes.
“I’m tired. I am exhausted,” Tatum stated after Saturday’s win over the Lakers. “Obviously, some big-time players made plays on both sides. Obviously the history between both sides. But 47 minutes tonight, I’m ready to go to sleep.”
Entering Sunday, Tatum ranked fourth within the NBA with 1,798 minutes in 48 video games. His common of 37.5 minutes per sport ranks second behind Toronto’s Pascal Siakam. Despite that top utilization, the Celtics appear to be selecting their spots with Tatum with good administration.
After he performed 48 minutes towards the Warriors – a sport some Celtics admitted was extra vital to win than common – Tatum rested for his or her subsequent sport and obtained three days off. He’ll have one other three days off after Saturday’s sport earlier than the Celtics return to motion Wednesday towards Brooklyn.
Source: www.bostonherald.com