Jaylen Brown spoke glowingly of his Boston Celtics bromance counterpart Kristaps Porzingis after the Latvian center scored 32 points against the Houston Rockets and ex-Cs head coach Ime Udoka on January 21; lauding him for providing bail-out production on a night that the offense needed a hero.
“Big difference maker,” Brown said of Porzingis (h/t MassLive). “When teams start switching us, try to slow our offense down, we can always go and find KP on those mid-posts type of isolations and he’s great in those areas. Getting ready for the postseason, we want to continue to sharpen up. Tonight, we wanted to keep finding him so the big fella got going tonight and helped us win this game.”
Brown, despite a triple-double (13 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) and three steals, had an uncharacteristically quiet night from the field. Jayson Tatum (4/17) had an even more uncharacteristically off night.
Kristaps Porzingis comments after being hero for Boston Celtics in win over Rockets
Porzingis echoed the sentiment Celtics fans have seen the team live by in 2023-24 -- that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts this season -- during the postgame presser following Boston's bounce-back win.
“Each night it can be a different guy that has a good game,” Porzingis said. “We have the trust in each other that we’re willing to sacrifice and let’s get this guy the ball, he’s having a good night. Tonight, it was my night. I caught a couple of good passes from JB late and took advantage of the mismatch.”
With a starting five filled with players at or near an All-Star level, that balance is something Joe Mazzulla is blessed to have on any given night. When the team wins, though, the evidence points to Mazzulla managing the star-power masterfully; unlike nights when the team loses on a single possession and he's being thrown under the bus.