Boston Celtics
Brown scored 41 points in Boston’s win.
Jaylen Brown had his high-school jersey retired on Friday, and he spent Saturday night beating up on the Hawks in a 132-106 Celtics blowout win.
Here are the takeaways.
Jaylen Brown was largely uncontested
The Hawks had absolutely nothing for Jaylen Brown.
That was always going to be the case when Dyson Daniels was ruled out for the game, and it was perhaps especially likely just 24 hours after Wheeler, Brown’s high school, retired his number.
Brown had a monster game, albeit a short one — 41 points on 14-for-30 shooting to go with six rebounds and two assists in just 29 minutes since he sat the entire fourth quarter. Throughout the season, he has done a great job of getting his teammates involved, but his focus on Saturday appeared to be putting his head down and getting where he wanted to go, moving less physically gifted Hawks defenders out of the way with what appeared to be relative ease.
Brown was coming off three relatively inefficient sub-30-point games, which — by his standards this season — counts as a cold stretch. His standard may be unreasonably high at this point, but to be fair, he’s the one who put it up there by declaring himself the best two-way player in the world. An MVP candidate can go through a quieter stretch, but to keep himself in the conversation, he needs to bounce back in a big way, and Saturday’s game was a great start.
The loss to the Spurs showed the limits of what even Brown can do when attacking one of the most unique and devastating defensive presences the NBA has seen. The win over Miami showed what the Celtics can do when someone else takes over for Brown on an off night.
But Saturday’s game was an emphatic reminder that the Celtics revolve around Brown this season, even when others get themselves going. Brown warps the defense, and he gives the offense both a focal point when things are going right and an outlet when things are going wrong.
Brown called the experience of seeing his number retired “surreal.” Hopefully he enjoyed himself, because the chances are very high that it will not be the last time in his life that he watches his jersey raised to the rafters of an arena, and the next one will have to be lifted a lot higher.
Sam Hauser caught fire (and then tried a little too hard)
Sam Hauser seems to have found his shooting stroke, and he nearly made Celtics history.
Hauser finished with 30 points, all on 3-pointers. He shot 10-for-21 from deep, and his shooting helped push the Celtics into a big first-half lead, and then turned the second half of the game into a joke, which is one of the best things about Hauser’s skill set — few other players can completely alter the trajectory of a contest over a four-minute span, and sometimes Hauser does it a few times in a game.
The Celtics’ record for 3-pointers made in a single game was set by Marcus Smart in 2020, a very funny piece of Celtics lore given that Smart was always far more convinced of his ability to make 3-pointers than anyone else, including the people who calculate complex stats like “3-point percentage.” That Smart got hot enough to hold the record for a franchise that has employed the likes of Larry Bird, Ray Allen, and any number of other shooters in the 3-point-happy Joe Mazzulla era is a stat that we here hope stands for many years still simply for comedic purposes.
Hauser did his best to barge in the history books in the fourth quarter — his 10th 3-pointer was very deep curling off a screen above the break — but the record stubbornly refused to fall.
Hauser was clearly well aware of the summit he was close to reaching, and he started firing up shots whenever he touched the ball. He missed four wild attempts which appeared to cost him quite a bit of his energy, and when two organic opportunities came to him within the flow of the offense, he left both of those short as well.
The lesson, as always: Never chase a statistical achievement, because the more you want it, the more likely it is to elude you.
Hauser was, of course, phenomenal. When he gets in a rhythm, his 3-pointer is a thing of beauty.
Derrick White is a defensive menace
White had an odd game offensively — he scored just seven points and took just four shots, but he absolutely picked the Hawks apart with his passing. He dished out 12 assists and appeared in complete control of the game against a Hawks defense that had few answers and seemingly very little motivation to find any. The Celtics made 22 3-pointers, and White’s quick passing set up seven of them.
Defensively, White made three particularly impactful plays (if any play in what was at one point a 43-point blowout can be considered “particularly” impactful). Two were in transition, poking the ball away from Jalen Johnson as the Hawks star tried to get out and run. Those kinds of steals are not only infuriating for the offensive player, they also reverse a fast break in its tracks.
White also picked off a pass on the first play of the second half and ran it back for a layup, setting the tone for the second half. At the time, the Celtics held a 31-point lead. If there was any question as to whether the Hawks were going to find a way to whittle it down before the Celtics’ starters were removed, White removed them with one fell swoop.
Baylor Scheierman got the start and played well
With Payton Pritchard sidelined due to an ankle injury, Scheierman stepped in and filled his role admirably with nine points, including three 3-pointers. Scheierman’s ability to handle the ball in transition is helpful, his size and lateral movement make him a really solid defensive option, and he appears to be working hard on a similar no-dip 3-pointer to the one that we see Hauser hoist from time to time.
In your periodic update on the bizarre musical chairs Mazzulla seems to be playing with his wing rotation, Scheierman and Hugo González played 32 and 30 minutes respectively, while Jordan Walsh played 11. Josh Minott received yet another DNP-CD.
Jayson Tatum LOVES the Anfernee Simons experience
When Simons went wild against the Heat and dragged the Celtics back for an important win, Tatum could be seen covering his face with his hands and running up the sideline.
In the first half, after Simons buried a heavily contested three right in a defender’s face, Simons and Tatum came face to face, and Tatum shoved Simons in celebration.
Simons followed up his 39-point masterpiece in Miami with a quieter 14-point night on 5-for-10 shooting as Brown and Hauser exploded, but he briefly ignited in the second quarter during the stretch when the Celtics started to put real distance between themselves and the Hawks.
Jayson Tatum appears to be fully aligned with this writer on the Anfernee Simons experience: Keep him around. Scorers of his quality simply aren’t easy to find.
What’s next
Despite losing three of four to the Nuggets, Spurs and Pacers, the Celtics are still second in the East, leading the flailing Knicks by 1.5 games after Saturday’s win.
With Saturday’s beatdown behind them, the Celtics can now take a look at Monday’s monster showdown: An 8 p.m. game against the Pistons in Detroit on NBC and Peacock. They will then return home for a one-off game against the Pacers Wednesday before hitting the road again for an odd back-to-back in Brooklyn and Chicago next Friday and Saturday.
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