Getting off to a strong start in the first quarter can set a team up for success the rest of the game. If that analogy can hold true for a whole NBA season, then the Boston Celtics look set for a pretty solid 2020-21 campaign.
There have been struggles for them for sure, but with Boston sitting at 9-6 and giving the Philadelphia 76ers a tough fight without some of their key players still sitting out due to COVID restrictions, it’s easy to have optimism about this season.
When you consider the Celtics have gotten here while fighting COVID issues and going through the first month of the season without Kemba Walker, that’s not too shabby.
The road doesn’t get any easier for the franchise coming up, but they have a strong core of players who appear to have the ability to keep the team near the top of the Eastern Conference.
3 Boston Celtics players have performed better than the rest so far
Boston has gotten some big contributions from both expected and unexpected sources in the early going. There are 3 players, however, who have risen above the rest as the C’s top performers early on this season:
Boston Celtics player No. 1) Jaylen Brown
Everyone knew what to expect from Jayson Tatum.
The NBA All-Star has developed into a legitimate stud in the league, and he’s only built upon that this season.
What many weren’t expecting was the type of splash Jaylen Brown has made.
Brown has asserted himself as the Celtics’ next star on the roster alongside Tatum, and he’s enjoying a phenomenal start to the 2020-21 season, boasting career-highs in points per game (26.9), assists per game (3.7), and steals per game (1.4) while also averaging 6.0 rebounds and connecting on 41.6 percent of his threes.
The fifth-year wing is taking more shots and has the highest Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of any starter this season with a 24.9 mark.
He’s been one of the most productive offensive players for the teams this season.
Brown has scored 20 or more points in all but two games so far this year, and he’s eclipsed the 30-point mark four times, including putting up 40-plus points twice. Before this season, Brown had scored 30 or more points just eight times in his previous 279 games as a Celtic.
Boston needed a second big-time scorer to emerge alongside Tatum, especially with Kemba Walker missing the first month of the season.
Brown has been that and more, and he’s possibly been the MVP of the C’s in the first quarter of the season.
Boston Celtics player No. 2) Payton Pritchard
There hasn’t been a bigger surprise on Boston’s roster this season than rookie point guard Payton Pritchard.
The first-round draft pick out of Oregon proved to be invaluable for the shamrocks in the first quarter of this season.
Pritchard played a huge role in Kemba Walker’s absence, and he consistently provided a spark off the bench in support of veterans Marcus Smart and Jeff Teague. The rookie hasn’t started a game for the C’s, but he’s averaging nearly 21 minutes a contest coming off the bench.
In those minutes, Pritchard has done just about everything, averaging 7.7 points, 2.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds, and nearly on steal a game while shooting 42.5 percent from three and 90 percent from the free-throw line.
Pritchard has done the dirty work, dropped 20-plus points, and even hit a game-winner in the first quarter of the first season of his NBA career.
The Boston Celtics likely wouldn’t be where they are right now if not for the contributions Pritchard has given them.
With Kemba Walker back in the lineup, Pritchard’s role may diminish a bit once he returns from injury, but he’ll still be counted on to provide quality minutes off the bench for Boston moving forward.
Boston Celtics player No. 3) Robert Williams
I debated whether or not I should put Jayson Tatum in this third spot, and I think the Celtics’ biggest name certainly deserves the recognition.
Ultimately, however, I decided to put the spotlight on the Time Lord.
Though Williams has been fighting COVID lately, he was proving to be a quality player off the bench before that, and many Boston Celtics fans were clamoring to see him earn a starting role over Daniel Theis.
This is because Williams has been extremely efficient on both sides of the court in his limited amount of minutes.
Surprisingly, the big man actually has the second-highest PER of any member of the team this season at 24.3. He’s averaging just 16.2 minutes a game, but he’s making 72.7 percent of his field goals and has a true shooting percentage of 75.8 percent, the highest on the team.
His rebounding percentage (21.2) is the highest among Boston’s regular contributors, as is his block percentage (7.9). His defensive box plus/minus of 1.3 is easily the highest of any player on the team who averages at least 15 minutes a game.
If you’re looking for efficiency, no Celtics has been better at that this season than Robert Williams. He’s taken advantage of his minutes, averaging 6.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, and one steal while making over 72 percent of his shots and nearly 86 percent of his free-throws.
It’s a smaller sample size than a lot of Boston’s roster, but Williams has been a highly-effective performer when he’s been on the court.
He deserves his mention.