Jayson Tatum clumsy, Kristaps Porzingis barely involved… Last night against the Nets, the Celtics had to draw on other resources to win. And, for once, the response came from the bench.
Sam Hauser contributed five award-winning baskets, or 15 units (5/10 on shots), Payton Pritchard 13 others (5/10 on shots also) while Luke Kornet flirted with the double-double (7 points and 9 rebounds). In total, the substitutes contributed 37 points.
“ For me, he changed the game for us. It’s easy to look at the mark coming off the bench and feel like they’re underperforming. But there are so many other things they do for us every day. Tonight we got to see the other side of the coin “, appreciate Joe Mazzulla who started by talking about Payton Pritchard.
The Celtics coach spoke this way because his team had the least prolific bench in the league before this meeting. The substitutes only contributed 15 points per match, more than half as many as last night, with a sad 39% success rate.
“ I think that the points coming from the bench are one thing, but I also think, in general, that we played against two very good teams, and that the way in which we attack, I observe it more for the whole of the team. Everyone can play better “, prefers to encompass Brad Stevensin reference to the team’s two consecutive defeats, before the reaction against the Nets.
Patience with this bench
In these two matches, against the Sixers and the Wolves, only Sam Hauser, top scorer in the “second unit”, managed to contribute something. At his side, Al Horford is less and less productive while Payton Pritchard falls into “all or nothing”, with a more pronounced tendency towards the second option. All is not dark, however. Because the Celtics bench is in the top 10 in terms of “net rating”.
“ We clearly need points from the bench. It’s good to see Payton score some baskets, Sam, it helps, but everyone has to continue to improve, learn to play together, and make sure we’re taking steps forward. And the bench is clearly one of them », continues the president.
The latter is intended to be reassuring in relation to players in difficulty at the moment: “ The season will be long. Particularly because we are talking about the six or seven players on each team who will play the majority of the minutes, and we are trying to find those who best fit these players. One thing is certain, we are not going to panic after a match, or a series of two matches, when Sam Hauser or Payton Pritchard do not make a shot. Everything will go well, everything will balance out. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Jayson Tatum | 7 | 36.5 | 53.7 | 41.1 | 81.1 | 0.6 | 9.1 | 9.7 | 3.6 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 28.4 |
| Jaylen Brown | 7 | 34.2 | 43.8 | 35.3 | 71.4 | 0.4 | 5.1 | 5.6 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 3.3 | 21.4 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 7 | 30.9 | 54.7 | 41.2 | 82.6 | 1.7 | 5.0 | 6.7 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 3.7 | 20.9 |
| Derrick White | 5 | 31.3 | 53.8 | 46.7 | 85.7 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 16.4 |
| Jrue Holiday | 7 | 34.3 | 44.3 | 37.5 | 85.7 | 1.9 | 5.4 | 7.3 | 5.3 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 13.4 |
| Sam Hauser | 7 | 18.7 | 45.2 | 40.5 | 100.0 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 8.1 |
| Dalano Banton | 2 | 9.0 | 71.4 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 6.5 |
| Al Horford | 7 | 24.2 | 35.0 | 22.7 | 100.0 | 2.3 | 3.9 | 6.1 | 2.1 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 5.0 |
| Payton Pritchard | 7 | 18.7 | 23.5 | 15.0 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 2.9 | 3.7 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 3.1 |
| Luke Kornett | 6 | 9.7 | 77.8 | 0.0 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Lamar Stevens | 3 | 5.6 | 57.1 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Oshae Brissett | 4 | 13.6 | 21.4 | 14.3 | 100.0 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | 3 | 6.6 | 37.5 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.7 |
