Celtics shut down Donovan Mitchell, Josh Minott and Neemias Queta log career nights | SOUND OFF

Celtics shut down Donovan Mitchell, Josh Minott and Neemias Queta log career nights | SOUND OFF

[Music] down off with me folks on the Celtics not just beating the number one seed in the East last season, but handling them throughout four quarters here at TD Garden. This was an excellent, unbelievable, maybe unexpected performance from the Boston Celtics tonight. And here they are now at 2 and three on the season, one win away from evening things up and reaching 500. And yes, this was the number one team in the Eastern Conference last season who has returned basically all of its core and most of its bench. The Cleveland Cavaliers are expected by most to win the Eastern Conference this season. And tonight, the Boston Celtics didn’t just beat them, they handled them. The Celtics led by 15 in the second quarter. They led by 19 in the third quarter and then in the fourth quarter they pulled ahead by as many as 20. This was an all-around performance. This was a team performance and this is everything that you could hope to see out of a new look Boston Celtics team only about a week and a half into the NBA season. I have to say that my takeaway from this game was that this might be the best version of the Celtics with the exception of Derek White and Pton Pritchard shooting the ball better. Like everything else that happened during this game just screams to you, that’s what I need from that guy. That’s what I need from that guy. This is how the team needs to play together. This is how they need to defend. Everything clicked during this game and it just felt like this is like if if this team is 0 to 10 in terms of playing at a at a super high level. Tonight was a 10. All with the exception of Peyton Pritchard and Derek White not shooting the ball well from distance. So that is a big area that this team can get even better in because those two have not shot the ball well from three-point range yet this season. But just imagine if you got tonight’s performance from the rest of the the team. And by the way, those guys didn’t play terribly. I mean, Derek White scored 19 points. Pton Pritchard had a double double with team high 10 assists. Excuse me, a game high 10 assists. It’s not like they didn’t play well, but just imagine getting that game from everyone else and then those guys also shooting it well from three-point range. Like, that’s a scary thought. So sit with it on that. But the Celtics all across the board, they made big shots, timely shots. When they needed a three to stop a run, they made it. It was a team effort all around. Eight guys scored in double figures. They crushed it on the glass. Like this is a team that’s got Evan Mobley and Jared Allen on the front line. And I I I would guarantee that the far majority of people who had their eyes on this game would have said Celtics are going to get smoked on the glass tonight. facing off against those two. Well, what do they did? What did they do? They won the battle on the glass. 52 to 42 in the game, 18-11 on the offensive glass. Like I I I don’t it would be we would be hardressed to find anyone who expected that to happen on the glass tonight. 52- 42 overall, 18-11 on the offensive glass. And it all came down to two guys who were dominant on the glass. Josh May not and Namih Kada. Both of them set new career highs in the rebounding category tonight. Both of them. Josh Minot careerhigh 14 rebounds including five at the offensive end. Nimish Kada 13 rebounds to set a new careerhigh. Six at the offensive end. Those guys took it personal that they were facing off against a Cavs team that was probably expected by most to crush them on the glass. They took it personal and they reversed it. They crushed the Cavs on the glass. And you’ve got to give them a clap, a round of applause for stepping up to the challenge and not only stepping up to it, but taking a swing and hitting it out of the park. Congratulations to those two guys. A season high 29 assists for the Celtics in this game. They hadn’t they hadn’t passed 25 yet this season. They get up to 29. So, you’re starting to see a little bit of rhythm in the offense. And again, just imagine if Payton Pritchard and Derek White get it going from long distance. Like, you can see that the offense can be even more dangerous. And then last but not least, the defense holds the Cavaliers to 40% shooting on the night. And a big part of that was holding Donovan Mitchell to only 15 points. And listen, if you’re a Celtics fan, you hate seeing Donovan Mitchell on the court. Why? Because he has torched the Celtics for his entire career, especially in the last three or four years since he came over to the Eastern Conference. But guess what? Tonight’s 15 points marked the second lowest scoring effort of his entire career against the Celtics. The only time he’s been below it was back in March of 2020 when he scored 11 points. That’s it. Like this guy has torched the Celtics throughout his career. But something and by the way, I asked Joe Missoula before this game. I said, “What’s maybe different about this defense and this group of guys that might be able to throw something different at Donovan Mitchell who has had a lot of success against you guys?” And he didn’t really want to answer. Obviously, it was pregame. He didn’t really want to go into details about how his new players might be able to help them, but they did. Like across the board, this Celtics lineup held him to only 15 points. And yes, he missed some shots that he usually makes, but he always makes them against the Celtics, and he did not tonight. That’s a big thing to note that this defense with this crew could step up to the table and tow the line with Donovan Mitchell and basically shut him out. He scored 12 points in the first quarter and only three the rest of the night. Very impressive performance from the defense overall, particularly against that all-star AllNBA level player in Donovan Mitchell. Jaylen Brown took over the second quarter. He scored 18 points to really get the crowd juiced, to get his team juiced, push them ahead by 15. And he also, yes, he did made one hell of a shot to close out that first half. Take a look at it here. He was just on a heater. And this is the one to close out the first half. This is what pushed them ahead by 15 points. And this is what gave the Celtics and the crowd just a ton of energy going into uh the halftime locker room at the break. This was unbelievable. Look at this shot again. like difficulty on a 10. Not many players in the world can make that shot after that offensive move. And the way he had to step back after the dribbles, couldn’t free himself up, steps back for the three. That is a very, very, very difficult shot. He made it look easy. And that was what he did throughout the second quarter because, as I said, he scored 18 points. Well, do you want to know how many points the Cleveland Cavaliers scored as a team? 18. Jaylen Brown matched the entire Cavaliers team in scoring during the second quarter. He was just unbelievable. He scored those 18 points on six for seven shooting, four for five from distance. all. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers shot just five of 17 from the field and three for 12 from distance. So, he was better all by himself than the entire Cavs team during that second quarter. And that is what lit the fire for the Celtics for the rest of the night. We’ve already talked about my not and Kada, but let’s talk about them a little bit more. These guys changed the game with the way that they crashed the glass. Namish Kada like you saw an edge to him tonight. The hunger with which he attacked the glass is something we haven’t seen a lot, but if we see more of it, this Celtics team is going to be much better than a lot of people expected going into this season. He attacked the glass tonight. He was the enforcer on the glass tonight. Not not allowing the other team to set the tone on the glass. He set the tone on the glass. And then Josh Min, very different types of rebounds. Josh Mina is just pure effort. Flying in like he might be behind the three-point line, crashing in from the corner, flying over, reading the ball well, by the way, coming off the off the rim or off the glass. He’s great at that. We’re learning that early on this season. But you put those two very different types of rebounding skills together and you had an unbelievable performance from those two. 27 total rebounds on the night. Again, I’ll repeat it that the Cavs had 42 as a team. Okay, so those two played such a critical role in the Celtics not only being able to win the battle on the glass by a wide margin, but also being able to win this game. They don’t win this game without those two guys playing at that level on the glass. So, props to both of them. They also wound up uh scoring uh they both had double doubles. Nimish Khada had 10 points. uh May not had 11. So just really strong all-around performances from both of those guys. You love to see it and you want to see more of it. All right, let’s get into a couple comments from our fans after this big win and this exciting win that is showing us that this Celtics team has a lot to offer. First comment is coming from a Fleming from Perth on what Josh Minot has meant to this team. And then we’ve got there goes Brian again saying how the Celtics grab this win as a team. Let’s dive into the first one here. All right. A Fleming from Perth says Minot has been a ball of energy for the Celtics since he started. The whole team has been influenced by his energy and effort. So good to see. This is what we were expecting from this season and here it is. Got to keep it up. This is so true and we’ve talked about it a little bit on the postgame pod so far this season, but I think we’re going to see more of it as the season progresses. Josh Minot and his energy, like you said, he’s just a ball of energy. It’s infectious when you see your teammate doing the things that he is doing and the hunger with which he is doing it. Like this is the first chance he’s had in the NBA. He barely got to play out in Minnesota. never started a game. The last two starts were the first two starts of his career. And the energy that he is bringing to the table is just infectious. And you can see it. Like I said, when when a teammate sees someone playing that hard and with that much hunger, they’re like, I got to match that. And they did tonight. Who knows if him and Kada actually motivated each other by the way that they were playing to be able to grab 13 plus rebounds a piece. Both of them set a careerhigh on the exact same night. They’re probably motivating each other, but just to see the way that he is flying around and the effort uh he’s in the right places at the right times. He’s making some big shots. How did the Celtics find this guy? Like I’m going to repeat, he barely played when he was with Minnesota. Brad Stevens and the BA basketball operations team, they saw enough to say that’s a guy that we want to bring in here and we think he can grow into a larger role. And boy oh boy, we’re only five games into the season, but he sure looks like maybe the steel of the summer getting him on a minimum contract and be able being able to give him a greater opportunity and watching him step into it and deliver. He’s scoring more than we probably all anticipated. He’s rebounding more than we probably all anticipated. And then when you just combine those with the energy, like this guy can change games and he already has for the Boston Celtics. So great to see out of him. Uh and just the the comment of this is what we were expecting from this season and here it is. Yeah. Although like I I think we should give them a little bit of a grace period of being able to reach this level consistently. Remember this is a new group. It’s only their fifth game together. A lot of these guys are new, so uh this was great to see. Do I expect them to play at this level night in and night out yet? No, probably not. But there is going to be a time this season where they do reach this level on a nightly basis. Don’t know how far away that is. Maybe it’s November, December, who knows? Maybe January, we don’t know. But you got to give them a little bit of grace period to try to learn each other’s tendencies. But they are getting better every single game. There is no question about that. You could ask anyone in the world, put on these five games. They have gotten better every single night. So, that is a great trend to see. All right, next comment coming in from there goes Brian again saying, “Three players with a double double, eight players with double digit scoring. Minot is just tenacious. Needs a better nickname.” He titled himself the lawn mower a few years ago. Don’t know if it’s the one to keep. Maybe we get a better one. Simons has range. That three was crazy. Yes, it was. Hower had his own Boston three party at the Garden. Yes, he did. What did he shoot? Seven for 10 from distance. Let’s look it up. Where are you, buddy? There we are. Seven for 13 from distance for our guy Sam Hower. Pretty impressive. Garza played great. This is a fun team that earned that win. So, a lot packed into this comment from Brian. Uh, and all of it is spoton. I do agree that my not needs a better nickname. Simon certainly has range. And by the way, he only scored, I believe it was 14 points during this game. He can get better, too, but he is finding his rhythm in this lineup. So, it’s we’re starting to see the kind of like push and pull of if this guy doesn’t necessarily score at a high rate, maybe this guy will. and if this guy doesn’t rebound well, maybe this guy will. What are we going to need on a nightly basis? That’s what we’re starting to learn about this team. And the bottom line of what this comment says is this is a fun team that earned that win. This this team is fun to watch. It is fun to watch because they are flying around. They can shoot the heck out of the ball. And by the way, I’ll repeat, they still haven’t gotten to their peak or anywhere close to it so far this season because Pritchard and White, two of the best three-point shooters in the NBA, still haven’t found that rhythm. So, they’re going to get even better. But this team is fun to watch across the board. The effort level, the defense, the fullcourt pressure, the three-point shooting, the shot blocking ability. Like, these guys have a chip on their shoulder and you could see it every night. tonight that led to a very fun win. Hower was on fire. Simons can shoot it from distance. Mine out was just crazy out there. It was fun to see him flying around yet again. And let’s not forget about Luca Garza in this comment. Luca finished with 10 points and five rebounds during this game in only 16 minutes. Like that is exactly what you want to get out of him on a nightly basis. If he can hover around 10 points and five or six rebounds, like chef’s kiss, that’s exactly what the Celtics want to get out of Luca Garza on a nightly basis. He delivered it tonight. And don’t you know, the Celtics go on to win comfortably against the number one seed in the East last season. They won, I believe it was 64 games last season. Well, they came in at TD Garden tonight and the Celtics just took it to them. So, everyone in Celtics Nation got to be feeling pretty darn good about themselves. Two straight wins, one of which is against a favorite, if not the favorite to win the Eastern Conference this season. You just love to see it. And let’s hope that this ball can keep on rolling because we’re right back at it Friday night against the team the Celtics lost to on opening night by one point. Is it time for revenge? We’re going to have to wait and see. Friday night, it’s the Celtics tipping off down in Philadelphia against the 76ers. after the game, send in your comments to me on X. I’ll take a few comments uh during the show and that’ll be the next episode of Sound Off. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week and we’ll see you Friday night. [Music]

The Celtics knocked off the No. 1 team in the East from last season – and they did it with ease 😤 How? Josh Minott and Neemias Queta had career nights on the glass, Jaylen Brown dropped 30 points, the C’s D shut down Donovan Mitchell and eight players scored in double-figures.

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