When we played them a month ago, I was just blown away by how good they were. Every team has a different set of circumstances. The Celtics sure aren't used to being an afterthought and they kind of were before the season with Jayson's injury and the departures of Kristaps and Al Horford.
The Celtics were fairly clear about their strategy in defending the Spurs superstar: Give up threes rather than twos and hope he can't shoot you out of the game. The strategy makes some sense - Wembanyama is solid, but he's only making 35 percent of his 3-point attempts this year. Joe Mazzulla loves to try to manipulate the math in his favor, and when part of the equation is a 7-foot-4 center that can do a little bit of everything offensively, the numbers become more difficult to square.
Nearly 10 months removed from a bleak night in New York when the Celtics lost both Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals and their superstar to a torn Achilles, Jayson Tatum returned to action on Friday, and his return - which overshadowed an impressive 120-100 victory by the Celtics over the Mavericks - was everything the team could have hoped.
I'm looking at Jaylen Brown, and I'm saying I would give it to him. The MVP doesn't always go to the best player. If that's the case, Michael Jordan would have won it about 10 times, okay? The fact of the matter is sometimes it goes to the most valuable individual [during] that particular season - taking all things into consideration in terms of what you bring it to the table, what you have to work with, and what you're working against.
With or without Tatum, even if Tatum doesn't come back, the Celtics are the scariest team in the Eastern Conference. The reason being is that there are no expectations. People thought this was going to be a gap year without Tatum.
Boucher didn't see game action in the final 23 games in his last season with Toronto, and it wasn't because of poor play. The 33-year-old was Toronto's leading bench scorer at 10.0 points per game while chipping in 4.5 rebounds, and was having one of his best shooting seasons, converting at 36.3 per cent from three-point range (3.9 attempts) while hitting at a 63.3 per cent clip from inside the arc. Among Raptors regulars, his +4.9 net rating was second.
We wouldn't be in the position that we're in right now if he didn't help us win games... His care factor's really high and he wanted to do whatever it takes to win. That's what I'll remember him for.
Less than 48 hours since they went 1-for-20 in the first half of a comeback victory against the Heat, the Celtics bricked their way to their worst performance of the season from 3-point range: 7-for-41, a brutal 17.1 percent from deep. Previously, the Celtics' worst performance this season was 11-for-51 (21.6 percent) in a loss to the Jazz in November. The last time they shot 17.1 percent or worse was Dec. 10, 2021 in a loss to the Suns (a season, incidentally, that featured a lot of incredibly bad 3-point shooting, including a 2-for-26 performance against the Wizards).
Boston Celtics: Jayson Tatum (Achilles) OUT John Tonje (trade pending) AVAILABLE Max Shulga (g-league) OUT Miami Heat: Tyler Herro (ribs) OUT Terry Rozier (not with team) OUT Boston Celtics: Derrick White, G Jaylen Brown, G Sam Hauser, F Luka Garza, F Neemias Queta, C Miami Heat: Davion Mitchell, G Norman Powell, G/F Pelle Larsson, G/F Andrew Wiggins, F Bam Adebayo, C Tipoff: 7:30 PM EST
The Nets spent most of Friday night looking like a team that actually learned something from Wednesday's mess at Madison Square Garden. And then, when the game demanded the smallest details, Brooklyn let it slip anyway. That's the brutal part of their 130-126 double-overtime loss to the Boston Celtics at Barclays Center. The Nets looked like they'd turned a page in stretches, but you're not fixing everything overnight, and the same late-game issues that have haunted them all season popped back up when it mattered most.
No one or nowhere does nostalgia quite like New England, and we have been indulging for the past few days. South Shore, North Shore, down the Cape, the islands, MetroWest, Boston, way inland, and even neighboring states: We are all sitting in multiple inches of snow and celebrating a comeback championship with the Patriots clinching the AFC title, just like the good old days.
