The Portland Trail Blazers are not a fan of pretty basketball. And that should be taken as a compliment. Every time the Boston Celtics had the ball, the Blazers made it their mission to make life difficult for them.
Jrue Holiday, who returned to TD Garden for the first time since being traded this past summer, led the defensive charge. Toumani Camara was right behind him.
What began as a solid offensive night for Boston quickly turned into one of the biggest slugfests of the season. But what happened in between the buzzers?
1. Project: Stop Donovan Clingan
From the very moment the game tipped off, it was evident that Boston didn’t forget what happened last time they played the Blazers. When these two teams squared off in Portland on December 28, Donovan Clingan was a menace.
He grabbed 18 rebounds, including seven on the offensive glass, and was a major game-changer for the Blazers, who ended up winning the game.
So, when Clingan started the game for Portland on Monday night, Joe Mazzulla decided to throw the kitchen sink at him.
No matter which end of the court he was on, if he was crashing for a rebound, Boston swarmed him. They even put extra pressure on him when he was posting up. The Celtics were determined not to let the UConn product beat them again.
(Thiago Splitter subbed Clingan out less than four minutes into his first stint.)
2. Amari Williams!
After starting in Chicago, Amari Williams came off the bench on Monday night. But with Luka Garza sidelined due to an illness, he still got a chance to play. And he made the most of it.
It was clear that he felt more confident on Monday than he did against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday. Every motion he went through against the Blazers felt much more purposeful.
He battled hard on the glass, worked in space under the rim, and defended well in drop. But his most impressive skill was his screening.
Portland’s perimeter defenders routinely got bodied by the British big man, and it gave Boston’s ball-handlers lots of room to work with.
(Yes, the second bump was probably an illegal screen. But this still depicts just how brutal a Williams screen can be for a defender to deal with.)
"Just a good matchup," Mazzulla said. "One, for the length that they have on their bigs, Clingan and Rob, and then his ability to screen. They just do such a good job [with their] ball pressure and the pickup points, and so, having another guy out there that can create separation for our guards. I thought he did a good job on both ends of the floor."
Williams still has work to do when it comes to processing speed, boxing out, and fouling, but the first half of Monday’s game was certainly eye-catching.
3. The Jrue Holiday return
Boston traded Holiday to the Blazers in exchange for Anfernee Simons this past July, so Monday was his first time back at TD Garden.
“Feels different,” Holiday said of his return. “On the other side now, but feels good. Glad to be back, see a lot of familiar faces, and excited to play.”
Holiday helped the Celtics win the 2024 NBA Championship, and though he spent only two seasons with the organization, he remembers the city fondly.
“I just think the people,” Holiday said of what stands out about his time in Boston. “The fans, the crowd, how they embrace you and kind of make you part of their own home team and own village. So I'll obviously never forget that.”
And he’s proud of what he and Jaylen Brown were able to accomplish in the city (Holiday and his wife, Lauren, founded the Boston Creator Incubator + Accelerator in partnership with Brown’s Boston XChange):
“I'm not sure how many NBA players have partnered up to do something like that,” Holiday said. “To build back into the community. And even just knowing, when I first got here, how involved Jaylen was meant a lot. So, us continuing to build on that is something that we've been talking about, but I think for the most part, me not being here sometimes is a bit of a struggle.”
As for his departure from the Celtics, Holiday knew it was coming.
“I think I've said this a few times, but I knew I was getting traded,” he said. “Brad had told me that there was a possibility, and whenever it happened, he was up front and told me what happened. So, I felt like it was a great transition.
“Me and my family are doing well in Portland. Lot of people that we actually know love the organization from even before, when they actually traded me here, but to circle back and get me means a lot to me. So, I've been doing well.”
4. Playing (against) physical
Teams have been ratcheting up the pressure on the Celtics. Ever since their win over the Hawks in Atlanta, bigs have been pressuring Boston’s ball-handlers, and some teams are even straight-up doubling Brown.
Portland was extremely physical in guarding Boston, though its physicality stemmed more from one-on-one toughness than from sending multiple bodies.
But even they decided to double Brown as the game went on.
The Celtics didn’t have to deal with the Blazers’ physicality as much in the first half, but that was simply a product of their own defensive actions.
“In the first half, they only had three offensive rebounds, and they didn’t get to the free-throw line, so we didn't have to play against it as much, because we were able to get stops,” Mazzulla explained. “We were able to get out and kind of play our free-flowing play.
“And then, in the second half, we put them at the free throw line, and they had seven offensive rebounds, so the game just kind of slowed down. It was kind of at their pace for the majority of the second half. But I thought our defense kept us in it. We were still able to defend, even though we were fouling, but we still competed. But it just kind of slowed the game down and mucked it up, and we were forced to execute in the half-court. So, we were pretty good at that.”
Boston’s fouling and inability to grab defensive rebounds slowed down the pace of the game. That allowed Portland to up its pressure in the second half, which largely spearheaded their comeback.
5. Payton Pritchard is nuts
The Celtics needed offensive production in this game. They needed guys to hit tough shots. That’s exactly what Payton Pritchard did.
He’s one of the best isolation scorers in the NBA, and having him against a team like the Blazers is when his true value shines. There were possessions in this game when everything looked lost, and then Pritchard made a tough shot.
Those are the moments when Boston is luckiest to have him.
6. Sam Hauser’s global impact
In the fourth quarter, Sam Hauser’s shot-making was huge. He had eight in the final frame, and all three of his buckets came at a point in the night when Portland had Boston on the ropes.
But he was making plays all night long.
Hauser cut into the middle of the floor to act as an offensive hub. He drew a charge in transition to stop a fastbreak. He even sprinted all the way back down the floor and looked like prime Troy Polamalu getting a pass break-up.
(Okay, maybe that’s a bit too far.)
The point is, Hauser does way more than shoot. And in a game where his shooting came in clutch, it was all of the little things that kept him on the floor in the first place.