Celtics
Tatum moved to No. 9 on the Celtics’ all-time scoring checklist.
Jayson Tatum led the Celtics to an eye-opening 131-104 win over the Knicks on Saturday, as they bounced again loudly from a disappointing loss.
Listed below are the takeaways.
Jayson Tatum had one in all these video games.
With 2:31 remaining within the third quarter and the Knicks waving their arms attempting to not fall over the sting of a cliff, Jayson Tatum backed the ball out behind the 3-point line with Mikal Bridges defending him. The shot clock wound down, and Tatum took one dribble adopted by an infinite aspect step to his proper, which created loads of area between himself and Bridges. He launched a 29-foot triple, which caught nothing however internet and elicited one of many extra despairing noises you’ll hear all season from the Madison Sq. Backyard crowd.
There was loads of time left within the sport, however Tatum’s three felt very very similar to a dagger – the Knicks had walked a lead that ballooned as excessive as 18 within the first half all the way in which down to 3 within the third quarter earlier than a sequence of triples by the Celtics helped push the benefit again as much as 16. Tatum performed an enormous position – he scored 19 factors within the third quarter alone, a part of a 40-point statline (13-for-26, 7-for-14 from three, six rebounds, 4 assists) that will have been gaudier if Payton Pritchard hadn’t floor his heel into the Knicks within the fourth after Tatum checked out, ending Tatum’s night prematurely.
Tatum was good on Saturday – the type of sport that he performs once in a while throughout a season that offers Celtics followers the ammunition they should counter any argument made in opposition to him on-line. He opened the proceedings by rooting Karl-Anthony Cities to the ground with an in-and-out dribble and a monstrous two-handed slam over Treasured Achiuwa on Boston’s first basket of the sport. A couple of minutes later, he made Achiuwa do a stumbling two-step again into the paint with a cross behind his again earlier than burying a 3-pointer.
Spike Lee had the audacity to bark one thing at Tatum within the third, so Tatum hit a number of photographs in a row and barked one thing again. And within the fourth quarter, Tatum scored 5 extra factors to ice issues earlier than taking a seat.
“He was able to play, and that was particular,” Mazzulla mentioned. “I simply thought he did an important job of taking what the protection gave him, whether or not it was for him or his teammates.
“However his skill to play vs. totally different coverages all through the sport, get the shot that he needed and play with a way of poise, that was a particular efficiency.”
Usually, groups drive the ball out of Tatum’s fingers, and he provides it up fortunately sufficient – content material to let his extremely gifted teammates feast off the 2-on-1s created by his gravity.
On Saturday, Tatum had an opportunity to remind a packed Madison Sq. Backyard – in addition to a nationwide TV viewers watching on ABC – why all of these groups would reasonably double him than let him prepare dinner: He’s a punishingly nice participant who’s nice each due to his skill to let the sport develop round him and to demolish groups after they give him the possibility.
“It’s all the time about making the fitting learn,” Tatum mentioned. “If it’s taking pictures the ball 5 instances in a row, that’s what it’s obtained to be. If it’s hitting one of many bigs within the seam, if it’s hitting D-White within the dunker, or if the nail helps, hit the man within the nook or no matter, that’s what it needs to be. So simply residing in that area, no matter the place you at, who you’re enjoying in opposition to. It’s not like I’m attempting to show something on the market. I’m simply enjoying the sport the fitting means.”
Tatum hit a brand new milestone.
Tatum moved into the Celtics’ high 10 scorers of all time, ending the night with 13,193 factors to surpass each Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White.
Subsequent up? Invoice Russell at No. 8 with 14,522.
“I’m actually grateful that I get to teach him, so I don’t take that without any consideration,” Mazzulla mentioned. “However that’s big-time for him. He does it the fitting means. For him to have the ability to accomplish that whereas centered on profitable and being an important teammate is absolutely necessary.
“And I believe he’s nonetheless underrated. He’s among the finest gamers on the market.”
The Celtics are a very terrible matchup for the Knicks.
The Knicks are simply 2.5 video games behind the Celtics within the standings, however Saturday’s sport felt like a press release by the Celtics that the gap between the 2 groups on the courtroom is way larger.
The Celtics feast on groups which have offensive juggernaut gamers who’re additionally defensive liabilities, particularly when these gamers are both A) undersized guards or B) slow-footed bigs, and particularly when these undersized guards and/or slow-footed bigs are key elements of the workforce who can’t be simply subbed out.
The Knicks have two such gamers, and in opposition to the Celtics, which may merely not be tenable.
Jalen Brunson stored the Knicks alive within the first half and deep into the third quarter along with his offensive brilliance. Whereas he’s as grifty as a participant can get, drawing fouls with a wide selection of pump fakes and leaning jumpers, he’s additionally an extremely gifted scorer and pick-and-roll operator.
Cities, the Knicks’ new offseason acquisition, is the prototypical trendy offensive massive man – equally a risk to hit threes, put the ball on the ground and submit up successfully.
However the Celtics’ secret sauce has a whole lot of flavors, and a giant a part of it’s that every one of their gifted offensive gamers may also defend rather well. Collectively, Brunson and Cities give the Celtics high-value targets on any given possession within the pick-and-roll, and the Celtics’ defenders maintain up effectively sufficient in opposition to them to stop their offense from making up the distinction.
Brunson – whose night was very effectively summarized by his stat line of 36 factors on 10-for-18 taking pictures, 13 free throws and a -19 within the field rating – stored the Knicks alive within the first half and the third quarter, however the Knicks merely didn’t have sufficient for Tatum’s onslaught.
Cities, in the meantime, completed with simply 9 factors – his first time this season failing to succeed in double figures.
“You tally up all of the ways in which they’re able to rating, and you’re taking just a few of these away,” Mazzulla mentioned. “We didn’t do an important job on the free throw line – we’ve to do a greater job of defending with out fouling. However we have been capable of simply take away a whole lot of the stuff that they get via a few of the particulars, and the positioning and the main points have been on level.”
Payton Pritchard slammed the door.
If Tatum had the Knicks waving their arms on the fringe of the cliff, Pritchard spin-kicked them over it.
Pritchard scored 15 of his 25 factors within the fourth quarter, burying three of his six triples within the remaining body. As he put the Knicks away, Tatum roared from the bench – evidently greater than content material to sit down tight on 40 factors and watch Pritchard deal with the remaining.
Pritchard completed 9-for-13 from the ground with 4 rebounds, 4 assists and one “too small” celebration in opposition to Josh Hart.
“For me, it’s nearly making the fitting reads each time,” Pritchard mentioned. “I had two photographs in a row I hit. The following two performs, I hit Luke. And it’s simply making the fitting learn. That’s how I decide my sport. It’s not makes or misses or something, it’s making the fitting reads, and I believed I did a superb job of that.”
Luke Kornet was cooking.
Let chef Luke Kornet do your cooking this night, and also you gained’t even have to clean the dishes.
Beginning instead of Kristaps Porzingis, who was a late scratch as a consequence of sickness, Kornet completed an ideal 7-for-7 from the sector with 14 factors, 12 rebounds and three blocks. The Celtics began with Kornet and Al Horford on the ground in a double massive lineup, and – not for the primary time this season – Kornet gave them actually wonderful minutes in a beginning position.
“To me, it’s extra about simply having alternative ways you could play,” Mazzulla mentioned. “The season presents alternatives for that, and we’d like to have the ability to be versatile to have the ability to win the matchup at that exact time.
“I believed tonight, that gained the matchup for us. New York is without doubt one of the most bodily groups within the league. They do an important job on each ends of the glass, and we have been capable of counteract that a bit of bit with our physicality. So it’s a credit score to the fellows for taking part in as exhausting as they did, particularly defensively, they have been rather well related.”
“Large Luke performed his ass off at present,” Tatum added. “He type of actually set the tone to begin.”
The imperfect-but-useful Neemias Queta
No one would accuse Neemias Queta of being a flawless basketball participant – he finds himself in too many uncomfortable defensive positions, he swipes too typically at defenders who already had him beat, and he could be vulnerable to turnovers.
However Queta can be simply so lengthy and athletic that he can typically be a constructive participant regardless of the failings. On Saturday, Queta (11 factors, 4-for-7 taking pictures, eight rebounds) did a whole lot of little issues to spice up the Celtics. He set good screens, and he made the a lot of the ensuing rolls to the rim. He wolfed up rebounds. He made most of his free throws. He was a deterrent on the rim, and he held up comparatively effectively even He even knocked down a troublesome leap hook within the paint within the fourth.
Queta hasn’t all the time had constant minutes this yr, however with Porzingis sidelined, he crammed in properly. That’s the ability of a deep bench filled with acceptable position gamers – they gained’t be excellent, however they can provide you what you want on a short-handed night in February.
Taking part in in New York
The Celtics weren’t shy about what it meant to play in New York.
“I noticed Denzel Washington sitting courtroom aspect, so I used to be enthusiastic about that,” Tatum mentioned with a small smile.
Tatum added that whereas Boston is the very best place to play within the NBA, New York is “in all probability’ second.
“They obtained all of the celebrities, however they’ve additionally obtained that edge about them,” Tatum mentioned. “They know basketball, they’re passionate, they’re chanting and cheering the entire time, so it’s a particular place to play.”
Pritchard, an Oregon native, famous that he hadn’t been at a sport at Madison Sq. Backyard earlier than he was within the NBA.
“You dream of moments like this, and to come back right here and play, and the depth of this sport, it was positively a dream to play right here,” he mentioned.
Even Mazzulla, who hardly ever admits most of these issues, conceded that the second felt giant.
“I believe when you get on the market and you’re feeling the vitality of the Backyard, and you’re feeling the vitality of the 2 groups, when you get on the market, it’s clearly a sport the fellows needed, and it ought to be that means,” he mentioned. “On the similar time, we’ve to do the identical factor 36 hours from now, however it was an important setting, and I believed the fellows type of relished in that and caught collectively.”
Two extra video games, then the break.
The Celtics have simply two extra video games till the All-Star break. On Monday, they tackle the Warmth in Miami at 7:30 p.m. earlier than returning house for a sport in opposition to the newly improved Spurs with Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox on Wednesday earlier than the NBA takes every week off.
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