The Boston Celtics will be looking for another productive game from their non-starters when they face the visiting Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
Boston, which has been without Kristaps Porzingis (illness) and Jrue Holiday (hand) for its last two games, had a 28-11 advantage in bench points when it beat Denver 110-103 on Sunday. That came two days after Boston’s bench was outscored 33-6 in a 123-116 home loss to Cleveland.
Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta were the Boston reserves who had the biggest impact in Sunday’s win. Pritchard scored 11 points, Hauser added eight and Queta contributed eight points and 10 rebounds.
“For us to be a great team, they have to play that way and it’s a great thing,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I was talking to Payton the other day, and he’s such a competitor. He took ownership — not that I thought it was on him — but he took the ownership on making sure when he’s in the game, that lineup really impacts winning. And I knew (against Denver) he was going to put us in position to do that.”
Queta is averaging 5.0 points and 3.7 rebounds in 14.1 minutes per game this season.
“Just very professional,” Al Horford said of Queta. “Neemi, just sticking to his preparation, his routine, even if he’s not playing, you see him here, same energy, working, and just staying ready for the opportunities. … Him being able to defend the perimeter, protect the paint, get rebounds, just staying ready and just taking advantage of the opportunity.”
Boston also received 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals from Horford, who started in place of Porzingis and had to deal with Denver star Nikola Jokic on the defensive end.
“For me, it was making sure that I brought some energy early on and that we set a tone,” Horford said. “I felt like we were able to do that and to do that, and we took off from there.”
Wednesday’s game will be the sixth stop on a seven-game road trip for Portland. The Trail Blazers have won four of the first five games on the trip, including Monday’s 119-102 victory over Philadelphia. Portland’s only loss during that stretch came in overtime against Cleveland, which owns the NBA’s best record.
The Trail Blazers have seven players who are averaging more than 10 points per game.
“It’s always somebody different every night for us, which I think makes us difficult to prepare for,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said.
Anfernee Simons is averaging a team-high 19.0 points per game and tossed in a game-high 34 during Monday’s victory over Philadelphia. But in his postgame press conference, Billups singled out Shaedon Sharpe for his defense and rebounding against the 76ers.
Sharpe had 20 points, a career-high 11 rebounds and five assists in the victory.
“I think offense is easy for Shaedon,” Billups said. “He can make it look very easy. The defensive side is totally different. When he’s locked in on defense, it makes his offense even easier.
“I thought he was great. Career-high in rebounding. We need those rebounds in a major way. I think he’s maybe the most athletic guy in basketball. I need him going to get those tough rebounds.”
–Field Level Media
