PHILADELPHIA — The Celtics’ lineups became relatively stable over the last nine games. Josh Minott emerged as a reliable starter alongside Neemias Queta. Anfernee Simons, Sam Hauser and Luka Garza represented the regular bench rotation. Hugo González and more recently Jordan Walsh provided energy sparks.
That didn’t indicate that the Celtics, 5-6 entering Tuesday, figured everything out. The starting units thrived (+2.5 net rating) and bench struggled (+0.1) until Friday, when Minott and Queta’s second half impacts waned. Simons returned to his flame-throwing Blazers form for one half on Sunday, then played fewer minutes late in favor of González and Walsh in a win. Walsh’s emergence continued in Philadelphia to the point where he started the second half on Tuesday while Payton Pritchard, Derrick White and Simons shared a crunch time role after Simons repeated Sunday’s shooting performance early in the fourth.
Joe Mazzulla didn’t fully commit to the lineup that won the Celtics five of their previous eight games when asked about that unit’s staying power pre-game on Tuesday. He admitted Boston wouldn’t have a set rotation for much of this season, and tried to utilize that unpredictability as a strength. But they’re also balancing three talented guards who can’t play together (-9.7 net), the need for size and defensive versatility in the front court, and outside shooting, which the Celtics continue to rank bottom-five in.
“Whatever makes the most sense at that particular time,” Mazzulla said. “I think that group’s gotten a good identity, gotten off to some good starts, the last couple could obviously be a little bit better, but we’re always looking to see what gives us the best chance to win at that game, but also over the next few. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s going well so far.”
That starting five seemed to marry size, rebounding, defense and just enough shooting when Minott’s looks fell. They’re still +7.5 per 100 with a 109.7 defensive rating. Yet Boston’s three-point fortune continued to falter in a 7-for-22 half during Friday’s loss in Orlando. Simons’ three triples in the second half marked half of their makes over that stretch that vaulted the team back to 35.1% and helped tie the game in the fourth quarter.
Two nights later, Simons’ 5-for-8 first half shooting powered the best Celtics shooting night all season, even though he scored 0 points in a less involved second half. On Friday, his emergence followed a first half where he logged two minutes. Defensive concerns continue to undermine his offensive effectiveness, and two effort plays landed him on the bench in the Orlando opener, a back court turnover that led to a three and allowing an Anthony Black breakout dunk through a foul on a jump ball play that leaked into transition.
“The time that you do get, go out there and make the most of your time out there on the court,” Simons said on Tuesday morning. “It’s always a self reflection moment where maybe you feel like you didn’t do the right things out there, and so you gotta look yourself in the mirror first before you point fingers or look to why something’s not happening. That’s the way I see it and control what you can control.”
Trying to find the right windows to insert Simons without disrupting the team’s defense, fickle rebounding stability and the rhythm of three ball-handlers in front of him proved difficult to begin the year. Simons, for his part, remained amicable to working on his own shortcomings that prevented his acclimation from becoming seamless. The Celtics’ coaching staff, for theirs, have asked him where, when and in what sets he feels most comfortable. Those compromises have yielded solid results — 15.2 points per game on 42.7% FG (40.9% 3PT). It still left Jaylen Brown desiring more after Simons’ breakout performance on Sunday.
“We have to figure out how to maximize everybody’s potential, to whatever degree that is,” Brown said. “And Anfernee’s a guy who’s very talented, so we have to figure out how we can continue to maximize his potential, regardless of what it looks like. So we just gotta keep an open mind. It was great to see him be aggressive in the first half and get it going a little bit. That’s what we need. That takes pressure off of everyone, so going forward we gotta look for that more, and it’s a long season so we just gotta keep an open mind.”
Mazzulla took some responsibility for needing to do a better job integrating Simons before Tuesday’s game, and unleashed him a lineup he led without Brown, Pritchard and Derrick White on the floor. That allowed Simons to fully run his pick-and-roll game, attempt eight first half shots that tied White for the team lead and unload pretty passes, finishing with two assists and no turnovers. He shot 2-for-8, and finished 3-for-7 in an inefficient scoring night despite converting two important second half threes on four tries. Boston won those minutes by 14 points, a team high in the second half.
But Mazzulla tried to strike a balance late. After Simons scored or assisted on the first 13 points of the fourth quarter alongside Pritchard, White returned and replaced Simons for a 2-of-7 shooting stretch where the Sixers took a four-point lead. Simons and Pritchard split time on offense and defense over the final two minutes, and while the team’s defensive game plan playing off Justin Edwards, Brown’s missed box out on a decisive Kelly Oubre Jr. put-back, an inability to force turnovers and Boston’s poor shooting throughout the game had larger roles than the back court trade-off, the Celtics attempted to find minutes for all three guards in the fourth.
And it a quarter where Simons contributed the strongest offensive output, Pritchard led the back court in playing time at 10:28. Mazzulla said Simons played well, so they went with him at the end.
“I go into the game having respect for what all the other players on the team have done,” Simons said. “It might make me a little more passive than I need to be, but they’ve been trying to get me to be that same player that (I was) before I came here, and also, I’m just trying to figure out my time to be aggressive, when not to be and get other players shots as well. They’ve been trying to tell me to go out there and be myself, so that’s been the battle I’ve been trying to figure out game-to-game.”
