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Taylor Snow

BOSTON – When Kristaps Porzingis suffered a calf strain during Game 4 of the first round, it was a devastating blow for the Boston Celtics. Fortunately, their roster is built to sustain such adversity, and Al Horford’s presence is a major reason.

Horford stepped into Porzingis’ starting role in Game 5 and helped the Celtics knock out the Miami Heat with a 118-84 win. And he’s prepared to continue to step up during the indefinite timeframe that Porzingis remains out.

For a 17-year vet who has started more than 1,200 games in his regular season and playoff career, there couldn’t be a much better option than Horford, and a situation such as this is exactly what his sixth-man role calls for.

“I think that from experience over the years, you would like for everything to go super smooth, but that’s not always the case,” Horford said following Friday’s practice. “My preparation just doesn't change. Every day, I feel like I'm very consistent in my approach, in the things that I need to do, and I just think now that maybe more will be asked of me. But I'm still going about it the same way, so I don't think there's anything that I really need to alter or do. We've been very consistent with our work all season and I feel like it’s not going to be any different now.”

Horford was a sparkplug during Boston’s 34-point blowout, providing hustle plays while pumping up both his teammates and the crowd. His peers recognize how valuable of a catalyst he can be, seeing his energy affects everyone around him.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla noted after Game 5 how “Al kind of sets the temperature for us with just his ability to impact the game basketball-wise, but also with his personality and his aggressiveness. He set the table for us tonight, he set the tone for us, and everybody followed suit.”

Horford sets the tone with a lead-by-example style. He’s the embodiment of consistency and his approach never wavers regardless of whether he’s starting or coming off the bench.  

“I want to make sure that defensively I’m solid, that I’m giving support to the group, and that I'm doing the things that I need to do on that end,” he said. “My job doesn’t change. And then on offense, continuing to stay ready and do whatever I need to do. For me, it's just all about continuing to impact winning, so it doesn't change.”

The only difference now is that he’s starting, which also means that other bigs will have to fill in the gaps behind him.

“I'm expecting some of our guys to step up – whether it’s Luke (Kornet), whether it’s Neemi (Neemias Queta), whether it’s Xavier (Tillman Sr.) – to step up and be able to play minutes for us when their number is called. That's something that I’m excited about: for their opportunity.”

Likewise, Horford’s teammates are excited to see what he’s going to bring in his elevated role, as he often tends to rise to the occasion in the playoffs.

“He’s our OG, the truest pro,” Payton Pritchard said. “How he handles himself is unbelievable. I’ve watched him on the daily, how he goes about his work and his mentality. So he’s a big part of this.”

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Horford is the Perfect Fill-In While KP is Out

Marc D'Amico

The Boston Celtics have raised eyebrows this season with a dramatic increase in one particular type of play.

The coaching staff has acknowledged it. The analytics staff has acknowledged it. The media has commented on it.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the era of the tip rebound.

There is no questioning the fact that Boston’s players have increased their frequency of purposefully tipping rebounds to their teammates at both ends of the court this season. Since the start of the campaign, some form of nonverbal communication has seemingly led to a Celtics franchise record of tip rebounds. This development has oftentimes led to either second-chance scoring opportunities on offense, or transition possessions out of the defensive end.

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Tip Rebounds

To be clear, this is totally anecdotal information at this point that is substantiated only by the eye test, as tip rebounds are not tracked by any public website, nor by Boston’s internal analytics team. But within the walls of the locker room, there is an acknowledgment that there has been an uptick in this department this season.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sam Hauser acknowledged of an increase in controlled tips this season for Boston. “I think we’ve put more of an emphasis on getting to the offensive glass, just trying to get extra possessions.”

Hauser’s take is in perfect harmony with that of Boston’s coaching staff.

Celtics assistant coach DJ MacLeay, who spends much of his time working with Boston’s big men, said that the team has never directly coached the play or instructed players to tip rebounds to teammates. Instead, he says, the increase in tip rebounds this season is a result of a shift in overall approach to team rebounding.

“I think it’s a natural byproduct of crashing and offensive rebounding,” MacLeay said to Celtics Insiders of the increase in tip rebounds. “I think it’s something that we do talk about through the lens of offensive rebounding. It’s through the lens of getting closer to the rim and making it a point of crashing the basket after the shot goes up and crashing the paint, just to give ourselves an opportunity at a second chance so that we’re putting ourselves in a good position to win the margins and maintain the shot margin with other teams.”

Shot margin has been a talking point for Joe Mazzulla all season long. He has constantly told both the team and the media how important it is to win that category. The reasoning behind this approach is tied to simple math: if you take more shots than the opponent, you have a greater opportunity to score more points than the opponent.

Boston’s analytics team diagnosed rebounding as a growth opportunity with relation to shot margin and relayed that to the coaching staff this past offseason. Mazzulla and his staff took that information and ran with it. However, it’s up to the players to both embrace that analytical data and act on it during game action. And they have.

It has also appeared to the naked eye that team chemistry has played a role in Boston’s increase of tip rebounds. It’s one thing to tip a rebound to a teammate who isn’t expecting it. It’s another thing to tip a rebound to a teammate after you’ve locked eyes and you both know what’s about to happen.

The latter is what has occurred time and time again this season for this group of Celtics, who MacLeay calls “the most connected group I’ve ever been a part of in the NBA.” The heightened connectivity has generated an unparalleled amount of nonverbal communication on the court, with tip rebounds being just one example.

As MacLeay made sure to mention, though, this entire conversation is predicated upon that initial emphasis of throwing as many bodies at the glass as possible. That emphasis is the genesis of all things tip rebounds.

“I think in general, being engaged in the rebounding creates a connectivity,” MacLeay said. “You can’t have a great tip rebound without having more bodies in there. So I think the concerted effort we made as a staff and as a team was to teach and coach to the proximity, getting into the paint, being more aware and having a greater understanding of that rebounding, then you create those connections because you’re there.”

Next time you watch the Celtics, take note of how often the Celtics are there, crashing the glass as a unit. Then you’ll be able to wrap your head around what’s creating all of these tip rebound opportunities.

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Behind the Scenes on Boston's New Rebounding Fad: the 'Tip Rebound'

BOSTON – The Boston Celtics exorcised last year’s demons by sending the Miami Heat packing for an early summer vacation Wednesday night, as they closed out their first-round series in emphatic fashion at TD Garden.

On the very same court where Miami eliminated Boston from last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics got their revenge with a 118-84 Game 5 win, pushing them forward into the East semis.

It marked the fourth meeting between these teams in the last five postseasons, and they’ve taken turns alternating series wins. Miami ousted the Celtics in the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals. Boston got its revenge in the 2022 Conference Finals. The Heat punched back in the 2023 ECF. And the C’s retaliated with Wednesday’s first-round win while riding a pair of 25-point efforts from Jaylen Brown and Derrick White.

“We’ve just had such great battles against them,” said White. “In the past, we've had opportunities to close them out, especially on the home court, and have failed. So being able to close them out here tonight, and to do it the way we did it, it’s definitely big.”

For the most part, the Celtics dominated the series. All four of their wins were by at least 14 points, including three by at least 20. Their plus-78 scoring differential is the best by any team to this point in the playoffs – 15 points better than the second-place Thunder. And that was all a result of their approach going into each of these games.

“We talked about wanting to throw the first punch,” said White. “And I think we did that pretty much for the whole series.”

The only blip was their 104-94 Game 2 loss. But Boston didn’t feel the slightest sense of panic when Miami evened the series and just kept plowing ahead like it did all season long. Outside of the lone loss, the Celtics trailed for only 56 seconds in the other four games combined.

“We've been doing this all year,” said White. “We've had games where it might seem like it was a big loss, but we just bounce back, regroup, and everybody's just been on the same page all season. It's the playoffs; there's going to be ups, there’s going to be downs. That's what makes it amazing. That's what makes it fun. And so we’ve got to be ready to not get too high on those wins and not get too low on losses, and just keep improving.”

One area in which the Celtics improved as the series progressed was their collective physicality. That was the main attribute that the Heat had going for them, and Boston did an excellent job of matching or exceeding them in that area.

Brown especially liked how he and his teammates battled on the boards. Boston was plus-47 on the glass for the series, including a 56-29 rebounding advantage in Game 5.

“That’s a sign of it: staying on the glass,” Brown said their physical approach. “Being able to set that tone has helped our team and that’s where we’ve gotta continue to thrive is just being the more physical, tougher-playing team. We’ve got a bunch of tough guys in that locker room, so we’re up for the challenge.”

They were up for the challenge against the Heat. And now they’ll be up for the next challenge in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, whether it comes against Cleveland or Orlando.

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Celtics Put Out the Heat in Dominant Series-Clincher

Dominant from the jump. That’s what the Boston Celtics were Wednesday night. They smelled blood in the water, and they went in for the kill.

Boston pulled ahead 7-2 during the first two-plus minutes of action as the offense set the tone for an incredible first quarter of play. The C’s went on to pull ahead by as many as 18 points during the opening frame while dropping 41 points on the Heat.

To put that scoring outburst into perspective, Miami didn’t reach 41 points until the 4:33 mark of the second quarter.

This blowout got underway with 4:26 left in the first quarter when Jayson Tatum dropped in a technical free throw following a coach’s challenge from the Celtics. Tatum’s freebie initiated an 11-0 run, all of which was scored from beyond the arc or at the free-throw line, that helped Boston double Miami up by a count of 32-16 with 2:18 left in the frame.

That wasn’t the last time the Celtics doubled Miami up (or more), either. Boston cruised its way to the winner’s circle and directly into the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Q1 6:02 - [BOS 15-11] White Driving Dunk Shot: Made (7 PTS) Assist: Horford (2 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 118, Heat 84

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics will be without Kristaps Porzingis in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, not that they will get much sympathy from the Miami Heat ahead of the possible closeout game Wednesday night.

Top-seeded Boston took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with a 102-88 victory in Miami on Monday, but Porzingis exited late in the first half with a non-contact calf injury and did not return. He left the arena in a walking boot.

Porzingis was ruled out following a medical examination Tuesday that revealed a right soleus strain. It is the same injury that has kept the Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo out of the playoffs so far.

"Nothing changes," Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. "Bringing the same mindset, intentionality, toughness, details to the next game regardless of who's available. It doesn't matter. There's no difference between the regular season and the playoffs. And all year, we've had guys step in and play."

The Heat lost Jimmy Butler to a sprained right MCL in the play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers and Jaime Jaquez Jr. was ruled out for Game 5 with a hip injury. A third starter, Terry Rozier, has been out since April 7 with a neck injury.

Porzingis averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in 57 regular season games this season. He averaged 14.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in the first three playoff games against the Heat, and had seven points and three rebounds before leaving Game 4 with 2:27 left in the second quarter. Boston was 21-4 this season when Porzingis did not play.

At the time, Boston's Al Horford said of the Porzingis injury: "Definitely concerning for me." Consider him fully concerned now.

Miami, the No. 8 seed, will need a victory Wednesday to avoid elimination and send the series back to Miami for Game 6 on Friday.

"Our guys really want to get this thing back to Miami and have just a great game in front of our fans," Miami coach Eric Spoelstra said after Monday's loss. "Our team wants to play well in front of our fans, so that's the motivation -- to get back here."

Short-handed Miami has had trouble keeping pace with Boston offensively for much of the series. The Heat scored 39 points in the first half of a 104-84 loss in Game 3 and had 36 points in the first half Monday.

Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 25 points, 17 rebounds and five assists in Game 4. Tyler Herro scored 19 points for Miami and Caleb Martin added 18.

"We're going in the lion's den," Adebayo said. "Everyone knows what's at stake."

Jaquez Jr. didn't play in the fourth quarter of Game 4 because of a hip injury and didn't travel to Boston for Game 5.

"I just felt something, felt something give in the hip, and we'll take it day by day as of now," Jaquez said after Game 4. "It was really just my hip, my right hip. I felt something give in the beginning in the third quarter going up for a rebound. I tried to get back in there, tried to give it everything I had."

Jaquez averaged 11.9 points per game during the regular season, and 12.8 points per game in the four playoff games against the Celtics.

Boston's Derrick White scored a career-high 38 points in Game 4. He was 15 of 26 from the field, and 8 of 15 on 3-point attempts. Jayson Tatum added 20 points and 10 rebounds.

The winner of the Boston-Miami series will meet the Cleveland-Orlando winner in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"We'll just wrap our minds around getting one game in Boston, and figuring it out from there," Herro said.

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5/1 Game 5 Preview: Heat at Celtics

BOSTON – In piecing together a championship-caliber roster behind the scenes, Brad Stevens has earned some shine in the spotlight.

The NBA announced Tuesday that the Celtics’ president of basketball operations has been named the 2023-24 Executive of the Year after building Boston into a league-best 64-win team.

Stevens won the award in a landslide, receiving 16 out of 29 first-place votes. No other executive received more than four such votes. He also earned six second-place votes and three third-place votes for a total of 101 voting points. Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti finished a distant second with 47 voting points.

Stevens is the third Celtics executive to achieve the honor, joining Red Auerbach in 1979-80 and Danny Ainge in 2007-08. &nbsp;&nbsp;

“I am so thankful to work for the Celtics,” Stevens said. “Our ownership group has given us the support and resources to build this team. The players, coaches, front office, and support staff are amazing - superstars in their jobs across the board. This recognition has everything to do with the team and nothing to do with any one individual. Great teams require that everyone in the building is fully committed to each other and moving in one direction.”

The Celtics have been moving in a positive direction ever since Stevens was elevated from head coach to president of basketball operations following the 2020-21 season. During his first year in his new role, he made a few trades and signings that turned into significant long-term pieces, such as the re-acquisition of Al Horford, the signing of undrafted free agent Sam Hauser, and dealing for Derrick White midseason ahead of Boston's 2022 NBA Finals run.

After failing to make it back to the Finals last year, Stevens made several franchise-altering decisions leading into the 2023-24 campaign which helped to shape Boston into the best team in the league while also setting it up for potential long-term success.

The two main moves were trading for Kristaps Porzingis on Draft Night and then dealing for Jrue Holiday at the start of Training Camp.

Both trades required great sacrifice, as the C’s had to give up Marcus Smart to acquire Porzingis and lost both Rob Williams and Malcolm Brogdon in the Holiday deal. But there is no question that both acquisitions were upgrades.

The Porzingis move completely changed the dynamic of Boston’s offense. His scoring versatility as both a low-post threat and a knockdown perimeter shooter took a great deal of pressure off Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum this season, plus, his 7-foot-3 presence has provided the Celtics with elite protection at the rim.

Tatum summed up KP’s value after Game 3 of the first round by claiming he is “the most important guy on our team for what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Holiday’s presence has also been of utmost importance. And his acquisition was just about as shocking as that of Porzingis. Holiday had initially be traded from Milwaukee as part of the Damian Lillard trade, and soon after he arrived in Portland,  Brad Stevens brought him back to the East. The C's had to give up Williams and Brogdon in the process. Still, it was ingenious to acquire a player who had been a key cog for a Milwaukee team that was considered Boston’s biggest Eastern Conference competition.

The move paid off tremendously, as the Celtics went on to win 64 wins, while a reshaped Bucks team finished with 49. Holiday became Boston's most impactful defender, a jack-of-all-trades offensive contributor, and a valuable locker-room presence as a respected teammate and someone with championship experience.

Not only did Stevens acquire two former All-Stars, but he also committed to both of them long-term. Porzingis signed a contract extension shortly after being traded, and Holiday did the same just before the end of the regular season.

Stevens also extended two longer-tenured core players, inking Brown and Payton Pritchard to long-term deals.

Not only did these decisions establish the Celtics as a present championship threat, but they have also set the team up for a bright future. For that, Stevens deserves to bask in the spotlight, even though we know how much he thrives working behind the scenes.

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Stevens’ Remarkable Roster Construction Earns Him Exec of the Year

BOSTON, MA&nbsp;– The NBA announced today that Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens&nbsp;has been named the 2023-24 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year. Stevens is the third recipient in franchise history to win the yearly award, joining Danny Ainge (2007-08) and Red Auerbach (1979-80).“I am so thankful to work for the Celtics,” said Stevens. “Our ownership group has given us the support and resources to build this team. The players, coaches, front office, and support staff are amazing - superstars in their jobs across the board. This recognition has everything to do with the team, and nothing to do with any one individual. Great teams require that everyone in the building is fully committed to each other and moving in one direction. With that in mind, we are onto Game 5!”Stevens served as the Celtics’ head coach for eight seasons before being promoted to the team's President of Basketball Operations on June 2, 2021. Since Stevens joined the front office, the Celtics have reached the NBA Finals, the Eastern Conference Finals, and clinched the No.1 overall seed for the 2024 Playoff run. Boston has amassed the most wins in the NBA with a 172-74 regular season record for a 69.9 winning percentage over the last three years.The Celtics concluded the 2023-24 regular season with a league-best 64-18 overall record, marking the fourth-most wins in franchise history and earning their NBA-record 14th 60-win season. Boston went 37-4 at home, marking the third-most wins on the parquet in a single season in franchise history, and its 90.2 win percentage ranked 12th in the NBA since the 1990-91 season.The 2023-24 Celtics proved one of the most prolific offensive teams the league has seen, boasting the best offensive rating (122.2) in NBA history and knocking down the second-most three-pointers in a single season with 1,351 threes. The Celtics led the league in three-pointers per game (16.5), blocks per game (6.6), and plus/minus (+11.3), and ranked second in three-point percentage (38.8%), rebounds per game (46.3), and points per game (120.6).

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Brad Stevens Named 2023-24 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year

Less than one year after tipping in the winning bucket in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the South Beach Boogeyman returned to Miami to terrorize the Heat once again.

Last time, it had been a single, heart-stopping play that Derrick White delivered at Kaseya Center; this time, he produced a full 48-minute nightmare to lift the Celtics to a 102-88 Game 4 win to give them a 3-1 lead in their first-round series.

White turned in the performance of his life Monday night, pouring in a career-high 38 points on 15-of-26 shooting from the field, including 8-of-15 from 3-point range.

White opened the game with a 16-point first quarter, tying his career high for playoff points in a single frame.

“I think any person that gets a couple going in and you start making some tough ones, you feel like you just can't miss, and that basket seems huge,” he said. “It was a lot of fun.”

White said he could have scored zero points and still would have had fun just by getting the win down in Miami. Being the star of the game was just a bonus.

However, the Celtics need those types of performances out of White because when he’s hot, it takes some of the pressure off guys like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and allows the offense to flow even more freely.

“When he's being aggressive, it just opens everything up,” said Tatum, who logged 20 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists. “Whatever they try and take away for myself, when your teammates are hitting shots and being aggressive and attacking close-outs out and making plays, it makes us very, very hard to guard. You want everybody to be assertive and be aggressive and try to make plays. It just makes us a better team.”

That’s exactly why White tries to bring such assertiveness into each matchup.

“Every game, I have the same mindset of trying to be aggressive, just read what the game is telling you, not force anything, and just do what I need to do,” he said. “Tonight, I got a couple of good looks early and then my team did a great job with just finding me and empowering me to stay aggressive, so a lot of credit goes to those guys.”

Discovering that sense of empowerment took some time, but White has all the confidence in the world now to step up in big games such as these. Not only does he have his teammates to thank for that, but also his head coach.

“It starts with Joe (Mazzulla),” White claimed. “Ever since he took over, he's just given me the most confidence … Our relationship is just getting better and better each day. It’s amazing to play for him and I love it.”

You could see that confidence in every area of his game Monday night from the eight threes he knocked down, to the three blocked shots, to the consecutive dunks he threw down midway through the third quarter.

“I’m just having fun out there,” he said. “Competing at the highest level on the biggest stage, that’s what it’s all about.”