Terry Rozier Answers the Call for the Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics needed multiple players to step up in game three, and Terry Rozier was as big as anyone

The Boston Celtics knew that they needed to be better in game three. Brad Stevens completely changed the rotation, and made everything about small ball, but that lone would not be enough. The bottom line was always that the Celtics needed their players on the court to perform better, and that is what happened in game three.

A lot of the familiar names stepped up. Avery Bradley‘s defense was superb, Al Horford had one of his most complete games of the season, Isaiah Thomas was the offensive instigator they needed to get everyone involved and Jae Crowder did a great job of setting the tone with his three point shooting in the first quarter.

While these key pieces will always be the most important, the Celtics still know how important their second unit is, and how important it is to have contributors on the court at all times. After being a non factor for the majority of the regular season, Brad Stevens decided that Terry Rozier would get an opportunity to leave his mark on this series, and he did not disappoint.

Rozier has been riding the bench and playing garbage time all season long. He has been inconsistent and wild, often a liability on both ends. Rozier put all of that behind him, and put together the most important performance of his young career. Rozier was not the most important player on the team, but he had about as big of an impact that you can get out of a backup point guard at the time when the team needed it the most.

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Now that the Celtics have seen the success they can get with small ball, Rozier will continue to be essential. His size and athleticism helps make up for size issues and helps him contribut on the boards, but he was so much more than that in game three.

Rozier was instigating things in transition, capped off by a ferocious dunk as the game was put away in the fourth quarter. Even more importantly, however, is that he was hitting his three point shots. The Celtics went to small ball largely because of the spacing is provides, and that always hinges on hitting shots. Rozier hit three of his five attempts from outside, and finished a remarkable +19 in 23 minutes played.

Of course, consistency has been Rozier’s biggest issue, and it is far from a guarantee that he will have another performance like this, but he has officially become a more trusted option in this series than any big coming off the bench.

Rozier brings energy and excitement, but the execution and trust on both ends is why he was given one less minute than Kelly Olynyk, Jonas Jerebko and Tyler Zeller combined. Stevens saw something special in Rozier, and getting these contributions will be vital to the second unit. This was the first time in the series when the Celtics really got an advantage with Thomas on the bench, and Rozier was a huge reason why.

The most promising aspect of Rozier’s game was the trust. Rozier did not just play a lot of minutes, but he played vitally important minutes. It speaks volumes that Rozier was not just the first player off the bench, but he was trusted to close the entire fourth quarter.

With the season on the line, Rozier played every important minute of that fourth quarter, and at no point was he a liability. Rozier did more than enough in that fourth quarter alone to even see an increase in his role, which should not be going away any time soon.

The Celtics have always used their depth to get an advantage, but that was not the case for the first two games. The starters could not even get comfortable, so forget about what the second unit was looking like.

With absolutely no guard depth after the Rajon Rondo injury, Rozier will have match ups to exploit all game long. The Bulls literally do not have one other capable point guard to start, so try and imagine what that does to the second unit back court.

The biggest weakness of this Bulls teams is now that point guard depth, and the Celtics know it is something they need to exploit. Especially in a game where Marcus Smart was not able to have a huge impact as a scorer, having Rozier play like this changed what the second unit was capable of doing.

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The Celtics still have a lot of work to do in this series, and you should expect Rozier to continue to get the ball from Stevens based on how well he did with his biggest opportunity in game three.

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