The Celtics don’t have a lot of nights where they run into trouble offensively. That’s not a surprise with the firepower this team holds. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are proven All-Stars that can get 30 points most nights they want to. Brad Stevens has surrounded the group with superb shooters now, posting the third-best offense in the NBA through the first half of the season.
Yet, there are still rough patches for this group, particularly on the road in stretches. Sunday’s win was one of those nights in the second half against the Rockets. After flying out to 70 points before intermission, Boston’s offense stalled for a large chunk of the third quarter, helping the Rockets trim a 17-point Celtics lead to three. With Jayson Tatum struggling and Jaylen Brown not finding many windows to attack, the Celtics need a different primary option to step up. Kristaps Porzingis was up to the task.
Unlike Friday’s loss against the Nuggets when he became an offensive afterthought in crunch time, the Celtics fed the big man late plenty in Houston. He delivered with the added opportunity this time around, scoring 32 points including a pair of big buckets in the post against undersized defenders to help seal a 116-107 win for the Celtics. It was another efficient night for the 7-footer who is shooting a career-high 52 percent from the field during his first year in Boston.
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After the win, Porzingis credited his teammates for finding him on a night he had it going.
“Each night it can be a different guy that has a good game,” Porzingis said. “We have the trust in each other that we’re willing to sacrifice and let’s get this guy the ball, he’s having a good night. Tonight, it was my night. I caught a couple of good passes from JB late and took advantage of the mismatch.”
A lot of the Celtics losses this year on the road have come when the team has failed to involve Porzingis much in the offense late in games. Jaylen Brown pointed out that’s a tendency the team needs to improve upon like they did on Sunday night.
“Big difference maker,” Brown said of Porzingis. “When teams start switching us, try to slow our offense down, we can always go and find KP on those mid-posts type of isolations and he’s great in those areas. Getting ready for the postseason, we want to continue to sharpen up. Tonight, we wanted to keep finding him so the big fella got going tonight and helped us win this game.”
That type of mentality will likely be the difference for Boston’s return to the postseason in 2024. Even top-10 defenses like Houston don’t have a good answer when Porzingis is punishing bigs on the perimeter (six 3s) and dominating mismatches in the post. The more the Celtics recognize those advantages and put them to use, the better off Boston’s crunch team offense will be. Sunday’s win was a good step in that direction for Boston.
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