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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

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

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.”

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White’s Career-High Scoring Night Leads C’s to 3-1 Lead in Miami

The Celtics knew exactly what they needed to do to bounce back from Wednesday night’s Game 2 loss to the Heat, and that was to up their defensive intensity as the first-round series shifted down to Miami.

It didn’t take long for C's to right the ship on South Beach.

Boston held the Heat to just 12 points in the first quarter of Game 3 Saturday night, setting the tone for a 104-84 win while taking a 2-1 series lead.

It marked Boston’s best defensive effort – regular season or postseason – in nearly two full years. It hadn’t given up fewer than 85 points since its 93-80 Game 5 win over the Heat in the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals.

Joe Mazzulla described the early portion of Game 3 as a “rock fight,” as the two teams combined for just 15 points in the opening six minutes. Boston accounted for 80 percent of those points, grabbing a 12-3 lead out of the gate.

Jaylen Brown noted, “We put an emphasis on defense, trying to make them uncomfortable a little bit. They had a slow start, we had a good start on defense, and I think that opened up the game.”

Boston’s defensive effort sure opened things up for its offense, as it came alive for a 42-point second quarter. Meanwhile, its defense remained steadfast, taking a 63-39 lead into the break.

“It was just more about our attention to detail on both ends of the floor, mainly on the defensive end," said Jayson Tatum. "Just start the game and not let them be comfortable – regardless if they hit shots tonight, just try to make them work for everything that they get.”

Miami’s shot-making – particularly from 3-point land – was the main issue in Game 2. It made a franchise playoff-record 23 3-pointers Wednesday night at a 53.5 percent clip. On Saturday night, that number plummetted to nine makes at a 32.1 percent clip, similar to its 12 makes at a 32.4 percent clip in Game 1.

For a Celtics team that led the East in 3-point defense during the regular season, they felt much more like themselves on that end of the floor.

“Teams can come out and hit a plethora of shots,” said Brown, “they had a record-breaking night the other day, but we don't panic. When we watched the film, we broke it down seeing where we could make some improvements if we came out we executed, and I thought that's what we did tonight.”

On the offensive end, the Celtics put forth another balanced attack, just like they did in Game 1. Brown and Tatum tied for the game lead with 22 points. Kristaps Porzingis bounced back from a tough Game 2 with 18 points on 55.5 percent shooting. And Derrick White chipped in with 16 points.

As a team, the Celtics were deadly from inside the arc, where they shot 62.2 percent.

Overall, it was the type of bounce-back effort that their head coach expected.

“I don’t expect them to play perfect and I don’t expect a series to be easy or to go a certain way,” Mazzulla said. “But I trust them and I know they want to win, and I know they’ll do whatever it takes, and I trust their preparation, and I trust who they are.”

His players have that same trust in themselves, and they believe that through their preparation, they are just getting started in these playoffs.

Brown pointed out how the team needed a little time to regain its rhythm after playing just two games in the previous 12 days, and he is looking forward to playing every other day for the remainder of this series.

“I feel like we’re still getting it going,” he said. “I think we’ve still got another gear to kick into, so I’m looking forward to (Game 4) Monday.”

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C's Tighten Up Defense, Hold Heat to 84 Points in Game 3 Win

BOSTON – Heading into Game 3, there is one glaring area where the Celtics say they must return to form: defending the 3-point arc.

Such was their downfall in Game 2 Tuesday night, when the Miami Heat shot a playoff franchise-record 23-of-43 from deep, propelling them to a 111-101 series-splitting win.

It wasn’t just an anomaly for the Heat; it was also an unusual event for Boston, which led the Eastern Conference in 3-point defense during the regular season by allowing opponents to shoot just 35.2 percent.

However, Al Horford says there’s no room for such anomalies in the playoffs.

“You just have to be better,” he said Thursday before heading down to Miami for Game 3. “You have to be better defending the 3-point line. They shot a lot of them, a high frequency, and I know we will be better coming in the next game. There'll be more of an awareness to that. And for us, defensively continuing to make sure that we do a good job of getting stops and holding them to one shot.”

In order to get stops, Joe Mazzulla says his team will need to close out better, get their hands up in Miami’s airspace, and not allow as many open threes in transition. Boston did a much better job of that in Game 1 when it held the Heat to just a 32.4 clip from deep.

“We can control our transition defense and we can control a decent percentage of those 3s,” Mazzulla said. “And so that's the first step is always going back to taking away the things that you can control.”

Typically, the Celtics are in control of that area of the game. Not only do they have a top-tier 3-point defense, but they were also the third-leading team in shot contests this season.

Horford played a huge role in that area, claiming the fourth-best shot-contesting rate in the league.

“They are going to do what they are going to do, so we just have to be prepared to execute what we do and making sure that we're engaged at a high level defensively, which I expect our group to be,” said the veteran big. “We've been very consistent with that all year, and we have to show it again.”

Another rare occurrence in Game 2 was how limited Kristaps Porzingis was on the offensive end. Miami held him to just 1-of-9 shooting from the field, which represented his fewest field goals in a game all season in non-injury-shortened games.

However, Porzingis is not letting such a performance affect him mentally. He expects to bounce back in Game 3 and deliver something closer to the 7-of-13 effort he had in Game 1.

“Nothing changes for me; good game or bad game, I stay the same,” he said. “We looked at the things we can do better. I looked at my possessions. I’ll make sure I’m better offensively, 100 percent.”

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C’s Confident Their 3-Point Defense Will Return to Form in Game 3

BOSTON – A palpable buzz has been building around the Boston Celtics for the past several months as they’ve geared up for what could potentially be a special playoff run this spring.

A large portion of that hype has been self-generated from the team’s production on the court, where it went a league-best 64-18 during the regular season – its best mark since going 66-16 during its 2007-08 championship season.

But much of this year’s excitement has also been initiated by the production of another Celtics team off the court – a team of creatives operating behind the scenes who have stirred up a rousing playoff campaign through various marketing strategies. And it is their boldest, most technologically-advanced campaign to date.

All of those playoff hype videos and graphics that you’ve likely seen on the team’s official social media pages, all of the street banners, the digital signage, the in-arena motion graphics that you may have encountered in person – every one of those assets has been a result of countless hours of work put forth by the organization’s Creative and Content Teams, which consist of 10 talented artists and creative minds:

Those 10 individuals, with their varying titles and responsibilities, all came together in the months leading to the postseason, pooled their ideas into a creative cauldron and conjured up a cohesive game plan that would have made Boston’s coaching staff proud.

Their brainstorming sessions create an iron-sharpening-iron effect where they learn from and feed off each other’s ideas. This allows them to level up their efforts and helps to push them closer toward their collective goal of becoming the cream-of-the-crop creative/content group in the NBA.

In recent days, we’ve just begun to see the fruits that have been borne from all of their hard work. One of the more stimulating pieces to come out of the campaign was the initial playoff hype video that launched on all of the team’s social media platforms Saturday, the day before the on-court postseason journey officially began.

Duchon was the lead editor for this futuristic, technology-based piece, writing the script and piecing together all of its elements to create a masterpiece. The hours he put into the process were “too many” to count, he said, but it all paid off as the video reached millions of impressions in the blink of an eye.

Though, it wasn’t just Duchon behind the video’s creation. The entire content team played a role in its innovation, bringing individual concepts to the table, which were then executed during the team’s playoff marketing shoot in mid-March at WGBH’s studio in Brighton.

Each segment of the video had its own station inside the studio, and each setup was initiated and operated by a different member of the Content Team. Wilson came up with the cloning concept that you see in the theater at the beginning of the video. Von Iderstine produced the laser station that follows right after. Duchon conceptualized the trailing repetition station. And others helped by providing alternate camera angles and technical support.

The group went to extreme efforts to perfect such a technical project; for example, the laser machine was unexpectedly complicated to master, and so Carney had to seek the assistance of a laser expert up in the middle of New Hampshire so that they could operate it properly during the shoot.

But when a project of such magnitude comes to completion and is put on display, Von Iderstine says, “It’s the most rewarding feeling ever – to be a part of it from the very start of the lightbulb, and now it’s a whole finished piece for millions of people to see.”

That was just one of several incomparable pieces that have gone out on the Celtics’ social media platforms of late.

Hampton has been producing behind-the-scenes “sizzles” from practices and has also been capturing footage used on the digital signage outside the arena:

Carney created an adrenaline-pumping 24-second countdown video leading into Game 1 against the Heat:

Wilson clipped together a sweet-sounding Jayson Tatum highlight pack that was posted soon after Boston’s Game 1 win:

Those are just a few of the plethora of videos logged on the team's socials, and there will be plenty more to come.

The Creative Team has also taken its production up a notch in these playoffs with bold new concepts of their own.

After going with a “Dark Mode” theme last season, the graphics group opted to take a more colorful approach this time by showing off a diverse palette of greens while focusing on gradient usage.

Silver says, “There’s an emphasis on contrast, portraiture, and clean layouts. It’s very minimal, but it’s impactful.”

There is a lot of overlap and collaboration in the artwork produced by Silver, Arndt, and Wu. They spent the past couple of months comparing mood boards, inspired by various visual elements, while also coming up with a plan of how to execute their creativity with consistency.

“This year is a little different because we’re more aligned across the creative team,” Wu said. “So it’s really not starting from scratch each time; it’s more using whatever elements we align on at the beginning of the process and we go from there.”

Their art comes to life in many different forms. Arndt was responsible for laying out the artwork for the street banners and signage that fans see at the Hub on Causeway outside the arena. Silver was responsible for many of the in-arena designs, which are displayed on various digital boards. Many of Wu’s creations can be seen on the team’s social media pages, such as the three-column banner image of the full team lineup that is currently pinned to the top of the team’s Instagram page, which doubles as a highlight reel if you swipe on each frame. He came up with the concept while observing the very same playoff shoot from which the Content Team produced their hype pieces.

Just like the Celtics’ players have put in countless hours to hone their craft, the front office’s creative minds have been hard at work behind the scenes doing the same. Their responsibilities and exposure may differ vastly from one another, but they’re all working together under the same umbrella, inspiring the best fanbase in the world while striving toward the same goal.