Shoot your shot: 10 takeaways from Boston Celtics – New Orleans Pelicans

1. We (he) did iiiiii … that!

It was big time.

Jayson Tatum’s fight with the exact type of shot has been well documented and for me personally it has reached the point where I don’t really Keep in mind that 20-usual foot Fadeaway enters. But Tatum delivered and spiked this 21-foot with two guys that shut out. And it was wonderful.

Game winners are a strange art. On the one hand, I would love if Celtics ran the biggest set game throughout the years to get a broad open shot for any of their five starters. But on the other hand, I would much rather have Jayson Tatum miss a game winner than anyone else because it is his responsibility and also his burden.

At some level and probably many levels you have to live and die with your best player in the greatest moments. Although not the best shot … there are good reasons why he continues to take them. He is the best guy that Boston has and it is a shot that I – and obviously also learned to live with. For sometimes it’s pretty sick.

2. Jaylen Brown’s simple execution

It got lost in Actually Game winner, but Jaylen Brown hit a Lowkey Game winner approx. 30 seconds earlier.

This does not look like the complicated one shot, but it is an example of the type of late game performance that Celtics has been missing recently. Brown sees the space he has assigned to him by three non-obligation defenders, and attacks it immediately and comes to his place without any hesitation.

The last month and change of Celtic’s basketball has been full of indecision and inconsistency. No matter how much of a leading Boston wants them to have in the last seconds, wins and losses will always come down to these types of shots; Find what works and go to it again and again. That’s what gets this team out of their funk

3. DEJOULETE MURRAY’s injury and a really hard pelican season

Dejointe Murray, Pelicans ‘Big Free Agent acquisition and most fans’ Fences Reason-to-Care-Om-a-And-U-Umo-Row-Roster, suffered his second and last major damage from the campaign 2024-25, and teared his achilles and ending of a really, really rough pelican season.

Each team fights due to injuries, but sometimes the NBA produces a team so damn that it leads to a unified downward spiral and to a record that honestly doesn’t make sense. The Pelicans are now 12-37, do not have a snowball’s chance in a Louisiana summer of making even in play-in and may have to tear things down at the trading deadline. And they just lost one of their best players, at least on paper, to a season that ends injury. Jeez.

This is why “championship windows” in sports are a kind of myth. Everyone’s window opens when the season starts and closes when removed. You don’t necessarily Ever get another crack on it and the pelicans hope things would get better Of course, has been greeted with tragedy and entropy. It’s a cruel league.

4. Kristaps Porzingis: State Sheet Stuffer

Noticed someone even that Kristaps Porzingis was a block and two steals away from a “5×5 game” – meaning five or more in five statistics; Blocks, stealing, assists, rebounds and points. The last person who pulled it off was Victor Wembanyama, and Porzingis filled the state sheet with a unified fantastic game. Good things.

Everyone once in a while is good to remind ourselves that Porzingis is capable of things that other players just are not. He is so tall, but still Dextrous and Snokingly Curious as a circumference defender with good instincts, albeit really inadequate foot speed. Had Zion Williamson played and brought his physical features against Porzingis in Switches, it may have been another story. But no one on this list made him work and he was free to ruin his heart content.

5. Can we please get a rebound?

Here is the first way to lose a basketball game you need to win: Get crushed on the boards.

It wasn’t overwhelming, but the Pelicans were +13 on Boston in the rebounding column, one about note as they died last in most rebounding categories of the season. But it’s not even like Boston is abused by rebounding titans like Domanta’s Sabonis or Anthony Davis (though they also get it to these people) -The also just give up free lunch like this one.

If you give Boston a 50 percent chance of scoring on the next possession, these types of offensive rebounds are each, about a 3.5 -point turn. In a game that was decided by two points in the last 0.2 seconds, the kinds of things can’t happen. But it has definitely happened recently …

Celtics is pretty dull that goes into the All-Star break. It is understandable and I am not on my best 24/7/365 either. But these rebounds are all about knocking out your transe and keeping an eye on the ball. They just have to lock in. Fortunately, it is a relatively easy solution.

6. Derrick White, Accumulator

White slowly but surely rises into the certified punctuation level in the NBA player’s social scene, which often arises random buckets and free kicks that I simply can’t remember he took through a game. It is because he has become such a big part of the offense that I do not blink when making a shot. That’s what’s going to happen.

White had 16 points on only 9 shots last night, which is great efficiency and exactly the kind of thing Boston needs from him in the future. Seeing both he and Brown have solid shooting evenings from three are also large, and they lacked the brand “Ultra-Brick”, which they have set up recently; shots that don’t even have one chance to go in.

I monitor who White will be for this team that enters the route. I still think JRUE Holiday is a more important player in balance, but White is a slightly more dynamic goal scorer. If he can score in bundles, it will take a world of responsibility off Payton Pritchard’s shoulders. Which is good for everyone involved.

7. Two Pelicans games, two absolute nail bitter

When later generations look up “Celtics v. Pelicans year for the year” on the future supercomputer AI search engine, they will see 2024-25 recorded as a crispy 2-0 for those defense masters. Nothing to see here …

These two wins were recorded by an equally offensive three total points that look bad against a knocked team that doesn’t seem to win any basketball game. But while the first game was a win that felt like a loss, this was a victory that actually felt like a solid victory. It was close, but it was mostly a feature of takeaway #8’s other worldwide antics over the arch. There was a lot to suffer there and I give Boston a 7/10 for their last week of hangers, far up from 3/10, there were the three weeks before that.

8. What in Trey Murphy III was that

I love trey murphy iii. The guy was so underestimated as a shot last year, though apparently not by his own team, giving him a pretty amazing 4 -year -old, $ 112 million, which could look like a steal at the end of this season. My guy can bend and he almost cost Celtics a game they had stuck in his hand by beating that kind of shot every time they were shutting things out.

Murphy III fell 40 points on only 20 shots and 8-12 from three and only three total free throwing. It’s like … fictional efficiency in a world where most 40 bombs come from the intellectual disciples of Prime James Harden, where 40-afflicting shots and 20 free throw are standard.

If we review New Orleans’ list, is Trey Murphy III the best asset on the team now? Is Zion Williamson actually More valuable these days with his contract and the simple fact that he doesn’t really play so much basketball? Murphy III is by worst A super-duper close second and I would venture to say that the Pelicans would rather keep him than Williamson. It’s a great story for a guy who most thought would just be a Premium 3-and-D thumps. He is far better than that.

9. Six games more until respite. Lock in

It’s not shocking that Celtics is tired of, like … their sixth super -long season in a row, with this last one ending the very first game of the season. But there are only six games until the All-Star break and a very important Cleveland Cavaliers games that I would love Boston to use to take back the eastern conference mantle. So it’s time to lock in.

If Boston can ride on the fact that Tatum finally made a game winner and sweeps the last six games – as they are absolutely Able to do – they will be talking about the city that enters the league’s mandatory rest period, and make teams that felt bold pants in fear of the reigning masters.

I bet on this last week and don’t change average; It will probably go really well or absolutely terrible and we all have fun or completely unclear conversations while Brown and Tatum are in ASG. I cross my fingers, it’s the former.

10. Where does this team stand?

Boston was in a corner, but now they are just 12 kilometers on the half marathon, the first half of the season. Of course, they have to run another half marathon right after the break, but they can get some water and electrolytes before they continue. It’s no longer Defcon 1, but I still have a few questions.

Are Celtics favorites to win east right now? Although Cavaliers have made it more interesting than I thought they would. But who actually takes Cleveland in a series against Boston? You? Will you?

Are that favorites to win All Right now? Probably not. I’m not saying they won’t be when we hit April, but Oklahoma City Thunder seems unaffordable at the moment, showing the kind of dominance that we used to show last season. Will it motivate Boston to return to this level? Or do they just want to archive OKC in “Western Conference things we don’t have to think about” the cabinet?

This team is obviously good, but I am still not sold that they are good enough. I know they can be and I don’t think they lack anything critical. It all feels very mentally and I am gently optimistic that they start to turn the corner back to what we were all used to: Elite Celtics Basketball.