Last night, as I went to bed, I had a sharp and constant pain in my jaw. It continued to get worse overnight. So, this morning, I took myself to the dentist. As I sit here writing this, I am waiting to be prescribed medication for an abscess. The reason I’m telling you this is because this morning’s events have stopped me from watching last night’s game—for now, at least.
However, I didn’t want to delay posting these takeaways. Especially because there is another game tonight. So, I’m going to try something different. I’m hoping to have a little fun with things, and I hope you can indulge me.
Usually, when I’m piecing together the takeaway articles, I have pulled clips and a pad full of notes. I take stock of recent trends and try to give new insights or look for fun developments. I can’t do that today. So, we’re working with the box scores. I’ll be making assumptions based on the numbers. I’m expecting to be wrong with some of these. Reading the comments to see how much I miss the mark will be fun.
#1 Sam Hauser balled out
I’m going with the low-hanging fruit here. Sam Hauser ended the game with 22 points on 6-of-10 shooting from deep and 8-of-12 shooting overall. I expected some threes. I didn’t expect six of them. Yet, it was his two-point buckets that made me search for the clips. I loved the one where he took a couple of dribbles to attack a close-out before hitting a pull-up mid-range jumper.
As a floor-spacing forward, having this option in his pocket will keep defenses honest and help unlock even the toughest of defenders. We’ve seen Hauser flash this at times this season, but for me, without the context of how the flow of the game was going, this bucket is one of his best interior jumpers of the season.
In terms of movement shooting, the below clip is the bucket that caught my eye, as Hauser curled off a Luke Kornet DHO took a step or two, squared his hips and then drained the three in motion.
I’ve been a big fan of Boston’s bench unit this season. From a bird’ s-eye view, they made a significant impact against the Portland Trail Blazers.
#2 Payton Pritchard did his thing
Pritchard has been a reliable bench player all season. On some nights, his shot is falling; on others, his movement and passing ability are what catches the eye. And then, on occasion, his rebounding will be what helps boost the Celtics’ chances of success. Against the Trail Blazers, Pritchard strung all of those skills together to produce what appears to be one of his most complete performances of the season.
He ended the game with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. To me, that’s impressive. The Celtics like to play at pace, especially when looking to trigger their early offense playbook. Pritchard’s ability to cycle through gears and his exceptionally good declaration step make him an ideal player to help control the tempo of a game.
For me, this assist was Pritchard’s best of the night. His footwork, patience, and ability to see the floor as the defense closes in, illustrate his overall growth since entering the league. Again, I’m lacking context in terms of his overall performance. Yet, if I was to provide an educated guess, I would assume he also busted his butt on the defensive end, continued his role as a chaser on ball screens, and was a tough perimeter defender when called upon.
One thing I am wondering is if he got cross-matched or asked to veer back when guarding Portland’s bigs.
#3 Outside of Hauser, Boston’s offense struggled from deep
There is some more low-hanging fruit here. The Celtics went 15-of-40 from deep, which is a 37.5% conversion rate, which is acceptable. However, when you remove Hauser’s six buckets, the picture starts to change. Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Pritchard all struggled from deep.
That tells me the Celtics were finding success when attacking the rim. Whether that means they consistently got into the restricted area or did some of the heavy lifting in the mid-range is a totally different question.
Overall, I’m fine if the Celtics have an off night from deep, provided they adjust and lean into their slashing and post-scoring. Judging by the box score and the fact the Celtics secured a win, I would guess that’s precisely what they did. I love how this team has multiple options on offense and isn’t afraid to iterate their approach depending on how shots fall each night.
#4 Luke Kornet continued his impressive run of games
Looking at the defensive data, Luke Kornet stands out as someone who was rather busy on that side of the floor and managed to hold his own. He defended 14 shot attempts, allowing five of them to drop. That gives him a defensive field goal percentage of 35.7%.
Kornet also recorded two blocks during the game and did some work when defending the perimeter, limiting his opponents to 1-of-3 shooting. Kornet has been on fire since returning from the All-Star break. He’s operating at a high level and flashing upside in multiple areas, including his ability to operate as a DHO hub around the perimeter. I’ve especially been impressed with his positioning and value as a pick-and-roll defender when containing the ball-handler.
#5 Dalano Banton didn’t have a happy return
Dalano Banton has been enjoying a highly productive few games. He recorded a 30-point night against the Houston Rockets on March 8 and then followed that up with a 25-point night against the Toronto Raptors in his last outing.
However, Boston’s defense is a totally different challenge, and that appears to have been too much for the 24-year-old guard. He saw the court for 22 minutes (if we round up) and produced 8 points, 4 assists, and 2 rebounds. It is not an awful production, but it is a significant comedown from his outing in his last two games.
Still, it’s nice to know Banton is getting an opportunity to grow and develop his game with the Trail Blazers. It will be interesting to see if that continues as their roster recovers from some of their injury issues.
Looking ahead
My apologies that today’s takeaways aren’t the same as usual. I’ve done my best given the circumstances and desire not to post these too late in the day. We will be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow as we try to make sense of what we see in tonight’s game against the Utah Jazz. Until then, have an awesome Tuesday.
