Ten takeaways from the Celtics’ win over Charles Lee’s Hornets

1. Flipping the script.

After Tatum launched 18 3’s against the Pacers, he made it clear that he should’ve approached that differently.

Boston started this game making a genuine effort to establish their offense from the inside out. Their first handful of attempts came from inside the arc, with several being designed post-ups.

Even on occasions where they’d typically shoot 3’s – like an offensive rebound, or the ball swinging on the perimeter – they still tried to touch the paint first.

They still got up a fair amount of 3’s, but with less frequency and poor efficiency for their standards. It was the points in the paint that kept them afloat. It’s unusual that the Celtics lose the 3PA battle, so it was encouraging to see them find another way.

2. Charles Lee’s Hornets.

On the other side of things, Charles Lee played a big part in forcing the Celtics to win a different way. He has Charlotte shooting a high volume of 3’s which Boston struggled to keep up with, and that’s saying something.

Defensively, Lee has a deep understanding of what the Celtics want to do. The Hornets took a lot of the Celtics usual open perimeter looks off the table. It was part strategy, part deficiency, but Boston was often funneled away from the 3PT line and into the paint.

With limited rim protection, the C’s didn’t turn down many paint drives. It left them close to losing the math game though.

3. Jaylen figured out they can’t guard him.

Brown finished the 1st quarter shooting 2/6 from the field, and looked like he might struggle to get going. His efficiency didn’t completely rebound from the slow start, but felt significantly more controlled in his approach.

aylen seemed to realize quickly that there wasn’t a single Charlotte Hornet that should have a reasonable chance of stopping him. He put his shoulder down, carved out a lane and either found himself with an easy layup or two shots from the stripe. LaMelo Ball became a consistent victim for him in this regard.

This one was distinctly vicious:

The composure was impressive too with Jaylen organizing the offense and continuing to directly target LaMelo whenever possible.

Jaylen found a seal, and the Celtics enabled him to hunt away. This aggressive mindset was highlighted by his 10 free throw attempts, of which he hit 9.

4. MVP chants on the road.

Tatum was good in this one. He still settled some, but spent a lot of the game attacking the rim. He earned MVP chants in the Hornets arena after scoring 16 points in the 1st quarter, while playing all 12 minutes.

He finished with a game-high 34 points, making this the fourth time he’s reached 30+ points in six games. Jayson rebounded well, grabbing 11 boards, and filled out the rest of the box score with three assists, three steals and one block.

Like Jaylen, his aggression led to a lot of free throws. The total was somewhat inflated due to multiple technical fouls at the end of the game for the Hornets, but he was still in attack mode. With the strange nature of the foul he received from Grant Williams, you can’t say he didn’t deserve the shots either.

5. Navigating Horford rest nights.

Boston elected to rest Al Horford on the first half of a back-to-back, starting Luke Kornet in his place. Barring something unforeseen, Kornet with the starters should be the expectation until Porzingis returns. How many minutes they can get out of him and the rest of the bigs is still up in the air.

Luke was solid, nothing spectacular, but solid nonetheless. That is typically what you’re going to get from him, and on a team this talented, they can often live with that. He finished the game as a +16 in 23 minutes. None of his stats jump off the page, but that number shows decently enough the fact that they fared pretty well when he was on the court.

Neemias Queta was the only other center to touch the floor in this game with Tillman collecting a DNP. Queta actually played for slightly longer than Kornet, and finished the game with 12 points on a perfect 6/6 from the field. His start to the game wasn’t very inspiring, but he turned that around eventually.

With a rematch lined up quickly, getting 48 center minutes from these two means that Tillman should have fresh legs to help out when called upon for the 2nd night of the back-to-back.

6. Jordan Walsh’s brief appearance.

Walsh logged just six minutes in this game, but not the standard garbage time run that you might expect by glancing at the final score. For starters, that score is certainly not an accurate reflection of the type of game this was. Jordan actually checked in originally with eight minutes left in the 2nd quarter.

He got his first touch seven seconds later, and made the most of it.

Jumping off the bench cold and hitting your first shot is always a great sign, especially for a player that is working hard to develop his jumpshot. Walsh knocked down another 3 not long after his first.

He saw very little run after this encouraging stretch, and that is unfortunately going to be life for him at times. It’s nothing against him at all, but it’s difficult to crack this rotation without a ton of minutes to go around. Continuing to be successful in these small pockets of the game will always keep him on Mazzulla’s radar though.

7. Momentum silencer.

Sam Hauser is still working himself back into form, so he understandably didn’t put together a big game. He did knock down two 3’s, with one being particularly important.

Late in the 3rd quarter, Charlotte started to gain some real momentum. They put together a few solid possessions to chip the Celtics lead down to 1, and the fans were behind them. Tre Mann snagging an offensive rebound and putting it back up over Queta was especially frustrating from Boston’s POV.

On the very next possession, Tatum slips out and Pritchard finds him on the roll. The Hornets rotate and make the classic and fatal mistake of leaving Sam Hauser wide open.

If you look behind the Hornets bench, you’ll see a wonderful representation of what silencing a crowd looks like. The chants for defense ended abruptly, and fans were seated once again. End of quarter minutes are always important, and Sam’s shot helped the Celtics head into the 4th with a 6-point lead.

8. Pritchard’s unusual impact.

We’ve come to know and love the big scoring nights from Payton Pritchard, but this game was different. He didn’t light the Hornets up from 3PT range. In fact, it was likely one of his worst shooting nights. Payton finished the game ⅙ from the field, missing all 5 of his shots from beyond the arc.

It wasn’t just trust, or a lack of better options that allowed him to play 27 minutes and finish as a +13. His ball pressure and activity on defense were both legitimately good. He had 5 steals, and while a couple were of the “Right place, right time” variety, he wasn’t just floating around out there.

LaMelo Ball and Tre Mann both had good scoring nights, but Pritchard fighting through screens and picking them up early made their lives marginally harder and helped out in the end.

9. Mazzulla lit a fire.

Boston started to let Charlotte close the gap in the 4th quarter, and Joe Mazzulla was not having it. The Hornets cut their lead down to 1 on a step back jumper from Ball, and that was followed immediately by an offensive foul call on Queta.

This feels like a poor call in my opinion, but Mazzulla felt much stronger about just how bad it was.

His reaction went on for quite a while, and it took two assistants to make sure he didn’t take it a step further and end up with an ejection. Joe is very passionate, but he’s usually more composed than this. I have to assume for that reason that it was at least partially a motivation tactic to help fire up his team to close the game.

Even if it wasn’t intended that way, it seemed to have worked. Boston finished the game on a 24-10 run, and Queta put Miles Bridges on a poster.

10. Keeping that fire.

The fans can see it, and the players will likely admit that the defense hasn’t been up to their standard yet. Knowing how this Hornets team operates now, I’d like to see the Celtics make a real effort to shut them down on the second night of the back-to-back.

Charlotte shot a ton of 3’s, but far too many were open looks that came from Boston either over-helping, or being late to rotate. If the playoffs started today, I can imagine it would look much different. This team talks a lot about building good habits though, and it’s worth being disciplined even in early November.

If they take the fire that Mazzulla created (that Grant Williams poured fuel on), and channel it to their defensive intensity, they can end this two game mini-series on a very high note.