Welcome to Boston, Baylor Scheierman.
Though Tuesday’s game was Scheierman’s 19th in a Celtics uniform, it was his first true showcase of the talents that inspired Boston to make him a first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Scheierman poured in a career-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting, including 6-of-7 from 3-point range, as the Celtics defeated the Brooklyn Nets 104-96 at TD Garden.
The vast majority of that production came during a momentum-shifting stint that stretched from late in the third quarter to late in the fourth, giving the shorthanded C’s the spark they needed with superstars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both sitting out with knee injuries.
“Honestly, Baylor changed the whole game for us,” Derrick White said in a walk-off interview.
Kristaps Porzingis led all scorers with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting, plus 13 rebounds and three blocks, delivering his second straight productive outing since returning from an eight-game illness-related absence. White scored 13 of his 18 points in the third quarter, and Payton Pritchard was a plus-14 in 34 minutes off the bench, finishing with 10 points.
The story of the night, though, was Scheierman, who also registered two offensive rebounds, an assist and two steals in by far the best performance of his young NBA career. Before Tuesday, he’d gone 5-for-25 from three at the NBA level and scored a total of 30 points, half of which came in a promising showing against injury-ravaged Philadelphia on March 6.
Beyond his barrage of made threes against Brooklyn, head coach Joe Mazzulla repeatedly praised the rookie’s toughness, which has helped him carve out a larger role of late after spending most of the first half of the season in the G League.
“The thing I really like about him is his toughness,” Mazzulla said. “He’s got a high level of toughness. He’s got a chip on his shoulder and kind of like an F-U mentality to where he’s going to make it work. We saw that on some of his box-outs, some of his offensive rebounds. Again, the threes were great, but I like the mindset and the toughness that he brought on both ends of the floor.”
The Celtics, who were playing without Tatum and Brown for the first time since last season, improved to 50-19 with the win. With 13 games remaining and their status as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference all but solidified, Mazzulla will have plenty more opportunities to give his starters strategic rest and bench players like Scheierman chances to contribute.
Porzingis, playing on the Garden parquet for the first time since Feb. 23, scored the Celtics’ first three baskets. The second and third came off assists from White, including one that a cutting Porzingis snared with his extended right hand and laid in in one motion. The Nets’ defense had a difficult time handling Porzingis in the paint, fouling him three times in the first quarter and once early in the second.
With Tatum and Brown sitting out, White played the entire first quarter for just the third time this season and the first time since January. The veteran guard, who missed Saturday’s win in Brooklyn with a knee injury, started 1-for-8 from the field (1-for-4 from three) and committed two turnovers late in the quarter.
The Nets led 26-21 after one, then built two nine-point leads in the second quarter. The Celtics responded to the first with a 7-0 run capped by Hauser, who corralled a loose ball and hit a 3-pointer after an Al Horford-to-Neemias Queta lob clanged off the backboard.
Later, Boston got back-to-back buckets from Porzingis, the only player on either team to reach double figures in the first half (14 points). Porzingis followed those up with an excellent defensive possession, blanketing Cameron Johnson before rotating over to block a Nic Claxton shot. The Celtics trailed 49-44 at halftime.
White finally found his shooting stroke in the third quarter. After Horford opened the second half with a corner three, White scored or assisted on each of Boston’s next seven baskets. Those included two 3-pointers from White and another from Pritchard, plus an off-balance and-one jumper that tied the score at 62-62. White then proceeded to go cold again, misfiring on four consecutive threes as Brooklyn regained momentum.
Down 70-66 late in the third, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla sent out the smallest lineup he’d fielded all season. He subbed out centers Luke Kornet and Queta and paired White, Pritchard and Jrue Holiday with non-rotation wings Scheierman and Torrey Craig. All five of those players are listed at 6-foot-6 or shorter.
Scheierman made an immediate impact out of that unconventional look. After scoring a layup off a Holiday feed, the rookie banked in a 3-pointer as the third-quarter clock expired – only to have it waved off for a foul before the shot.
Undeterred, Scheierman received a rocket-powered (and, he revealed after the game, unexpected) pass from Porzingis on the ensuing inbounds play, quickly set his feet and buried a long-range buzzer-beater that put Boston ahead 71-70.
“I was actually trying to throw it to DWhite in the corner, and KP jumped in front of it,” Scheierman said. “And he threw it back to me, and I was surprised he threw it back to me, so I tried to get my feet and balance as quick as possible and just let it fly. At the end of the day, that’s kind of all there was to it. There was really nothing super detailed about it. DWhite was actually going to be open in the corner because his man fell asleep and he was cutting open. But it just worked out that way.”
Mazzulla rode the hot hand in the fourth quarter, keeping Scheierman on the court for more than 10 uninterrupted minutes while he cycled in subs around the Creighton product. Scheierman opened the final frame with an assist to Holiday, then an offensive rebound, then another three, his third of the game.
After trying and failing to draw a charge with the Celtics leading 78-74, Scheierman delivered a sequence that sent TD Garden into delirium. He hit another three, stole a Day’Ron Sharpe pass and then pulled up for a transition heat check – an on-the-run 32-footer that bounced high off the rim, then sank through.
Pritchard, the Celtics’ foremost authority on highlight-reel triples, shook his head and smiled after teammates mobbed Scheierman during an ensuing timeout.
“The whole arena wanted that shot to go in for Baylor,” Porzingis said. “… We were all happy for Baylor.”
Scheierman added a sixth and final three before Mazzulla finally lifted him with 3:58 remaining. The Boston crowd gave him a standing ovation as he walked to the bench.
“It’s pretty special. When I hit that buzzer beater and the crowd was going crazy, that was probably a top-three environment I’ve ever been a part of, and obviously I’ve played in a lot of big games,” said Scheierman, whose Creighton teams reached the Elite Eight in 2023 and the Sweet 16 last year. “And so it’s just special and that’s obviously what makes Boston so elite and the best sports town in the country, the best city in the country.”
A soaring alley-oop dunk from Porzingis in the final minute helped the Celtics shut the door on the Nets, who trailed by four with 47 seconds to play.
Boston now will embark on its final extended road trip of the season, opening a six-game trek through the Western Conference in Utah on Friday. The trip also will take the Celtics to Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Antonio and Memphis before they return to TD Garden on April 2.
Originally Published: