BOSTON — The Boston Celtics walked into Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers looking to right the ship. They had lost three of four games prior to tip-off, but based on the way they started against Indiana, they were clearly sick of that trend. Boston blew the doors off the Pacers.
From the beginning of the game, the Celtics outclassed their opponent. Jaylen Brown had a monstrous performance, responding well after one of his roughest games of the season against the Philadelphia 76ers. The rest of the squad filled in around him, and the Celtics cruised to a 142-105 victory over the Pacers.
Here are three studs and three duds from the Celtics win over the Pacers on Friday night.
Stud - Jaylen Brown
After one of the worst halves of his season on Christmas, Brown responded in a big way on Friday night. And that may be an understatement.
Brown was nothing short of incredible against the Pacers, especially in the first half. He started the game a perfect 9-of-9 from the floor, including a pair of thunderous dunks—one over Myles Turner and the other a windmill in transition.
A fire was lit under Brown as he tore the Pacers off bit by bit. There was nothing Indiana could do to slow him down as he scored from all over the court.
Defensively, Brown was ready to roll, too. He was getting steals and pestering any ball-handler the Pacers put in front of him.
Simply put, this was a completely dominant performance from the Celtics star.
Dud - Sam Hauser
With Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis out, the Celtics had to switch up their starting lineup, and Sam Hauser got the nod. Unfortunately, he didn’t capitalize on the opportunity as much as he could have.
Hauser made up for his cold shooting with some nice pull-up middys off of closeouts, but that’s not why he’s on the floor. The Celtics need his three-point shooting.
Back issues have been a lingering problem for Hauser, and while it’s not certain that’s what’s caused his struggles, he just hasn’t been the same shooter this year as he was last season. He was cold from deep in this one.
Stud - Jayson Tatum
As Brown destroyed the Pacers with his insane scoring output, Jayson Tatum focused his efforts on other parts of the game. He still got in his scoring numbers, including some nice finishes at the rim, but that wasn’t the highlight of his game on Friday.
Tatum was an absolute monster on the glass. He grabbed 10 boards in the first half and wasn’t done there. It looked like he made it his mission to attack the boards.
Boston had been struggling on defense in their past few games, and especially on Christmas, and rebounding is an important part of that side of the ball. Tatum was ultra-focused on closing out possessions against Indiana.
Dud - Neemias Queta
It’s small, and fairly insignificant, but Neemias Queta wasn’t great in his minutes. Normally, his performance wouldn’t be enough to earn him a dud. He wasn’t that bad. But considering how much the Celtics won by, somebody had to be thrown to the wolves.
Queta only saw the floor for a few minutes, but he was a bit too foul prone. And most noticeably, his screening is still less than ideal, as he was hit with a rough illegal screen call in this one.
Again, Queta wasn’t terrible in this game, but his fouling was noticeable enough to earn him a default spot as a dud in a game where few players on the Celtics were truly dud-worthy.
Stud - Payton Pritchard
This was an unusual game for Payton Pritchard, but in the best way possible. Usually, the bulk of his impact comes through his scoring, but on Friday night, he was all over the place.
First and foremost, Pritchard was a monster on the offensive glass, as he so often is. A bunch of them came on the same possession, but he fought hard to grab his own misses through traffic and eventually got the bucket to fall.
He was also one of the best playmakers on the Celtics, keeping the ball moving and getting rewarded with the assists to match his efforts.
And on top of all of that, Pritchard still poured in some buckets, as he always manages to do. Pritchard is so much more than a scorer, and his performance against the Pacers proved that.
Dud - Pacers defense
It was a trend for all of last season, and based on Friday night, it’s clear that not much has changedhad. The Celtics won by so many points that we have to look to the other bench to find the final dud of the evening.
Indiana’s defense was brutal. So bad that Rick Carlisle was going through timeouts like they were pieces of candy in a “Take 1” porch bin on Halloween. (Nobody actually takes one.)
The Celtics have one of the most potent offensive attacks in the league for a reason, but they were getting anything they wanted on Friday. The Pacers were completely lost as Boston doused them with three after three and dunk after dunk.
Today’s NBA is defined by layups and threes. That’s exactly what the Celtics got on Friday night.