Boston Celtics
Queta led Boston with 24 points Saturday.
Neemias Queta had a big night in Boston Saturday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
It didn’t always look pretty, but the Celtics handled business at home against the Wizards on Saturday night, 111-100, thanks in large part to Neemias Queta.
Here are the takeaways:
Neemias Queta dominated the paint.
Washington had no answers for Queta on Saturday.
Boston’s starting center finished with a team-high 24 points and went 11 for 13 from the field. He added 10 rebounds and two blocks, making his presence felt all over the paint.
He got the majority of his work done in the first half, scoring 22 points in those first two frames.
Nikola Vucevic is missing a majority of the regular season with his recent hand injury, which means Queta will have to handle a larger workload for the foreseeable future. He had no issues with his 31 minutes on Saturday.
Jayson Tatum is still searching for his deep ball.
Tatum’s night was full of small victories in his acclimation to the lineup. He played 32 minutes — second most on the Celtics — and finished with a team-high 14 rebounds.
His Achilles doesn’t appear to be bothering him, and he posted 20 points on the night. What he’s still searching for, though, appears to be his jumper, specifically from long range.
Tatum went 8 for 19 from the field and only made two of his nine 3-point attempts. He’s only shooting 29 percent from beyond the arc since returning.
His shooting range has rounded out his game for years now; with it, he’s a serious threat to score from anywhere on the floor. He’s been out of game action for almost 10 months, so it’ll take time to find that rhythm again.
The Celtics as a team, weren’t much better.
To Tatum’s credit, nobody in Boston’s lineup had any success from 3-point territory against the Wizards.
Sam Hauser went 4 for 11 and his only field goal attempts were 3s. Jaylen Brown didn’t see one go through the hoop, shooting 0 for 5 from downtown. Pritchard followed suit at 0-4. Outside of Luka Garza, who went 2 for 2, Derrick White had the highest 3-point percentage on Saturday, going 3 for 8.
Boston relies so heavily on 3-point shooting that it’s hard to imagine how it scored 111 points without that level of success. It also goes to show how ugly Saturday’s game could have gotten if the Celtics caught fire at any point.
Luka Garza gave Boston 15 solid minutes.
Speaking of Garza, his short time on the floor was very meaningful to Boston’s success. He scored 15 points in 15 minutes on efficient shooting (83 percent from the field, 100 percent from three, 75 percent on free throws).
Like Queta, Garza has the benefit of added minutes while Vucevic is out of the lineup. And like Queta, he was certainly up to the task on Saturday.
The Celtics held Wizards stars in check.
The main reason Boston’s spotty offense wasn’t an issue Saturday is because Washington’s offense was even spottier.
The Celtics held both of the Wizards stars, Alex Sarr and Trae Young, in check on Saturday. Sarr finished with just four points, going 1 for 9 from the field, and Young had 11 points but never got going from long range, where he can do his real damage. He was only able to attempt two 3s, and missed both.
Guards will always have a tall task against the Celtics between matchups with White and Brown more often than not. But Sarr is a former No. 2 overall pick and was completely outmatched by Queta on Saturday, which speaks volumes to Queta’s development on both ends of the floor.
Payton Pritchard struggled.
Pritchard has stretches of brilliance where you wonder if he could be a future All-Star if handed the keys to an NBA offense. And then he has nights like Saturday.
Nothing seemed to go Pritchard’s way at the Garden. His three wasn’t falling, and neither was his jumper in general. The guard went 2 for 11 from the field and didn’t ever get to the free throw line. He did tally four assists, but the offense wasn’t coming easy for him against the Wizards. His most notable stat line on Saturday was his two steals.
The week ahead.
Boston has another jam-packed week ahead of it with five consecutive matchups against Western Conference teams. It’ll host the Suns on Monday and the Warriors Wednesday at TD Garden.
After that, the Celtics will hit the road for the weekend to battle the Grizzlies Friday and Timberwolves on Sunday.
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