While Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown are gelling rapidly, the former expressed there is considerable room for growth.
Saturday night at TD Garden, the Boston Celtics earned their second-straight win, a 117-94 steamrolling of the Toronto Raptors.
While the hosts’ defense limited their visitors from North of the Border to fewer than 27 points each quarter, Kristaps Porzingis’ impact as a screener put the Raptors, especially opposing center Jakob Poeltl, in a torture chamber.
The seven-foot-three center finished with 21 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. After the victory, Boston’s bench boss, Joe Mazzulla, expressed the following to Inside The Celtics about the former All-Star punishing Toronto in the pick-and-roll.
“First, his screening. He was able to help our pick-and-roll ball handler get some separation away from the screen. And they weren’t veering at first, and so we were able to throw (the ball) back and get into a closeout and create a second-side action. And once they started veering, we were able to get their bigs away from the rim, and that’s where we were able to either give it to him in the post or we were able to drive it without any rim protection.”
Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis (8) dunks the ball while Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) looks on.
The quality of Porziņģis’ screens also paved the way for Jaylen Brown to register 29 points, leading all scorers, and Jayson Tatum to finish with 27.
Boston’s All-NBA duo love coming off wide pin downs from the Latvian native, a tactic that helped Brown feast on Saturday, highlighting the growing chemistry building between him and Porzingis.
Leave a Reply