Reigning champions, the Celtics do not fly over the regular season as they were able to do last season, exceeded in the conference of the conference is by almost flawless Cavs from the start.
After going through a complicated little month (10 defeats in 21 games), the training of Joe Mazzulla seems to return to the top with nine victories in his last ten games, a series notably marked by two convincing successes against the Knicks, currently third at the 'East, 131-104 at Madison Square Garden a fortnight ago and 118-105 yesterday at TD Garden.
A question of balance
Over the matches, the C's regains their balance. The reintegration of Kristaps Porzingis since the end of November is digested, and the hierarchy is again established.
“We had to restore our identity, and this identity has changed because the environment has changed”,, said the coach. “The teams played differently in front of us and they will continue to do so. So it took time to find everyone's pace. What we do as a team is really important, but the way each player fits into this team is also important. They better understand the impact they have on each other. We must continue to improve in this area ”.
This is especially what we saw yesterday, with Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis who each had their moment to shine around a Jayson Tatum as a leader of attack and who has once again come close The triple-double (25 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists).
“The merit is particularly coming back to JT, because it receives a lot of attention from the opponent”recognized KP, who also had his highlights on both sides of the prosecution. “He takes all kinds of defense, whether he is blitze or switches on him, or all that can be sent to him. But he remains altruistic, to want to make the right choice. It's the same for Jaylen Brown, who does the same thing. He will try to run in transition when he can, but if not, he is always guided by the idea of doing the right action, and in particular by bringing out the ball for me ”.
A threat diluted in the collective
Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown also had their share, but what about the end of the match of Derrick White, who released two 3-point baskets and two assists at the best time, while the Knicks, led by 27 points in The third quarter returned to -4 at the very beginning of the fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown then Jayson Tatum then took over to finish the job.
This end of the match, which may have escaped the Celtics a month ago, this time allowed everyone to show themselves, to the delight of Jayson Tatum, a fulfilled leader.
“The guys who started the fourth quarter did an incredible job, to make defensive stops when we needed them, to project themselves into transition. Jaylen Brown had lay-ups, we put big shots, like D-White, Jrue also did his thing … It's just about keeping his cool. We did not build our advance on a single action, and we were not going to take it back in a single action ”he recalled.
| Shots | Rebound | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | Lf | Off | Def | Early | PD | COP | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Jayson Tatum | 54 | 36.4 | 45.3 | 35.6 | 80.0 | 0.6 | 8.2 | 8.8 | 5.7 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 26.8 |
| Jaylen Brown | 48 | 35.2 | 46.2 | 32.3 | 75.2 | 1.5 | 4.6 | 6.1 | 4.8 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 22.9 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 31 | 29.0 | 47.6 | 39.9 | 82.3 | 1.6 | 5.3 | 6.9 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 19.2 |
| DERRICK White | 54 | 33.6 | 44.5 | 38.4 | 84.2 | 0.9 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 16.2 |
| Payton Pritchard | 56 | 27.8 | 46.8 | 41.2 | 83.6 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 13.9 |
| Jrue Holiday | 46 | 30.0 | 44.4 | 34.9 | 90.0 | 1.1 | 3.2 | 4.3 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 11.0 |
| Al Horford | 45 | 26.5 | 41.0 | 35.9 | 88.9 | 1.1 | 4.3 | 5.4 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 7.9 |
| Sam Hauser | 48 | 19.9 | 44.0 | 40.1 | 100.0 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 7.6 |
| Luke Kornet | 51 | 17.2 | 66.1 | 0.0 | 76.2 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 5.0 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 5.2 |
| Neemias Queta | 44 | 14.0 | 65.5 | 0.0 | 72.9 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 5.0 |
| Torrey Craig | 2 | 8.8 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| Drew Peterson | 14 | 9.0 | 48.0 | 42.1 | 85.7 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 2.7 |
| Jaden Springer | 26 | 5.4 | 35.3 | 31.6 | 71.4 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.7 |
| Jordan Walsh | 38 | 7.5 | 35.7 | 28.2 | 58.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| JD Davison | 5 | 4.7 | 40.0 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| Xavier Tillman, Sr. | 27 | 7.3 | 24.4 | 17.4 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.9 |
| Baylor Scheierman | 13 | 5.7 | 15.8 | 7.1 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
