Sam Hauser<\/a>, starting his 6th-straight game, put together one of his best all-around efforts of the season, finishing with 17 points, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds.<\/p>\nHe hit 3 of 8 three-point attempts, including a go-ahead three with just over five minutes left in the game.<\/p>\n
Hauser\u2019s biggest play of the night came with just over a minute and a half to spare, when he tipped in a missed Luka Garza three-pointer to give the Celtics a 6-point lead.<\/p>\n
While the tip-in was initially ruled offensive interference, referees overturned the call upon review. The putback ended up being one of the most gratifying moments of Hauser\u2019s night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big play down the stretch to help seal the deal for us,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s the most important thing \u2014 just trying to make winning plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Walsh and the Celtics devoured the glass<\/p>\n
Sam Hauser credited Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez, among others, for providing the burst of energy off the bench that put the Celtics in position to win the game. Gonzalez was a team-best +19 in his 13 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys coming off the bench kind of flipped the script a little bit, kept us in the game and helped us hang around just long enough,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cAnd then the last 15 minutes there, we played how we know we\u2019re capable of. But we don\u2019t want to rely on getting down 20 early like that often and having to come back. But credit to all those guys for keeping us in it for sure, Jordan and Hugo getting big rebounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mazzulla echoed that praise. After all, the Celtics outrebounded Miami 51-40, and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, 11 of which came in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201cJordan [Walsh], Baylor [Scheierman], Sam [Hauser], Derrick [White], all those guys did a great job crashing \u2014 Luka [Garza],\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cThose give you extra possessions. But those manage the runs. When you know you\u2019re not playing the way that you need to, it manages those runs, and it kind of keeps you in. I thought those were huge offensive rebounds in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh, in particular, was an under-the-radar contributor in the comeback. The 21-year-old secured 3 offensive boards in the first quarter, finished with 8 rebounds in just 20 minutes of action, and was tasked with one of the most difficult defensive assignments of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJordan\u2019s versatility goes unnoticed a little bit,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cHe\u2019s another guy, he guarded [Bam] Adebayo the last two times we played them. He\u2019s a guy that does a great job getting in-traffic rebounds, especially on the defensive end\u2026 he kept us in it with some of his driving attacks and closeouts and his offensive rebounds. He\u2019s just a physical guy that is really versatile on both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, when it came down to it, the comeback was successful because Simons played some of his best basketball in green. His coaches and teammates made clear from the jump that his offensive aggression was needed in Miami. And, his backcourt mates never found a flow; Payton Pritchard and Derrick White combined for just 10 points as a duo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that any given night, it could be somebody\u2019s night,\u201d Simons said. \u201cTonight was mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simons\u2019 offensive performance highlighted his uncanny scoring ability. But that type of high-volume offensive performance was also an unusual occurrence in his Celtics tenure; Simons attempted 28 shots on Thursday night, almost three times as many as his season average (10.9 shot attempts).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat boy, he can play,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe\u2019s probably more talented than the role that he\u2019s placed in. I think that\u2019s kinda obvious. But, I have hella respect for him to come out and play winning basketball and do what the team needs. Doesn\u2019t complain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Celtics are climbing the NBA standings <\/p>\n
The victory propels the Celtics to a 25-15 record, good for second-best in the Eastern Conference. It snaps a two-game losing streak and marks their second-biggest comeback of the season (the Celtics erased a 20-point deficit against the Indiana Pacers last month).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on teams where you get down significantly, it\u2019s tough to get back into the game,\u201d Brown said. \u201cEspecially here in Miami, the crowd is behind them; they seem to have everything rolling. But that just shows the poise of our team, you know? We just stuck with it and just kept making plays, chipped away, and then we were back into the ball game. And then we just made plays down the stretch to close it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown has frequently referred to the Celtics as one of the NBA\u2019s top teams in recent weeks, and the numbers back him up. The Celtics have the league\u2019s second-best offensive rating (121.4) as well as its second-best net rating (+7.1).<\/p>\n
They have another big-time comeback win against an Eastern Conference foe under their belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the sign of a good team, honestly,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWhen you can come back from down big \u2014 and still find ways to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 For a moment, it appeared the Celtics were entering the dreaded midseason slump. With five minutes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,37650,37728,21388,144,295,189,3881,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-540699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics-articles","10":"tag-celtics-features","11":"tag-celtics-news","12":"tag-heat","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-miamiheat","16":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115905150704717878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}