Boston Celtics: 3 Cs who have most at stake heading into postseason
By Mark Nilon
The Boston Celtics seemingly pulled off the impossible during their Tuesday night play-in bout against the Washington Wizards — they played a quality basketball.
Led by the likes of All-Star wing, Jayson Tatum, and his stellar 50 points the shamrocks outlasted the Washington Wizards in regulation by a final score of 118-100 and, ultimately, secured their seventh consecutive trip to the NBA postseason.
Though we at the Houdini were trepidacious about the Cs going all out in the play-in tournament, even going as far as to say they should consider tanking, the reality is they’re now on their way to Brooklyn to gear up for a first-round matchup against the star-studded Nets.
While no one truly believes the Celtics have a real shot to take down arguably the greatest group of basketball talents to ever be assembled (though, of course, there’s a chance), the series does have some intriguing storylines attached to it.
From an individual standpoint, we at the site believe there is a ton at stake for 3 specific players on the Boston Celtics:
Boston Celtics player No. 1) Evan Fournier
Brought on at this year’s trade deadline by means of the C’s historically large TPE, Evan Fournier was said to be viewed as a much-needed quaternary scorer as well as a potential long-term asset within the team’s rotation.
Since his arrival, however, the veteran sharpshooter has been highly inconsistent, as he only managed to suit up in 16 of a potential total of 27 games — though, admittedly, it was due to COVID and, in turn, not really his fault — and, in the games he did wind up playing, has put up scoring outings ranging from literally nothing to a whopping 30.
In essence, Fournier’s scoring outputs have been on a constant up and down rollercoaster and Tuesday’s play-in game was on the ride’s low point, as he went just 3-11 from the field for eight total points.
Now, while not a terrible performance, such a stat line was certainly not what the 28-year-old was brought in to log and, should things not stabilize and have his production revert back to his Orlando days — was averaging 19.7 points on 39 percent shooting from deep earlier this season –, one could easily see Danny Ainge and co. opting to pass on re-signing the impending free agent this summer.