The Boston Celtics entered the night one day removed from a crazy trade deadline that saw a massive overhaul of their roster, specifically, a facelift for their bench bringing in new troops in the form of standout two-way guard, Derrick White, and former Celtic in Daniel Theis.
The Denver Nuggets are led by one of the MVP frontrunners in Nikola Jokic and, like Boston, has an incredible five-man unit for the starters. The C’s were going for their seventh straight win and being short-staffed on the roster made it quite the challenge.
Boston had the services of the former Spurs guard Friday night, but the German big man was unavailable. Ime Udoka stuck with the same thought process of a short eight-man rotation.
A shortened rotation that has led to much of the recent success for the shamrocks.
Friday, the major changes in the rotation were Derrick White taking Josh Richardson’s minutes, and Payton Pritchard assuming the main backup point guard role.
The Nuggets had their usual cast of injuries with the addition of starting guard, Monte Morris out in concussion protocols.
The Celtics came out sluggish to start the first quarter, but the insurgence of the newly acquired guard, White, helped Boston cut the deficit to two to end the first.
The newest Boston Celtics player was met with a standing ovation and led the team on a 13-0 run to end the quarter.
The second quarter saw sloppy offensive schemes from the C’s, allowing the Nuggets to build that lead to nine at halftime, 60-51.
To open the second half, the Celtics came out with shoddy defense and careless turnovers leading to an early timeout. In hindsight, whatever coach Udoka said in that huddle led Boston to shore things up defensively and force turnovers instead of being on the receiving end of them.
Also, valuing the possession of the basketball.
The Boston Celtics would win the third quarter and enter a back and forth affair for most of the final frame.
Behind the roars of TD Garden, the green team would bring it home, led by the defensive prowess of a deadly closing five of White, Smart, Brown, Tatum, and Rob Williams.
The identity of the team is defense and forcing the reigning MVP, Nikola Jokic to commit nine turnovers is icing on the cake.
Here are 3 takeaways from Boston’s thrilling victory over the Denver Nuggets: