It did not take Luke Kornet long to get tested in his first game back on the court since suffering a torn adductor two weeks. The veteran big man was handed a spot start in his return with Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis sidelined against the Raptors on Friday night. Within 14 second of the opening tip, Toronto was going right at Kornet with Jakob Poeltl rolling with a lefty layup against the center off a pick-and-roll. Kornet swapped away a block from the Raptors big man, setting the tone for his best night as a member of the Celtics.
Boston ultimately held on for a 120-118 win over the Raptors despite being down three rotation players including Jayson Tatum and Kornet was front and center for much of the win. The 7-foot-1 big man posted a season-high 20 points and 8 rebound while shooting a sensational 8-of-11 from the field. Perhaps most impressively, he played 33 minutes in his return from injury, staying on the floor even after the Raptors opted to play small ball for much of the fourth quarter. Joe Mazzulla explained why he stuck with his big man despite the shift in tactics after the win.
“I really trust Luke, and he has an innate ability to navigate our defensive coverages and to guard matchups, and not get held up on miscommunications,” Mazzulla said. “So he does a really good job of guarding different players and executing our different coverages really well, and the offensive end, I thought he does a really good job of creating indecision versus switching. So sometimes he hits under, sometimes he slips out, and I just think he’s one of those guys that when you’re playing against switching and you need to be unique defensively, he can really execute that.”
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Kornet made his impact felt on both ends of the floor with his five offensive rebounds and three blocks, helping the Celtics extend their 15-game home winning streak to begin the year. The 28-year-old is now shooting 75 percent on the season in a part-time role but his steady play in that spot is earning him major accolades from teammates.
“Luke is the ultimate teammate,” Jaylen Brown said. “Just a great locker room guy, gets along with everybody. He’s funny, so he kind of just uplifts everybody, even in moments where we don’t want to laugh. And then on the court, he’s just old reliable, is always in the right spot, does his job, screens, rolls, plays hard, gets those offensive rebounds, and steps up and in games like today. And he had a great game today. But Luke is the ultimate teammate.”
As the Celtics weigh their trade options in the next six weeks, one constant area that will be focused on is upgrading the big position behind Horford and Porzingis. Yet, given Boston’s limited means to upgrade the roster beyond their top 6 with salary matching, it’s hard to find many bigs in that price range playing better than Kornet at the moment for spot minutes. Between him and Neemias Queta, the Celtics have decent matchup depth options depending on the opponent for at least the remainder of the regular season.
That development has helped keep the onus off Boston’s top bigs as the Celtics have been able to keep pace in the standings without them. While Kornet may not be more than a depth piece, he’s showing he can do more when called upon with performances like we saw Friday night.
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