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First, our apologies for not getting out Ten Takeaways for the final two games of the road trip in Orlando and Philadelphia. We’ve got a “life first, blog second” motto here at CelticsBlog and so many of writers were busy over the holiday. We’ll try and not let that happen again.
And now, on to Ten Takeaways from the Celtics’ 131-95 homecoming romp over the Grizzlies.
In just his third career start, the third year pro out of Arkansas didn’t disappoint. Walsh didn’t just start — he started with a defensive assignment on Jaren Jackson Jr.
In Orlando and Philadelphia, Walsh was a revelation defending Tyrese Maxey and making key offensive plays against the Magic, including hitting the game-clinching corner three. Against JJJ, he personally held Memphis’ star big man to 0-for-4 shooting and frustated him enough to force two offensive fouls.
So many of the Celtics wings have had their moments so far in this young season. First, it was Hugo Gonzalez. Then Josh Minott took the baton. And for the last three games, it’s been the culmination of two-plus seasons for Walsh to get his time to shine.
Jaylen Brown is mid and that’s peak
Last week, CelticsBlog’s Azad Rozay wrote about JB’s dramatic shift in his shooting profile:
With more responsibilities, Brown’s offensive game now relies much more on jump shots. His usage rate went from 29% to 35% per Cleaning the Glass, the 6th-highest offensive load in the NBA this season. This new level of responsibility has had a direct impact on his shot profile.
Last season, JB’s long mid-range attempts represented 13% of his FGA — already a lot (88th percentile). But this season, he has taken the mid-range to a whole new level, with 29% of his shots coming from that zone. That’s more than Kevin Durant or Brandon Ingram. Across the entire NBA, only DeMar DeRozan has a bigger share of long mid-ranges, at 41% of his FGA.
Against the Grizzlies, Brown was again an assassin in the mid-range. You could never criticize him for his size and strength from 18-feet and now, his handle and footwork have caught up. He was 5-for-8 from what’s usually considered a “bad shot” and finished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists in under 26 minutes.
After posting two duds to close out the road trip, Payton Pritchard put together arguably his best game of the season with 24 points (5-of-10 from behind the arc), 6 rebounds, and 9 assists against Memphis for a +42. Not to be outdone, Derrick White chipped in with an efficient 22 points (6-of-11), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block.
Over the last five games, Boston’s starting backcourt has hit 27-of-72 (37.5%) from 3. That’s not exactly lights out, but much better than their 24.1% clip in their first eight games.
ChatGPT and StatsMuse couldn’t handle the query, but I’m guessing there are few times in his career than Anfernee Simons had more assists than points in a single game. Against Memphis, he hit just two shots, but racked up seven assists in just under 22 minutes of play. Few were of the spectacular type (except for a slippery pocket pass to a cutting Neemias Queta for an and-1). However, he seemed more aggressive with his drive which led to a few kick-outs to Luka Garza — yes, Luka Garza — and White. He dished out a season-high five dimes in Philly and then surpassed that number the following night. Emoji eyes.
Queta’s 6-for-6 night was already the third time this season that he’s gone perfect from the field (4-for-4 against the Jazz and 7-for-7 against the Wizards); on Opening Night against Joel Embiid and the 76ers, he missed on an alley-oop attempt from Pritchard. Most of his attempts are of that variety — he’s got magnetic hands and good hops that are shades of Robert Williams in his prime in Boston.
He’s also shown Kevin McHalesque footwork in the post and attempted a few fadeaway jumpers and hook shots to add to his repertoire, too. Expanding his game will probably drop his gaudy 65% FG%, but that variety will make him more of a threat in the future.
Luka Garza is simultaneously making me forget and reminding me of Al Horford
Maybe it’s the way the 26-year-old Garza runs like the 39-year-young Horford. Maybe it’s their catapult release on their threes. Maybe it’s just how hard they play. Here’s Mazzulla on Garza:
Make sure to check out Noa Dalzell’s feature on LG and his father.
In our CelticsBlog Slack channel, we talked about pace and more specifically, how the Celtics rank 29th in the league at 96.69. To be clear, that’s 96.69 possessions per 48 minutes of regulation play. By comparison, the Miami Heat lead the NBA at 106.70, over ten possessions per game over Boston.
After preaching throughout training camp that the Celtics wanted to be one of the fastest teams this season, you would think that Joe Mazzulla would envy Erik Spoelstra’s frantic pace. But let’s be clear: pace doesn’t just mean turning the parquet into a 100-meter dash and getting up and down the court in transition just to generate more possessions. It’s more about churning teams through multiple actions in the half court and ultimately, wearing them out.
On a night when Boston set their season-high in assists (34), it’s plays like this that show you much Boston wants to put you in a blender:
Controlling the controllables
Sure, it came against a banged up 4-8 Grizzlies team without Zach Edey and Brandon Clarke, but Boston dominated the glass, giving up just 15 offensive rebounds and won the second chance points margin 34 to 12. They coughed up the ball just ten times and they’re still leading the league in taking care of the ball at just 11.4 turnovers a game.
Zooming out after the blowout, the Celtics now have the 8th best net rating in the league (4.9). They’re again top-10 in offensive and defensive rating, but the only top-15 team with a sub-.500 record.
Rest and recovery starts early with Gino Time
At 6-7, the Celtics finally have their first stretch of multiple days rest of the season. They won’t play again until early Sunday night when they host the Los Angeles Clippers.
