Celtics
Jayson Tatum posted almost a triple double and Luke Kornet had his best game of the season when the Celtics won their eighth game in a row on Saturday and defeated the Spurs with 121-111.
Here are the snack bars.
Jayson Tatum ankle looked good.
After Tatum's short injury of the Kings, he returned to the road -up on Saturday and looked as dominant as he had before he sat down.
Tatum, as he tends this season, worked into the sport. He achieved a layup early and buried a deep 3 pointer, but he looked again satisfied to play a supportive role when the Celtics scored a lead of nine points in the primary quarter.
While a game continues, Tatum tends to cut back opponents and the Spurs were no exception. Devin Vassell is an excellent defender who has often drawn the Tatum task, but he is just not strong enough to maintain Tatum away from color, and his only hope was to disturb Tatum's dribble (which he did several times). The Celtics star got here downhill repeatedly and within the second half he achieved considered one of his higher movements from the jump within the transition euro level with Manu Ginobili, who were present for the sport on Saturday.
Tatum plays the sport completely at its own speed. In half -court sets he knows exactly what works. He does it well that he spam the identical game many times in half-court sentences, even when it doesn't at all times increase his box rating statistics, but mostly it increases its box rating statistics at the top. He is doing well and brains the opponent's best player. He goes well within the transition. He is positive from three.
“Just take what the defense gives him and is proactive,” said Joe Mazzulla. “He does a great job with pace, reads the 2-on-1 games, knows when he should bait the 2-against-1 bait if not.
We said it before this season, but it repeats itself: Tatum is not a MVP candidate this year (and should it not be), but when he enters his heyday, he shows the blueprint for a player who could carry out a serious MVP campaign at some point.
Luke Kornet fully controlled the third quarter.
Speaking of MVPS, let's talk about Luke Kornet.
The Celtics overwhelmed the Spurs with their size from the beginning of the game – Jeremy Soschan is an admirable player, but not a match for Kristaps Porzingis.
However, the advantage of the Celtics was the most urgent in the third quarter when Kornet completely took over the game. Kornet dominated the Spurs in the color and caught several praise from driving guards.
Kornet was also able to help himself and his teammates on several points of the second chance to help-he put a career high by taking 16 rebounds, including seven offensive. The Celtics were able to throw shots on the edge with a lot of self -confidence and knew that Kornet can track them down and complete them when they miss.
Koret ended with 15 points, 16 rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes of the campaign, and he was a team high of +21 in a game that the Celtics had won at 10.
A less used double Big set.
The Celtics often have been appropriate with double-big boards last month, and when Al Horford failed on Saturday due to a toe problem, the porzingis cornet-man installation has been more precise.
Cornet porcingis did not run as much as the Cornet Horford, which has exceeded the cleaning of the glass-in 706 owners this season with 13 points per 100 possessions. But Kornet porcingis is perhaps still potential as a pairing: This season, the opponents will surpass 21.8 points per 100 possessions this season, including a 99th percentile 127.4 points and 105.5 points that were abandoned per 100.
On Saturday, Kornet and Porzingis were even more devastating against a trace team than usual, whose highest rotary winner Sandro Mamukelashvili was, a 6-foot 9 bank that played 16 minutes. The Spurs fought to navigate through the waving arms of both 7-footers, and they tried to recover.
Other teams will have more answers than the Spurs, but the Celtics look really good when they have several bigs on the floor.
“We only give us a special identity. It gives us a presence and forces the opposite team to satisfy us otherwise than if only considered one of them was on the market,” said Mazzulla. “They are each dynamically dynamic in their very own way. KPS marginal protection, Luke's ability to manage different matchups and different covers. So we only have something else, but I enjoy seeing these two games.”
Jrue Holiday catches fire at the right time.
Last year, Jrue Holiday managed to lead an apparently not sustainable 3-point percentage throughout the season and the playoffs.
This season the holiday fought a little – 33.5 percent of Deep, which is more than nine percent worse than the 42.9 percent mark in the previous year.
In the last five games, however, the vacation shoots 44.4 percent. On Saturday he was 5: 7 and scored 21 points in a number of impressive games that seem to see the Celtics at the right time.
The vacation is a luxury in this team – a overqualified role player who seems to be more than ready to play his role in a team full of stars. When it is achieved in a high clip, the Celtics are borderline: they are 26: 3 this season when he reaches double -digit numbers, and one of the losses was the bizarre game against the grizzlies when the now located Taylor Jenkins successfully dared to beat them and he went 8: 26.
“When I scored points, all points shall be,” said Holiday. “It will only make our team so significantly better. I sometimes hear it not 3s or not to suit, but I feel I do I do my best and check out to be aggressive.”
Seven players reached double -digit digits.
On a night in which no player was uniquely great (with the exception of Koret), the Celtics received contributions up and down – Tatum and public holidays were the only two to top 20, while Jaylen Brown 14, Derrick White, and both porcingis and Hauser added 11.
Jaylen Brown looked uncomfortable.
Brown recently said reporters that he had to deal with a knee problem for the first time in his career, and he didn't look particularly comfortable on Saturday. At some point in the first half he went down and had to take the time to get up again, which was a bit worrying, and he certainly didn't look as if he had his usual pop up and down and down.
At the risk of saying the obvious, Brown is of essential importance for the playoff hopes of the Celtics. This season, he played eight remaining games shortly before qualifying for all-NBA with the qualification for all-NBA. If he played goalless, but in the next six games, he would still end the season with an average of more than 20 points per game, which does not mean that Mazzulla plays two minutes per game and the rest of the way (right?), But should only tell him that the Celtics will probably not override him before the end of the season.
“You trust him. You trust the sports science team. You trust the trainers,” said Mazzulla. “He takes care of his body and does all the pieces he can to be available, and he’s happy with it. Only constant communication and constant trust with him and the staff.”
Baylor Scheiman's place in the rotation.
Scheierman is a rookie who spent a large part of the season in the G-League and shouldn't get a playoff minute, but it was noteworthy that in a game when the Celtics were without Payton Pritchard and Horford, the only player was outside of regular rotation to get minutes. On Saturday he made a few 3-pointer, including this no-dip sammer special special.
Scheierman scored seven points and scored two templates in 19 minutes.
Can you finish it?
The Celtics, who’ve now won eight games in a row, have the prospect to place together an ideal road trip with six games on Monday in the event that they take over against the grizzlies at 7:30 p.m.
image credit : www.boston.com