Oshae Brissett swung the momentum in the Celtics‘ favor and made a strong case for a rotation spot in Friday’s win over the Heat, writes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. The Eastern Conference Finals rematch saw Boston trailing 26-13 when Brissett entered the game in the first quarter. He pounded the offensive glass and threw down an impressive dunk that cut the lead to three points within about five minutes.
“He was the sole reason that we got back into the game, and I told him that,” Jayson Tatum said. “He came right in, and we were kind of flat. His energy, his offensive rebounding, giving us second- and third-chance opportunities was big. And that’s his job. For him to come do that, to not play last game and come in today and give us the spark to turn the game around was huge. And that’s what I love about our team.”
“We know that we’re going to be important throughout a lot of these games of the season,” he said of himself and his fellow reserves. “And then when it comes to playoff time, we’re going to be relied on, even if it’s for a little bit. Just go in there and just do what we do and do what we’ve learned all of training camp. So we take every practice like that and we’ve taken it really serious and going up against starters and it’s making them better. And it’s also making us better and more confident in ourselves knowing that any time we do get thrown in, we’ve just got to play the same way.”
There’s more from Boston:
- Jaylen Brown is prepared to fill some of the leadership void created when Marcus Smart was traded to Memphis, per Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Brown, now the longest-tenured member of the team, plans to take a more vocal approach than in past years. “I’m comfortable being in that (leadership) role,” he said. “I think at times I’ve wanted to be more in that role, but we had a lot of cooks in the kitchen so sometimes your voice is redundant.”
- Derrick White showed an increased level of aggressiveness in closing out the win over Miami, observes Matt Vautour of MassLive. White scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and attacked the basket when he got the opportunity instead of deferring to his star teammates. “I’ve been an advocate for D-White since he joined the team three years ago,” Tatum said. “I tried to tell him to be more aggressive. To score. To attack. To make plays. He’s at his best when he’s being aggressive.”
- With the Celtics adding size in the offseason, Mazzulla is placing a greater emphasis on offensive rebounding, according to Souichi Terada of MassLive. It paid off Friday as Boston scored 23 second-chance points and grabbed 36% of the available offensive boards.
Jaylen your not him, your not the leader.
This is Tatums team.
Holiday and Horford are the vets which should be helping Tatum lead this thing. Your a really really good side kick, which there is nothing wrong with being. But you should worry about that not being the leader
Brown is a leader on this team. He’s the longest tenured and will speak up. Remember he and Smart getting into it in the locker room during the bubble playoffs? Tatum isn’t going to speak up, Holiday is new in town and Al is now a role player. Brown is the highest paid player in the league and an all star. I’m glad he wants to lead.
Is Brown the longest tenured? Or is it Horford?
Brown has been with the C’s for 8, Horford 6
You don’t have to be the best player to be a leader. The Warriors leader was literally Iggy, for a while. It’s fine. What matters is if he leads well and speaks up and motivates and holds accountable
Also, anyone who thinks that Draymond and Klay aren’t leaders there, or that they’re better than Steph, should be laughed out of the room.
All Celtics need now is a coach! The Celtics have not looked that good in their first two games! In the playoffs they will get beat because of coaching! Their offensive sets are terrible, all they do is stand outside a circle and whoever has the ball shoots. We need a good coach
Let me see, we’ve played 2 games of … 82. So we have 80 games left to get ready for the playoffs. And we have 2 stars who can drive thru opponents to the rim and finish. They need to do so a bunch of times in each game or we’re not playing to our strengths. Go Celtics!
You’re ridiculous.