The promise of the most elite backcourt in the NBA was on full display at year’s end in TD Garden, as the trio of Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard boosted the Celtics past the Raptors, 125-71.
The 3 p.m. holiday start weighed heavily on both teams out of the gate. The Celtics failed to score until a Jaylen Brown layup made it 3-2 over seven minutes into the game.
But back-to-back threes from White and Holiday gave Boston the shot in the arm they sorely needed, as Pritchard added another 3 and they took off on a 14-2 run, and the Celtics opened up a lead as gaping as 56 points at one time in the second half.
Boston’s backcourt is sometimes an afterthought to the league’s best young duo, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Brown acts as a guard, but both guys are really wings at their core.
The New Year’s Eve blowout served as a reminder of not only the Celtics’ guards’ shooting ability (they went 8-12 from the 3-point line in the first half, while the rest of team laid an egg from distance), but also their high-level defense. Holiday tends to be the headliner – even at 34 years old, just before the season, an NBA General Managers poll ranked him the best perimeter defender in the league. It’s time White gets his due. He recorded his 400th career block in the first quarter, and it was already his second block of the game.
Even Pritchard, whose diminutive size marked him as a defensive turnstile much earlier in his career, has evolved in the pesky sort of guard that makes less biased Celtics watchers shout “Tommy Point” at least once a game. His active hands led to three steals from Toronto players Tuesday.
The effort was a necessary 180-degree pivot after Brown sounded frustrated with the team’s defensive efforts following a loss to the Indiana Pacers Sunday. Boston had beaten the same team 142-105 not even 48 hours before.
“We've got to get back to emphasizing the defensive side of the ball. It's slipped over the last few games, our intensity. Teams are pressuring us, being physical with us, and we've got to do some of the same stuff back to them,” he said.
Even against the lowly Raptors, the Celtics can count the final night of the year as a turn towards who they envision themselves to be. The team finished with 14 steals, and the trio of aforementioned guards account for half. Toronto finished with a whopping 21 turnovers, and Boston outrebounded them defensively, 38-30.
Boston will need to keep up their defensive hustle as they embark on a cross-country road trip that takes them through Minnesota, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Denver. The Thunder and Rockets boast the best defensive ratings in the league, with Minnesota just one spot ahead of the Celtics, ranked 6th.
It won’t get any easier for the Celtics in 2025, but if their backcourt can continue to apply pressure and find their stroke from downtown, they’re unlikely to stumble much again in the New Year.