{"id":30337,"date":"2025-02-02T12:53:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T12:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=30337"},"modified":"2025-02-02T12:53:29","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T12:53:29","slug":"celtics-notes-porzingis-horford-tucker-trade-deadline-pritchard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=30337","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Notes: Porzingis, Horford, Tucker, Trade Deadline, Pritchard"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-418360\">\n<div>\n<p>With everybody healthy for Friday\u2019s game against New Orleans, <strong>Celtics<\/strong> coach<strong> Joe Mazzulla<\/strong> tinkered with his closing lineup, according to to Souichi Terada of MassLive. Mazzulla rotated his centers in the final minutes of the two-point victory, using <strong>Kristaps Porzingis<\/strong> when Boston had the ball and <strong>Al Horford<\/strong> when the team was on defense.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cJust different looks,\u201d <\/em>Mazzulla explained. <em>\u201cWe need to play different ways, different coverages. Give them different ones. We just needed to change the matchup and give them a different coverage, looking to take away the three and so just kind of do that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Terada notes that Porzingis played well defensively, collecting three steals and four blocks. However, Mazzulla opted to use Horford in key defensive possessions because he\u2019s more effective in closing out on perimeter shooters.<\/p>\n<p id=\"IL7Y7MLCJNBGHH76SOVANNF2L4\"><em>\u201cFor me, nothing changed,\u201d<\/em> Porzingis said. \u201c<em>We trust Al and he comes in for defense and when my name gets called, I\u2019m always ready. Nothing changed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s more on the Celtics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>P.J. Tucker<\/strong> could wind up being an option on the buyout market after today\u2019s Clippers-Jazz trade, Terada suggests in a separate story. Tucker hasn\u2019t played yet this season, but he\u2019s a tough defender with a lot of playoff experience. As a second apron team, the Celtics are limited in the buyout candidates they can pursue, but they\u2019re eligible to sign Tucker because his $11.5MM salary is below the $12.7MM mid-level exception. Boston has kept a roster spot open since the start of the season.<\/li>\n<li>In a mailbag column, Brian Robb of MassLive puts the chances of a Celtics trade by the deadline at 95%. Robb says it\u2019s possible the team could move <strong>Jaden Springer<\/strong> to reduce its luxury tax bill, even though he\u2019s been an important contributor lately. Beyond that, Robb sees a need to upgrade from Springer, <strong>Jordan Walsh<\/strong> and <strong>Baylor Scheierman<\/strong>\u00a0on the wing, as well as <strong>Xavier Tillman<\/strong> in the frontcourt.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Payton Pritchard<\/strong> has become famous for his success on long-distance shots at the end of quarters, but he\u2019s proving there\u2019s a lot more to his game than that, writes Baxter Holmes of ESPN. Holmes examines how Pritchard has been able to work his way up from a little-used reserve to become a point of emphasis for opposing coaches on a team filled with stars. <em>\u201cEvery day, I\u2019m trying to prove that I can still reach another level,\u201d <\/em>he said.<em> \u201cI can still show people what I\u2019m trying to become. That\u2019s why I\u2019m always challenging the best that we have \u2014 like <strong>Jaylen (Brown)<\/strong>\u00a0and <strong>Jayson (Tatum)<\/strong>. I\u2019m trying to become as good as them one day. That\u2019s why I challenge them. I\u2019m trying to keep taking steps to better myself, which, at the end of the day, is only going to better our team.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Mazzulla rotated his centers in the closing minutes of Friday&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":30338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1605,1606,1264,1607,432,1608,79,1609],"class_list":["post-30337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-al-horford","tag-baylor-scheierman","tag-jaden-springer","tag-jordan-walsh","tag-kristaps-porzingis","tag-p-j-tucker","tag-payton-pritchard","tag-xavier-tillman"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Celtics Notes: Porzingis, Horford, Tucker, Trade Deadline, Pritchard - 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