A lot of Celtics fans were wishing that Danny Ainge would go out and find a big man for our roster for it to be “complete”. Ainge did what the smart decision was to do and did nothing. We do not need a “big man” to compete for a championship this season. We do not need to trade away a core piece like a Gordon Hayward or a Marcus Smart for the likes of a Clint Capela or a Tristan Thompson. We have Daniel Theis. The man who is as dependable as anyone. You know what you will get from him every time he steps onto the court. He will challenge at the rim, switch and play decent defense on a guard and hold his own. He will get stuck in and rebound with the best of them. And tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he did all of that, and then some.
Theis scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds. When the offense got stagnant, he would bail us out by grabbing an offensive board and would go back up strong and either dunk the ball or get to the free-throw line. He does not need to create his own basket to be productive. He scores by getting his hands on a lob during a pick and roll or battling other bigs in the paint to secure the rebound and go back up strong. He cleaned the glass today and stepped up “big”.
When a star player misses a game you need your other top players to pick up their game and do a little more than they are used to to make up that player’s absence. At times you would get one player forcing more shots up instead of letting their game come to them. This was not the case today. The shot selection and the team play was balanced. Along with Theis who picked up his game, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum all picked up their games. Specifically their scoring. In the first half, Jayson Tatum picked up right where he left off from his 39 points double overtime win over the Clippers right before the All-Star break. He scored seven of the Celtics’ first nine points. He continued his all-star form finishing with 28 points and 11 rebounds.
Going into halftime up 61-53, it seemed like Tatum was going to have another big scoring night considering he had 18 at the break. The Timberwolves would not go away, every time it seemed like the Celtics would go on a little run, the Timberwolves (especially Hernangomez) would hit a three and then they would go on a little run. The third quarter they capitalized on some sloppy passes by the Celtics which led them to go on a 12-2 run to make it to a two point game. However, Theis and Hayward kept us in the game. Gordon had 15 points in the third quarter alone. Theis had 17 points and 11 rebounds going into the final quarter. The Celtics were able to get their seven point lead again heading into the fourth 95-88.
The Timberwolves were in the bonus early with about nine minutes left. Every time the Celtics would try to put the game away the Timberwolves would either draw a foul and go to the line to kill the momentum or hit a three. Jaylen (even though he fouled out with 4:35 left) had a quiet 25 points. There was not a stretch where he just kept scoring bucket after bucket, rather he was efficient throughout the game shooting 10 for 17. The defense picked up and held the Timberwolves without a field goal for about five minutes of game time. Towards the final minutes of the game, it seemed like every rebound was grabbed by Theis and either kicked back out to take time off the clock or he would go up strong and add to his career-high in points. He was a monster, easily the MVP of the game. He proved his value tonight, he can do a little bit of everything. He does not take shots away from anyone, he knows his role and he excels at it. Even when the refs, who had a quick whistle, he would still challenge vertically and make each shot difficult for the opposing player. Without Theis tonight the game could have ended differently, but because of a balanced play of our core player and the performance by Thies the Celtics were able to pick up victory number 39 of the season and a big win to start their four game road trip.
Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens (shoutout to Brad for victory 309 which is fourth all-time in Celtics history) know the value of each player and they knew it would not be smart to make a rash decision to try and bring in a big man. Especially when we have one who can defend with the best of them and can switch and do a decent job guarding quicker guards. Theis has improved a lot this season and is shutting up the haters that thought we needed someone else to do the job he has been doing consistently all season long.
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