Boston Celtics
Simons was a crucial part of the Celtics’ big push to put the game away with three backbreaker 3-pointers and a couple of nice defensive plays.
Anfernee Simons and the Celtics exploded late against the Pelicans on Monday, using a massive fourth-quarter push to claim a 122-90 victory for their first win of the season.
Here are the takeaways.
Anfernee Simons had his best game yet
Watching Anfernee Simons is kind of like traveling to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful — you’re waiting for him to erupt, and if he doesn’t, you aren’t going to see much. For stretches on Monday, Simons struggled to shoot, which seems to take him out of his game more than it should for a player with his varied skill set, but that has been the case throughout his career. If the jumper is falling, Simons is a killer. If it’s not, he’s quiet. Defensively, Simons had some ugly hiccups as well, particularly guarding Jordan Poole, who baited him into two bad fouls.
But, when Simons gets going, he can really detonate. He was a crucial part of the Celtics’ big push to put the game away with three backbreaker 3-pointers and a couple of nice defensive plays. He finished with a team-high 25 points on 9-for-17 shooting and made six of his 13 3-point attempts.
There is a good chance that this will be the Anfernee Simons experience throughout the season: When he makes shots, the Celtics become a very hard team to beat. Simons’ shooting opens up the game for Sam Hauser, which opens up the game for Payton Pritchard, which opens up the game for Derrick White, etc. If you watched the Celtics last year, you know how this all works.
One of the best aspects about Simons’ game is that when he gets hot, he becomes borderline automatic, and he is very good at heating up quickly. It only takes one, as Brian Scalabrine is fond of saying on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast.
As the Celtics get used to one another, figuring out how to rub two sticks together and ignite Simons as often as possible will be an important part of maximizing their odd, mismatched roster.
The Celtics are great when they make shots
Simons wasn’t the only player to make shots late. Sam Hauser also hit two triples in the fourth quarter, and Luka Garza buried one of his three 3-point makes as the Celtics pulled away. They won the fourth quarter 35-12, allowing just three field goals, and after Poole’s 3-pointer with 9:14 left in the fourth cut the lead to five, the Celtics finished the game on a 31-4 run.
When the Celtics make 3-pointers, they can turn a game around in a blink.
Josh Minott is a maniac
On Monday, Josh Minott got the first start of his NBA career and he made the most of it with a hyper-efficient statline – 15 points (6-for-9 shooting), nine rebounds and an assist, steal, and block. Minott made a 3-pointer out of the corner – a really important element of his game – and defended hard, picking up full court on several occasions.
But what really made Minott stand out was his chaotic hustle – the kind of hustle the Celtics most recently saw in Aaron Nesmith before he was dealt to the Pacers. On the first play of the game, Minott charged forward and finished off an alley-oop dunk in just five seconds.
At another point, he picked off a pass, raced up the floor, jumped from just a little too far away from the basket and threw down a massive two-handed dunk. After the dunk, he swung forward a bit, and his hands slid off the rim. That’s a dangerous position for a player, and sure enough, Minott crashed to the ground — landing hard on his hip.
Minott, however, is apparently made of much tougher stuff than his skinny frame would suggest. He popped back up instantly and started pressuring Jordan Poole in an effort to keep the Pelicans guard from getting the ball on the inbounds.
Minott finished a staggering +42 in the box score, which was bolstered by his presence during the Celtics’ finishing kick but is impressive nonetheless. He received a DNP-CD against the Knicks and just 14 minutes against the Pistons, but in his first start, he gave Joe Mazzulla reason to consider more in the future.
Jaylen Brown didn’t have to play much
Jaylen Brown has been dealing with a hamstring issue, but he said he wanted to play both games of the back-to-back, and Mazzulla told reporters he trusts his star wing to make decisions about his body. Hamstring injuries can linger, and playing Brown in both contests felt a bit risky given his outsized importance to a team that will be without Jayson Tatum for the foreseeable future.
The good news: Brown didn’t have to do much on Monday. He dealt with foul trouble for much of Monday’s game and was forced down with five fouls at the 10:12 mark in the fourth quarter — just in time, as we previously noted, for the Celtics to become fully engulfed in flames and run the Pelicans off the floor. He finished with 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting to go with four assists and, most importantly, just 24 minutes.
Derrick White had one of the best plays of the young season
The Celtics only have four games under their belts, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better play than this one by White in any of them so far.
With 8:06 remaining in the fourth, the Pelicans pushed the ball up the floor and found DeAndre Jordan (yes, that DeAndre Jordan, who is playing in his 18th NBA season and is still dunking the ball like the rim called him names) right by the hoop. Out of nowhere, White managed to get himself in front of Jordan and block or steal the ball — the NBA’s official box score called it a block, but either descriptor looks valid — then he started a fast break, which ended with a Simons 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 11.
White couldn’t find the range — he was just 1-for-9 from three and scored 11 points — but he was +21 and dished out a team-high seven assists.
The Celtics’ bigs were pretty good
After taking a beating during the first three losses of the season, the Celtics’ bigs deserve some praise for their performance against the Pelicans. Admittedly, New Orleans’ big situation was fairly desperate too — with Zion Williamson out, Yves Missi started at center and his back-up was the 37-year-old Jordan — but the Celtics’ bigs were largely positive.
Neemias Queta finished with 11 rebounds, seven of which were offensive, and he blocked four shots including one impressive volleyball spike in the third quarter after his alley-oop was broken up.
Garza, meanwhile, scored 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting in just 19 minutes. He finished off a pair of easy baskets in the paint in the fourth quarter, and he spaced the floor with his 3-point shooting.
The Celtics’ defensive rebounding looks like it will be a season-defining problem all year, but they got solid production from their bigs on Monday.
Hugo González didn’t play
The Celtics’ rookie was a bright spot in the first three losses, but he received a DNP-CD on Monday.
In his place, Baylor Scheierman got 14 minutes and had a solid-but-uneventful outing. Scalabrine praised him for a sacrificial cut in the first quarter that led to a wide open Simons 3-pointer, and in the third, he created an important turnover that led to a run-stopping 3-pointer by Sam Hauser, which pushed the lead back to 78-71 after the Pelicans cut it to four. Scheierman finished with three points on 1-for-3 shooting.
What’s next
The Celtics can breathe slightly easier now knowing that they won’t go 0-7 to start the season, but 1-6 is still uncomfortably plausible. They will now travel back to Boston to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday before hitting the road again for their first NBA Cup contest against the 76ers on Friday, followed by yet another back-to-back with Saturday’s contest against the Rockets.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
