The Celtics pushed their chips to the middle of the poker table this season when they brought aboard Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. The moves raised the sense of urgency around this group but it also created an embarrassment of riches for coach Joe Mazzulla. With four players fully capable of scoring 20-plus points every night along with a rapidly improving Derrick White, Boston’s starting five is a nightmare to defend for every team.
There won’t be enough shots to go around for everyone on every night, which led to some thorny decision making issues in the team’s first two wins of the year. However, after a pair of historic blowouts this week against the Wizards and Pacers, those concerns have quickly faded. Instead, a different level of buy-in and sacrifice has been apparent across the board within that potent scoring group, leading to a 155-104 win over the Pacers.
Kristaps Porzingis was the latest Celtic who took a backseat on Wednesday night, attempting just two shots in the first 18 minutes of the game as the hosts ran up 75 first half points.
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Joe Mazzulla credited the big man after the game as he praised the team’s chemistry in the opening week of the year.
“I think it’s just more about managing each other and having the conversation,” Mazzulla said. “Tonight what was it? Kristaps killed it the first two games and tonight he took seven shots, but he doesn’t — he has the humility to still play on defense, to still screen, to still pass.
“And so I think it’s that, where it’s like, hey, ‘tonight might not be my spectacular night but we still got to play the right way.’ And then the other teammates having an understanding of like, ‘hey, let’s get KP involved. Let’s get Jrue or Derrick involved. Let’s get you know those guys.’ And so I think it’s just them, the chemistry that they build amongst each other, and the communication and the trust that they build and that’s what they work at.”
That type of mentality has been on display of late plenty during the team’s last two blowout wins. With Jaylen Brown red-hot on Monday night against the Wizards, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White were turning down open shots to get him clean looks. There have been shades of forcing the ball into trouble in earlier games but the buy-in on running the team’s actions and getting great looks out of it seems to be growing. New additions like Holiday are feeding into that mentality.
“First play of the game was for me and I had a post-up,” Holiday said. “I could’ve found someone. Because of the talent that we have, who are you gonna guard? If I have somebody on me I feel like I can post up, then I’m gonna do that. Then midrange, ever since I’ve gotten to the league, you had to have one. Again, it’s not so much about me finding a bucket, it’s more so about how the game is going, what I can do to help or progress our offensive flow. But not only that, I feel like defensively, we get so many stops, we pressure teams so much that it makes our offense that much easier, trying to swing it up in transition and get one on one plays, stuff like that.”
Sam Hauser put it simply after breaking out of a shooting slump with five 3s on Wednesday night,
“I think everybody’s just playing a little more free and just kind of taking what the game gives them and I think that’s what’s led to a lot of big wins to start the year here. So it’s been good.”
The Celtics won’t face soft defenses like the Wizards or Pacers every night but a mentality of sacrifice is already paying dividends across the board. Everyone is getting a chance for big games and a more consistent mentality has helped ensure Boston can keep opponents down for 48 minutes.
“I think that’s the mental toughness,” Mazzulla said. “Those games in the NBA you see all the time. I think it was 75-56, and we’re going to be in that situation against and it might not go well. But tonight, we showed maturity and mental toughness to like, we went on a run and made them call a timeout. You see games in the NBA where it doesn’t always go that way; you have a team that comes out with a 6-to-8-0 run, and then the dynamic of the game changes. Our guys are well aware of that and hats off to them for just competing at a high, high level the entire game.”
The Celtics will try to carry that mentality on the road now with three straight games away from TD Garden beginning on Saturday night in Brooklyn.
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