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:
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 1) Derrick White is a Celtic!
Derrick White checked into the game and received an ovation from Boston Celtics fans, excited to see what his new addition could mean for the team.
He did not disappoint, with a staunch defensive presence and silky smooth playmaking touch which made for a treat to watch.
A couple of nightly notables may be that he has the quickest shot release on the C’s and may already be their most talented passer. White’s debut came with fireworks, leading the Celtics on a 13-0 run with eight quick first-quarter points.
The 6-4 guard’s first play as a Celtic was a lob pass to Jaylen Brown to finish a fast break. A culmination of what we have been looking for — a natural pass-first guard to set the Jays up for success.
Any opportunity to not have Tatum or Brown bring up the ball is a good basketball decision. They are not meant to be “point forwards”.
The offense needed to be simplified and it’ll come with actual ball-handling guards bringing up the rock.
Most of our best possessions offensively came on the tail end of fantastic ball movement starting with Smart or White initiating the flow.
The former Spur would finish the night with 15 points, none bigger than a dagger inside score off of a sly assist from Brown.
The 27-year-old logged 28 minutes and was a team-high +11 off the bench.
I’m not going to touch on this too much, but White does nearly everything better than Richardson.
Better on-ball defender, off-ball defender, and I personally believe a better shooter given the countless open looks he will get from the Jays kicking out of double teams.
J-Rich also was not on the level of playmaker that White is at the moment, averaging nearly six assists a contest.
I love Josh, but this is an upgrade.
The difference was on the Spurs, there was no one drawing double teams and therefore this led to fewer open shots for Derrick, a guy who shot a blistering 48 percent on corner treys last season.
A rough shooting season makes sense with this context.
Unlike Celtics Blog writer, Neil Iyer, we at HH do not feel that the Derrick White trade was a disaster.
In fact, we had him as a primary target during the trade deadline and are happy he bleeds green now.
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 2) Timelord matches up well with the Joker
Robert Williams absolutely held his own with Serbian superstar, Nikola Jokic.
In the past, this has not been a favorable matchup for Rob. Timelord’s tenacious presence on the glass and ability to guard the Joker on the perimeter were noteworthy sights to see.
Helping lead a team-wide effort to swipe the rock away from the big, leading to Jokic having a near quadruple-double with nine turnovers, Williams’ endless motor and high defensive awareness caused the MVP to have issues tonight.
Obviously, Nikola still finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds, and 11 assists for the triple-double.
Going deeper into what was actually an off night for the All-Star, with so many sloppy turnovers and the abnormally low 3-point percentage going 3-10 from distance.
Rob challenged the MVP all night, contesting everything to make for tougher shots. He would finish with a double-double at 15 points and a team-high 16 rebounds.
Savvy defense from the 6-8 center led to three blocks and two steals to boot.
It may not jump out on the stat sheet, but the eye test shows the Boston Celtics using Rob as more of a playmaker on the interior and running some offense through his crafty passing ability.
The C’s starting center of the future just went toe to toe with arguably the best big man in the NBA.
This will always be a takeaway.
Robert Williams will have another incredible test coming against the Sixers with Joel Embiid.
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 3) Ime sticks to his eight-man rotation
One of the classic criticisms of Boston Celtics head coach, Ime Udoka, is not going deep enough into his bench. In this latest stretch, he rarely even plays more than nine guys meaningful minutes.
Despite the backlash, this shortened rotation is having tremendous success for Boston. The reality is a normal playoff rotation will only consist of eight or nine guys, anyway.
It’s easy to imagine that the new nine for the Celtics rotation will be Smart, Brown, Tatum, Horford, Rob Williams, Grant Williams, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Daniel Theis in some situational minutes.
Udoka has tried to appease us by “playing the kids”.
Honestly, it has led to no more than three occasions of the gino unit almost blowing the game. Ideally, even in fading minutes with large leads, we cannot completely trust those guys in.
Players like Aaron Nesmith, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet will look to change this narrative and prove they can make contributions.
As of right now, the Boston Celtics have won seven straight and are hotter than a pack of firecrackers.
You cannot mess with the rotation too much.
We have to praise the coach for getting this team to buy in defensively and improve offensively. Also despite much criticism, sticking with his eight-man rotation.
To close, Derrick White bleeds green now, Robert Williams is a rising star, and the eight-man rotation is more than fine for now.