1. Another Jaylen Brown 30-piece
In Celtics history, when you start to enter conversations with Larry Bird as the only record holder above you, that means you are doing something special. For the 8th consecutive game, Jaylen Brown has scored 30+ points and is one game away from tying Larry Bird’s record of nine. Brown has had a special run in the month of December and is playing the best basketball of his entire career.
This sequence in the third quarter was the best of the night and a microcosm of how good he has been this year. Brown starts by getting the switch on to the Pacers’ Ethan Thompson where he takes him to the post. Brown does a spin into contact and rises up for a beautiful mid-range jumper. Then on the next possession, he forces a steal on Andrew Nembhard, saves it out of bounds, and makes a behind the back pass to Luka Garza for an easy layup. This is just elite level stuff from Brown.
2. Pritchard’s Ridiculous Second Quarter
Payton Pritchard was frying the Pacers all night long, finishing with 29 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists while shooting 10-17 from the field. Where Pritchard did most of his damage was in the second quarter where had 14 of his 29 and was the conductor for the Celtics 47-point quarter.
His first shot of the second quarter was a beautiful ankle breaker that had Quenton Jackson looking lost. Pritchard turned his behind the back dribble into a step-back three that really was a precursor to the big quarter he was about to have.
Pritchard then went on a run with 5 straight mid range jumpers where he was looking like prime Kyrie Irving with his ball handling — nothing more evident than this one where he had to relocate after getting stopped on a drive. After receiving a pass from Neemias Queta, he hit a crazy cross over on the move that had Siakam stumbling back and splashed a mid-range jumper.
Sam Hauser has not had a great start to the season, but when it came to shooting the three-ball in this game, he fully turned it around, scoring 23 points on 7-8 shooting from beyond the arc. It really was just a matter of time before Hauser got it going again because this is a guy who can absolutely take over a game.
His first two three pointers came in the first quarter when the Celtics were trailing to the Pacers who were on their own hot shooting run. Hauser was wide open after Anfernee Simons found him in the corner for an easy three and the second came on a nice play where he caught the ball in the corner and ran around a Luka Garza three for a pull-up shot.
After one more three in the second quarter, Hauser then got hot in the third quarter where he rattled off four in pretty quick succession. The first one came when Pritchard got into the paint and kicked out to a wide open Hauser on the wing, second came on a cross-court pass from Brown in the same exact place, third came on a pull up three going around another Garza screen, and finally the fourth came on a pass from Pritchard right when he passed the half court line.
4. Derrick White’s Defense
Derrick White is one of the best defenders in the NBA and this isn’t a new sentiment, but games like this really remind me how elite of a player he is on that side of the ball. He finished with 2 steals and 1 block and his impact was felt everywhere.
Three minutes into the first quarter White got his first steal of the game when he hawked down Bennedict Mathurin when he was starting to sprint down the court. White back tapped him and the ball rolled to Jordan Walsh who found a cutting Jaylen Brown for an easy layup.
White’s ability to draw offensive fouls was something that really impressed me tonight as well. the first came when he was jockeying for position with Pascal Siakam on the block and forced Siakam to push him to the ground. The second came on a great contest on Andrew Nembhard who fouled him on the way up.
Luka Garza has continued his great stretch of games this season with a perfect performance off the bench with 15 points on 5-5 shooting. Garza did another great job on the offensive side of the ball when it came to always being in the right place at the right time coming out of a screen.
A great example of this came in the second quarter where he received the ball and made a pass back to White. Then he was able to seal off two defenders to receive a great bounce pass as he was cutting towards the basket for a wide-open dunk.
Another play I loved from Garza was when he set a screen for Pritchard who was driving into the middle of the lane. Instead of rolling to the rim, Garza took a step back to the three-point line where Pritchard found him and he drilled the wide-open shot.
6. Baylor Scheierman Shoutout
A very underrated story line from the Celtics season so far is the development that Baylor Scheierman has showed this season in limited playing time. His stats might not jump off of the page in this game. In 20 minutes, he scored 3 points and had 5 rebounds, but Scheierman finished with a +18 on the night, which was the third highest on the team.
When Scheierman is in the game, you know he is going to give all his effort, even in a blowout. In the fourth quarter, Johnny Furphy was trying to post him up. Baylor absorbed the contact and drew the charge that got him and everyone on the Celtics bench hyped. This is an elite skill that Scheierman has acquired as his 1.2 offensive fouls drawn per 100 possessions is in the 95th percentile of NBA players this year.
I’m glad to see Scheierman carving out a role for himself on this team and hope to see him develop more over the course of the season.
7. McConnell-Walsh Dust Up
At the 1:24 mark of the third quarter, TJ McConnell decided to shove Jordan Walsh and a little bit of a dust up ensued. On the play, after Hauser’s missed three, McConnell ran into Pacers center Micah Potter which resulted in the easy basket for Pritchard. McConnell must have thought it was Walsh that tripped him, because he immediately went over to confront him, starting this whole brouhaha and ended with both players receiving offsetting technicals. My favorite part of the entire ordeal was Joe Mazzulla being hyped that Walsh was able to get under McConnell’s skin, going over to him during the official review and high-fiving him.
Postgame, Walsh said that Joe Mazzulla was “more than happy” to see him get into the shoving match with McConnell. This gave shades of when Walsh was ejected in a Summer League game earlier this year and Mazzulla texted him afterward saying he was proud of him.
8. Celtics second quarter run
The Celtics were down 39-28 after the first quarter with the Pacers recreating their hot shooting start from the game on Monday. Boston then proceeded to take that personally and rattled off 47 points in the second quarter and squashed any chance of Indy coming back in the game. As a team, Boston shot 16-25 (64%) from the field and 6-12 (50%) from three with 0 turnovers. This was one of the best quarters of basketball they’ve played all season long and it was really what swung this game to a Celtics victory.
9. Threes Falling = Celtics Win
When three pointers fall for the Celtics, they normally win games. This is not breaking news by any means, but it really is just that simple when it comes to the way Boston has been able to dominate games the last few years. This phenomenon occurred vs. the Pacers in this game when they shot 20-39 (51%) from three as a team and really killed any momentum that Indiana was trying to start.
Over their last 10 games, the Celtics have shot 39% from three which would put them top 5 in the NBA. After starting 0-3 this year, Boston’s ability to simply make shots has been a big reason as to why they have a 19-11 record through 30 games and are a top-3 team in the Eastern Conference.
10. This team gets to add Jayson Tatum
This season has been pretty fun as a Celtics fan to watch play out. Jaylen Brown is playing at an MVP level, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have been solid when it comes to a bigger work load, and the development of guys like Neemias Queta, Luka Garza, Hugo Gonzalez, Josh Minott, Jordan Walsh, and Baylor Scheierman has been a pleasent surprise that no one saw coming. All of this has been great, but do you know what’s even better? Boston gets to add a consensus top-5 player in the NBA when healthy in Jayson Tatum.
Everyone has been excited about a Tatum return this season and the 5 second video he posted on his Instagram story of Brad Stevens helping him with workouts that involve driving dunks has made the excitement level hit an all-time high.
I think about how this team is going to work when Tatum comes back and I think he is going to fit like a glove. Even if it takes time for his scoring touch to come back, what he provides as a passer and a rebounder will make this Celtics team reach another level. I can’t wait to see him play minutes with Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh and give defenses nightmares, I can’t wait to see Derrick White and Sam Hauser shoot a million open catch and shoot threes off of Tatum’s gravity, and I especially can’t wait to see the best duo in the NBA with Jaylen Brown playing his best basketball ever, dominate teams on a nightly basis.
It feels almost set in stone that he is going to return this season and with everything we have seen with this Celtics team already, there is a legitimate chance that Boston could make it out of this weak Eastern Conference with maybe an 80% healthy version of Tatum and that is something I can’t wait to see play out.
