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Taylor Snow

BOSTON – It was difficult for players to form a solid opinion of the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament before participating in it. But now that they have gotten a taste of the excitement that the new style of competition is bringing to the early part of the regular season, more and more participants seem to be forming a positive viewpoint on its addition.

Jaylen Brown was one of those “curious” players at first, but after experiencing the thrilling way in which they advanced past the group stage with their 124-97 win over Chicago Tuesday night, he seems to be developing into a fan of the new style of competition.

“It's just something new, and I wanted to see how the guys would respond to it – the older guys, the younger guys – to see a review of what would be the feedback, generally, from the players,” Brown recalled Thursday of his initial mindset heading into the tourney. “For the most part, I think everybody was kind of in the same boat; they didn't hate it, but they didn't love it either. But as it's starting to grow, I think people are starting to gravitate to it a little bit more. I think it's been a good thing so far.”

The first three games of group play felt like typical regular-season games, for the most part, with the exception of the bold new courts. But once it got to the fourth and final slate of games when the point differential rule started to come more into play, a new and captivating style of competitiveness was introduced.

Although the Celtics were blowing out the Bulls at TD Garden, they still had to maintain at least a 23-point lead to advance. So they kept their starters in throughout most of the blowout to ensure a large margin of victory. Meanwhile, they also had to keep tabs on other games going on around the league, because other results and point differentials also came into play.

After the Celtics completed their 27-point win, they went back into the locker room and watched the remainder of the Brooklyn-Toronto game, which would help determine the Group C winner. To win their group, the C’s needed Brooklyn to win, but by at least nine points fewer than Boston's margin of victory over Chicago. The Nets wound up beating the Raptors, 115-103, and Boston’s players rejoiced as they won their group and advanced into the quarterfinals.

“It's definitely generated the type of competition, the viewership that the league and the players association was looking for,” said Brown. “So I think that’s a positive.”

Creating a new type of competition also adds extra meaning to the early part of the regular-season schedule. Brown believes that spicing things up in November and December can help keep a team’s competitive mindset sharp.

“I think the In-Season Tournament is going to help us a little bit because the season can get a little mundane,” Brown said. "Eighty-two games, it’s a grind, it gets kind of like monotonous a little bit, game after game. But mixing it up, having something a little bit different, I think it’ll increase our focus levels and hopefully we’re able to keep that maintained throughout the season.”

The competition will only increase as the C’s move into the eight-team knockout stage. Their next IST game will be Tuesday night at Indiana, and the winner of that matchup will move on to the semifinals in Las Vegas.

The team that goes 2-0 in Vegas will be the first IST champion, and Brown is hoping that his Celtics will get to hold that distinction.

“Winning it is in our DNA here in Boston."

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Brown Senses Peers' Growing Positivity Toward IST

BOSTON – Tuesday night marked what was likely the first competitive blowout win in Boston Celtics history.

Normally, that combination of words wouldn’t make sense. How could a blowout possibly be made competitive?

There were several ways in which the C's could have advanced into the IST quarterfinals, but the only way that they could (mostly) control their own destiny was if they annihilated the visiting Chicago Bulls.

In order to win their Group C pool, the Celtics had to beat Chicago by at least 23 points, and they also needed Brooklyn to beat Toronto, but by at least nine points fewer than Boston’s point differential over the Bulls. (Here were all the scenarios heading into Tuesday night’s slate of games.)

Boston did its job by running over the Bulls, 124-97. The C's then went back to the locker room to catch the end of the Nets-Raptors game, which the Nets won, 115-103. Hitting the desired point-differential combination thrust Boston into a quarterfinal knockout game, which will take place Monday night in Indiana.

The atmosphere during the latter portion of Tuesday night’s C’s game was unusual, but also invigorating. Boston led by as many as 35 points midway through the fourth quarter; though, it felt more like a five-point game as its starters kept trying to pile on points to keep their hopes of advancement alive.

“When we got to that point, I felt like it was time to execute and put ourselves in position to advance into the tournament,” said head coach Joe Mazzulla. “Going into a game you can't think those things. You do have to be prepared for them. So once you're in that situation, you have to be ready to go to it, and so I thought our process the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter did the best we could at putting us in position to advance.”

The starters admitted that it was unlike anything they’d ever experienced, but they knew the objective.

“To be honest, it was a little weird,” said Jaylen Brown, who finished with a game-high 30 points, along with eight rebounds and six assists.” But the ultimate goal is to go out and get a win tonight, and that's what we did.”

Adding to the oddity of it all was the fact that the players were simultaneously keeping tabs on the Brooklyn score, which was being displayed periodically on the TD Garden Jumbotron. The Nets and Raptors went back and forth for the majority of the night, and that kept everyone in Boston, including Jrue Holiday, on their toes.

“I think we kind of knew, everybody, and were visually trying to do the math in their head, which even after the game got kind of confusing,” said Holiday, who returned after a two-game injury absence and produced 14 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists. “But that’s why I don’t – I’m not into the mathematics of it. I play basketball.”

Mazzulla was keeping a closer eye on the mathematics while receiving updates from a Celtics staffer sitting on the sideline.

Although Mazzulla’s main goal is obviously to put his team in position to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy, he understands and appreciates what the league is trying to do by introducing an IST trophy and its accompanying cash prize.

In fact, he’s come to embrace the atypical nature of it all.

“It’s just weird because it's new, it’s different,” said Mazzulla, who coached his 100th game Tuesday night. “I truly love watching the European tournaments and the style that they have. And so five, six years from now, this is going to be just normal.”

Tuesday night felt far from the norm but in a good way. The IST rules introduced a brand-new style of competition, keeping fans on the edge of their seats even amid a blowout.

Enhanced engagement early in the season was the goal, and that’s exactly what the IST has brought thus far.

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Celtics Advance to IST Quarterfinals in Thrilling Fashion

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Boston took care of business and secured a berth into the quarterfinals of the In-Season Tournament with a 27-point win over Chicago.

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Unfiltered presented by Putnam | 11/28 vs. CHI

Marc D'Amico

The Celtics may have played a basketball game Tuesday night, but they spent most of it throwing – and landing – knockout punches.

Boston led by 11 after one quarter and doubled that lead at halftime. However, the Bulls scored five straight points early on in the third quarter to claw to within 16 while building up their strongest wave of momentum of the night.

That’s when Boston landed its final punch of the night to knock the Bulls out for good.

The Celtics responded with a flurry of nine straight points, and an 18-4 run overall, to blow their lead open to 30 points with 4:44 left in the quarter. Suffice to say, this one was over at that very moment.

The run was due in large part to the services of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. During the four-minute spurt, Tatum scored five of the run’s first seven points, and eight of the 18 overall. Meanwhile, Browns cored six of the 18 points, including the final two on a fast break layup to push the lead to 30 points.

The lead grew to as many as 35 points during the fourth quarter as the Celtics coasted to a 27-point victory. That margin was enough to punch their improbable ticket into the In-Season Tournament’s Quarterfinals. Their point differential secured a win amid a three-way tie situation with Orlando and Brooklyn for the winner of Group C, and as such, they advance to the knockout stage.

Jaylen Brown put forth arguably his best all-around game of the season Tuesday night against Chicago. Not only did he lead the game with 30 points, but he also piled up eight rebounds to go along with six assists and a blocked shot.

That’s a whole lot of impact across the board in 35 minutes of action.

Brown canned 12 of his 23 shots from the field to account for his 30 points. He scored nine points during the first quarter, seven during the second, 10 during the third, and four during the fourth. &nbsp;

“I think we all kinda knew, I mean a little bit, of what we needed to go and do. This probably might be the best one, sure."

– Derrick White on if this was the most exciting 27-point win of his career, given the In-Season Tournament ramifications

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 124, Bulls 97

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Photos: Bulls vs. Celtics – Nov. 28, 2023

The final day of In-Season Tournament group play has the potential to wrap up in chaotic fashion. The only simple fact is that the Boston Celtics need to beat Chicago Tuesday night, or else they cannot earn a spot in the knockout stage.

For them to move on, the scenarios become a bit more complicated. But we’ll try to lay it out for you in as straightforward of a manner as possible.

At the moment, the Orlando Magic are in the Group C driver’s seat with a 3-1 record and a plus-22 point differential. They’re also the only team among the five that has wrapped up group play after blowing out the Celtics by 17 points Friday afternoon.

Boston (2-1) and Brooklyn (2-1) are the only other Group C teams that can surpass Orlando for the No. 1 spot. Both Toronto (1-2) and Chicago have been eliminated from knockout stage contention.

Not only do the Celtics have to win tonight, but they have to blow out Chicago by at least 23 points in order to surpass Orlando’s point differential. But there’s a catch: the C’s also need Brooklyn to beat Toronto tonight in order to win the group. That may sound odd since the Nets are also vying for a quarterfinal berth; however, if Brooklyn loses, then that leaves the Celtics tied with Orlando in the win/loss column, and the Magic would move on because it owns the first tiebreaker over the C’s, which is head-to-head record.

Since Brooklyn beat Orlando and lost to the Celtics, it would create a three-way tie in the head-to-head category should the Nets and Celtics both win tonight. The next tiebreaker is point differential, and that’s why the C’s must improve from zero to at least a plus-23 to win the group.

The Nets currently have a plus-8 differential, so if they and the Celtics both win, Boston can only win the group by beating Chicago by at least 23 points and by earning a win that is at least nine points greater than Brooklyn’s. For example, if the Celtics beat Chicago 123-100 and the Nets beat Toronto 114-100, then Boston moves on. If that Nets score were to be 115-100, then they would move on.

If there is a tie in point differential at the top of the group, the next tiebreaker would be total points scored. Orlando currently has 446, Brooklyn has 340, and Boston has 325.

There’s also a way in which the Celtics could win by fewer than 22 points and still make it into the quarterfinals via the lone East wildcard spot. There are two scenarios that would enable the Celtics to clinch a spot this way, and they are even more complex than the ones we listed above.

The first scenario would be a Celtics win along with losses from 2-1 teams Brooklyn, Cleveland, Miami, and New York, which would make Boston the only East non-group-winner with a 3-1 record.

Scenario No. 2 would require a Celtics win and point differential advantage over any other 3-1 teams from the East that do not finish first in their group; Brooklyn Cleveland, Miami, Milwaukee, and New York could all be vying for that spot.

Got all that? Good. Now let the chaos begin.

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In-Season Tournament Standings Ahead of Matchup with Chicago

BOSTON – Roughly three minutes into the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s Celtics-Hawks matchup, Trae Young started going on one of his unstoppable scoring tears. The Atlanta point guard rattled off 10 points in a 98-second span and his team, which had trailed by as many as 20 points, was looking at a single-digit deficit and had offensive momentum on its side.

The Celtics needed a timely hustle play to help kill that momentum, and it was no surprise who came through.

At the 7:22 mark, Horford, stationed in the left corner, watched as Sam Hauser rose up for a 3-point attempt from the left wing. Although he was farther from the basket than all five Hawks defenders at the time of Hauser’s release, Horford began crashing toward the backboard. After the ball caromed off the back of the rim, Horford rose up amid three opponents and came away with the rebound on the opposite end of the basket from where he started.

It was an unlikely snag for any player, let alone a 17-year vet.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla was standing next to Jaylen Brown at the scorer’s table at the time of the play, and recalls them both exchanging a stunned glance: “When Al went and got that, we both just looked at each other, and it was like, ‘How lucky are we to have this guy?’”

Brown later added, “Al just adds to winning. That play is just a small example of what Al brings to our team. That was a corner crash, the ball bounced on the other side of the floor, and Al goes up through three guys. It was a huge effort play, and those are the type of plays you need to win games like that.”

The C’s rattled off five straight points after the Horford board, and Young never scored again for the rest of the night.

Jayson Tatum sensed that the eldest member of the team inspired the rest of the group with his hustle, and they buckled down after that point and came away with a 113-103 win.

“It just gives us so much energy. We get so excited when he does those things,” said Tatum, who scored a game-high 34 points. “He ran from the opposite corner over three guys and got the opposite rebound and gave us another opportunity to score. You know, that's contagious, the crowd feeds off of that, we feed off of that, and he's, he's that guy on our team. Everybody loves him and respects him. Night in and night out, he does things like that, that we can't say 'thank you' enough for.”

Horford always seems to come through when his team needs him to, whether it’s a single momentum-altering play or an entire game’s worth of hustle. On Sunday night, he did both.

The C’s were coming off their worst half of the year – a 40-point second half in Friday's 113-96 loss to the Orlando Magic – and Horford came ready to play from the jump. He helped fill the void of Kristaps Porzingis (sidelined with a calf strain) and tallied six points, 15 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and two blocks in 32 minutes of turnover-free action.

The 15 boards were the most he’d had in a game in nearly two years. It also made him just the third Celtic in history to grab that many rebounds at age 37-plus, joining Alton Lister and Robert Parish.

Although his role is different this season, mostly coming off the bench, Horford is still bringing the same offensive versatility and the same defensive intensity that he’s brought to the game for nearly two decades. Having an experienced guy around like that to set the tone is invaluable for the entire Celtics roster.

“He sets the example every day,” said Mazzulla. "Sometimes guys like him can go underappreciated, but we have to be able to show the way that guy wants to win.”

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Celtics Rave Over Horford’s Hustle

BOSTON – Jayson Tatum has a name for Boston's fringe rotation players. He calls them the "Stay-Ready Group."

Although this group may not see the court every game, it's their job to be prepared whenever their number is called upon, such as Sunday night when the Celtics were missing both Jrue Holiday (sprained ankle) and Kristaps Porzingis (strained calf) heading into their matchup with the Atlanta Hawks.

On this occasion, the "Stay-Ready Group" lived up to its name.

Two players in particular earned extra time to shine: Dalano Banton and Neemias Queta, both of whom had played in less than half of Boston’s games up until that point. They came in prepared, combining for 15 points and 15 rebounds, to help deliver a 113-103 win inside TD Garden.

“You have to find moments to give guys opportunities to see what you can develop and to give guys chances,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “So that was a perfect opportunity to do it when you have guys out.”

Banton earned his fourth career start – and first as a Celtic – taking Holiday’s place on the court for the opening tip. Although he started off slow, going scoreless on just one field-goal attempt in the first half, the fourth-year guard picked it up after the break. He finished with eight points, five rebounds, an assist, and just one turnover in roughly 19 minutes of action after playing just 36 minutes in six prior appearances on the season.

Mazzulla commended Banton’s “defensive instincts,” which played a part in helping to limit the Hawks to their lowest point total of the season.

Tatum was impressed by Banton’s production, too, though not surprised.

“DB’s been in this league for a little while,” said Tatum, who scored a game-high 34 points. “He knows how to play the game at a high level. And he’s part of that Stay-Ready Group. They come in every day, they get extra reps, they stay conditioned, and they work on their reads so that in times like this when guys are in and out of the lineup, we can just plug certain guys in and we can keep it rolling. He did well tonight, competed, made some big plays for us, and I was happy to see him get an opportunity.”

Queta entered the night with just a single five-minute appearance under his belt with the C’s, but he, too, was prepared to make an impact.

The 7-foot center logged seven points, 10 rebounds, and one steal in just over 15 minutes of action. His double-digit rebounding effort included a game-high of six on the offensive end, which was also a career-best in that category.

“I think that’s a little bit of what I bring to the table, being an offensive rebounder, being able to crash or attract a second defender to you on the offensive glass,” Queta said. “I feel like it’s just one of those things I can help with.”

Tatum certainly thought Queta’s presence was helpful, as the latter's offensive rebounding generated several extra possessions.

“He was big for us tonight, the energy that he brought off the bench,” Tatum said. “I give a lot of credit to those guys, the Stay-Ready Group. They work their butts off. It's tough not knowing when your number's gonna get called, but just having to be prepared when it does, and tonight [Queta] helped us win the game.”

Mazzulla has seen the work Banton and Queta put in behind closed doors at the Auerbach Center, and it’s fulfilling to see it all pay off in front of a packed TD Garden.

“I thought both those guys did a great job, and credit to our development staff that keeps them ready,” Mazzulla said. “But those guys come in every day, they never know when they're going to play, and their name was called tonight. So I just wanted to prove to them and show them that their hard work can pay off, and we're going to need all of them in some capacity at some point.”