BOSTON — Isaiah Stewart bodied Baylor Scheierman and Anfernee Simons in the post at the end of the first quarter. The Boston Celtics sent two guys at him, yet he still snagged Caris LeVert’s missed three-point attempt. And his own miss after he strong-armed his tip-in attempt. Stewart sprang into the lane like the Hulk, scored two for the Detroit Pistons, and forced Joe Mazzulla to call a timeout.
The bucket gave the Pistons a 10-point lead less than eight minutes into the game. Riding a 13-game win streak, Detroit was primed to get to 14 and set a franchise record. They were certainly on pace to do so in that moment.
And then…
“Chicken.”
Well, that might have been what Scheierman said.
“It's probably what he was saying when he made it,” Derrick White said with a smile. “But other than that, who knows what Baylor says?”
Baylor Scheierman was everything for Celtics in win over Pistons
Bucket after bucket, Scheierman lifted a soulless Boston offense off the ground. They started 1-of-12 from the floor, and had made only four shots by the time Stewart powered through two defenders to take a 26-16 lead.
But starting at the two-minute mark in the first, Scheierman scored 10 points in just over four in-game minutes. And every time he got the chance, he let the trash talk fly. Or at least, he let something fly.
“A whole lot of nothing,” Scheierman said when asked what he was saying in those moments. “Honestly, I'm really just getting myself hyped up.”
His mini-run culminated in a turnaround fadeaway in the lane that faked out Jalen Duren and Javonte Green. By then, the confidence was flowing—plenty of “Chicken” to go around.
“I love being out there and competing, and when you know things are going like that, I just like to have a lot of fun and just talk to whoever's out there,” he said. “So that's pretty much what it is.”
When his four-minute, 10-point outburst concluded, the Celtics were up by three points.
“That's kind of just how I've always been, going back to high school, college,” Scheierman said. “And now, here, I like to just play with a sort of flair on the court, and I like to bring a lot of energy into the game. And I think that's part of the game. It's something that brings a lot of energy. I think it's contagious, too.”
Scheierman took a game that was hurdling towards a potential blowout and brought the Celtics back to life.
“He was amazing for us,” said White. “He kind of kept us in the game. Who knows what the score would have been without those threes he hit, and the pull-up, and everything he did.”
A side-step corner three to end the first half brought his scoring total to 13 points, and he didn’t score another point all night. But his job wasn’t over.
In fact, Scheierman played more minutes in the second half than he did in the first. He closed the game for Boston on a night where every possession mattered, and victory was decided by three points (and a missed free throw). In the fourth quarter alone, he played 11:51.
That’s because, while sharing the court with White, Jaylen Brown, Jordan Walsh, and Payton Pritchard, it was Scheierman who was tasked with guarding MVP candidate Cade Cunningham.
“I think that's something you work for,” Scheierman said. “Obviously, just like I've talked about all year, you just take it one gym at a time. That was my role tonight. Try to go out there and execute it to the best of my abilities, and obviously, excited we won the game, and kind of move on to the next now.”
Cunningham got his in the fourth. He had 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting, adding six free throws to his total as well (though two of those were in the final few seconds of the contest). But Scheierman’s job wasn’t to stop Cunningham; it was to contain him.
Possession after possession, he trailed the Pistons superstar up and down the court. He put a body on him, kept his hands high, and forced him to take contested shots. As all stars do, Cunningham made some, but nothing came easily.
Scheierman has done the same with Tyrese Maxey, James Harden, and a host of other stars this season. Wednesday night, it was Cunningham in front of him, and he got the job done.
Everything he’s done this season—in-game and away from the hardwood—has led to these types of moments.
“It's him, it's his mindset, it's his preparation,” Joe Mazzulla said. “But it's the staff, it's the daily stuff that goes into it. To me, the physicality. He just cares. He cares. He wants to be good. He has an understanding of what success looks like for him, whether it's studying personnel, whether it's working on things.
“So, it has a lot to do with him; it has a lot to do with the player development staff, where, when these guys get out here, they're fully prepared. And I think the trust just comes from - It's funny, everyone looks at the trust coming from a successful night, but for me, the trust comes from the response to failure.”
For every positive game, there’s a negative one. A bad foul against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. Getting lost on defense on too many times. A bad practice session. Failure is expected.
Mazzulla wants to see failure.
Or, more aptly, he wants to see the response.
That’s how he’s earned trust.
“He takes what he's done well, where he needs to get better at, and he applies it immediately,” Mazzulla said. “And again, you have to have thick skin. And so he has that. And he can work through failure, he can work through mistakes, he can work through criticism, and it just makes him better. And I think all the guys there are showing moments of that.”
And defensive moments like the fourth quarter on Wednesday night are simply the fruits of the work he’s put in behind the scenes.
“Just a lot of time, honestly, just in the weight room, continuing to work on my body,” Scheierman said. “Continuing to work on my body, and honestly, just continue to watch a lot of scout. Try to watch a lot of film of who I'm playing against, and trying to just pick any sort of tendency that I can, because obviously, I'm trying to find every advantage I can.”
The Celtics don’t beat the 15-2 Pistons on Wednesday without Scheierman. They may not have made it to halftime without his scoring surge, and who knows how they would have fared without his defense in the final frame.
Every player on the roster has had a moment this season. Whether it was Hugo Gonzalez’s defense at Madison Square Garden, Walsh’s clamps on Maxey in Philadelphia, or Josh Minott shutting down Evan Mobley at TD Garden. Wednesday was Scheierman’s moment.
And everyone noticed.
“Hey, Baylor can play basketball,” Brown said with wide eyes. “Baylor is smart. High-IQ Player. Great passer. You know what I mean? Can hit shots. Baylor thinks and knows the game. So, he's been putting it together over the course of his career, but tonight was a pure example of [a] high-profile game against a quality opponent, [and] Baylor just made play after play.”