Celtics passed their first Jayson Tatum-less test: ‘We believe in our depth’

BOSTON — For the first time this season, the Boston Celtics were without star Jayson Tatum. The team announced his absence Wednesday afternoon, meaning it would have to adjust its approach when hosting the Milwaukee Bucks at TD Garden.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla further outlined those adjustments before opening tip.

Advertisement

“The sub pattern is going to be different,” Mazzulla said pregame. “The starting lineup’s gonna be different. The end-of-quarter lineups are gonna be different because he plays the whole quarter. So we’ll play a bunch of different lineups. What doesn’t change is the process of how we have to execute on both ends of the floor, but some of the tactical stuff will change.”

With Tatum resting, Mazzulla inserted Paul George, Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Neemias Queta and Hugo González into Boston’s starting lineup. In the first quarter, George played all 12 minutes, Queta, Mitchell Robinson and Luka Garza rotated through a double-big combination, and Baylor Scheierman played more than half the frame as the Celtics dug deep into their depth.

Boston shuffled through 10 different players in the first quarter alone.

Mazzulla stuck by his word.

Advertisement

For the rest of the team, the objective was simple.

“Get a win,” White said. “It’s kind of the thing we always talk about; people in, people not in. We play how we play and just gotta go out there and get a win. Obviously it changes a little bit because JT does a lot for us, but at the end of the day, we believe in our depth, we believe in every person in the locker room, and we just gotta go out there and get a win.”

Garza, the team’s leader in 3-point makes in Houston (four), picked up right where he left off. Coming off the bench, he knocked down each of his first three 3-pointers to enter halftime as Boston’s leading scorer with 11 points. He also grabbed five rebounds, including three on the offensive glass, continuing his early-season emergence as Mr. Reliable in the Celtics’ reserve unit.

In the second half, as George and White began to carry the offensive load, Scheierman worked in tandem with Queta to clean up the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/celtics-passed-first-jayson-tatum-110000117.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-11-05 11:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.