BOSTON — The Celtics entered Wednesday’s game without Neemias Queta against one of the more physically imposing NBA front courts and a Pistons team that won 13 straight. Aside from rest nights, Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics faced few nights with such an apparent disadvantage and precarious path toward winning. Derrick White put it plainly at practice the previous day.
“We don’t really have a guy to replace what (Queta) does for us,” he said.
Aside from how small the Celtics played late in the 117-114 win, cycling between a lineup with Josh Minott at center, then another with Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh in the front court, Boston followed the script from throughout the first quarter of the season. They involved most of the roster, forced turnovers, fought their defensive rebounding disadvantage and won the three-point shot volume battle. White’s weak side help deflection off Cade Cunningham nearly secured the win. A constant sight early this year.
That’s by no means painting Wednesday’s victory as a turning point in the season, or hailing their 10-8 start as a massive success. Mazzulla acknowledged the team’s record, hovering around .500, while commending the crowd supporting them in spite of it. He recently acknowledged the strengths and weaknesses of their frenetic rotation, weighing the battle against complacency against the anxiety losing playing time can create. Josh Minott and Anfernee Simons discussed the challenge after Sunday’s win against Orlando.
Yet on Wednesday, Scheierman, scarcely utilized to begin the year, and two-way rookie Amari Williams closed this team’s vintage win — a Mazzulla masterstroke.
“(Small ball) almost forced us to have a heightened awareness to the physicality that’s necessary to be able to play,” Mazzulla said. “I thought we did the best job that we could on the offensive glass throughout those stretches.”
“It’s funny, when we went small, I felt like we protected the rim better than we did when had bigs out there sometimes, because I think the heightened awareness and more of the, we don’t have another choice.”
While lineup shuffling, 46.5% three-point shooting Mazzulla admitted made up for other areas and an effort to at least keep the margins close allowed the Celtics to prevail, another crunch time finish nearly went sideways when Jordan Walsh fouled Cunningham in his shooting motion. Boston tried to foul on the floor, as they did successfully on the previous possession, but after Jenna Schroeder called it that initially, crew chief Tony Brothers and the officials convened and overturned the call. Cunningham missed the potential game-tying free throw.
Mazzulla, addressing the foul decision, acknowledged feel and timing come into play. Uncertainty with Detroit’s personnel on the floor and a potential action they could’ve ran forced the Celtics to foul earlier than they wanted to after initially going ahead three. That gave the Pistons a second chance to draw a foul with six seconds left. On that play, Mazzulla wanted Boston to foul earlier. Cunningham sensed the strategy, which the Celtics typically employ, and searched for his shooting motion each time. Boston escaped with its fourth clutch win in 10 tries.
“Credit to Cunningham, he timed it up perfectly. There’s no right answer there,” Mazzulla said. “It’s just we have to have the feel for it. What’s funny is, we didn’t do it in the full court setting against the Clippers and Harden gets a (game-tying) shot off. That’s the epitome of late game is kind of a crapshoot in some senses.”
Whether or not the Celtics made the late call with the lead, everything they did to that point secured them one. That included calling up Williams from the G-League for practice on Tuesday, where they likely planned to utilize him given his insertion for spot starter Luka Garza less than six minutes into the first quarter. Williams told CelticsBlog’s Noa Dalzell he didn’t know he would play. The Celtics rotated lineups constantly throughout the win, and Detroit’s willingness to remove centers off the floor open the door for Minott to slide over to center often.
Those groups fared well again after they keyed the win on Sunday after Queta went down. Simons took the back seat to allow for more wing-heavy lineups, logging only 11 minutes in the win. He and Sam Cassell conversed after he exited the game in the first half, dapping each other up as Simons nodded at the feedback. Later, Minott drew Mazzulla’s ire, screaming at him into a timeout after Isaiah Stewart blocked Minott’s ill-advised shot near the rim and ran the other way for a dunk to pull Detroit within one point with 8:21 left.
Mazzulla pulled him, then inserted him for what became Jordan Walsh and White’s decisive stop on Cunningham. They shared a hug as Minott entered the game.
“Everyone looks at the trust coming from a successful night,” Mazzulla said. “You take a look at all these guys tonight that made winning plays, whether it was Jordan or Baylor or Amari or Josh or Hugo, the trust comes from, when you mess up, how do you respond to it? I trust them more when I see that than I do when it goes well for them.”
