No contest: Kornet is team’s funniest
Center is part of good vibes around Celtics
Shaking out my notebook as the Celtics’ nine-game winning streak rolls on …
R These Celtics are extremely good at basketball but a bit short on personalities and voices. When I mentioned this to coach Joe Mazzulla recently, he smiled and nodded and said he loved it. His general point was that with this group there is little need to be concerned about a fiery quote or interaction that could stir things up and become a distraction.
In the locker room after Saturday’s win over the Bulls, though, there was a rare public snapshot of camaraderie and levity. So, we might as well share it.
It started while backup center Luke Kornet was conducting a group interview following his 13-rebound performance and making a few self-deprecating quips about his play. He has improbably emerged as the team jokester.
Then forward Sam Hauser walked over. “Luke, who’s the funniest guy on the team?” he asked.
“Besides yourself,” Jayson Tatum chimed in from his stall about 10 feet away.
The slight compliment was not lost on Kornet, who thanked Tatum.
“Humbly,” Derrick White said.
This was a nod to Tatum’s now-famous postgame interview following his performance in Game 6 of the conference semifinals against the 76ers last season, when he said he was humbly one of the best players in the world. He appreciated White’s recall. “Humbly, yes,” he said Saturday, smiling. Kornet resumed answering the question and seemed stumped.
“Aw, you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings,” Hauser said.
Kornet was not worried about that, so he started to launch into an answer.
“Honestly, Derrick …”
“No!” Tatum boomed.
Kornet got back to explaining himself. “I didn’t finish my statement,” he said. “Derrick is funny in the way that, like, when
you have children around and they do something adorable and they don’t even know what happened, you’re just like, ‘aw, shucks.’ It’s more like a [laughing] ‘at’ than ‘with’ kind of thing with Derrick.”
Even in answering a question about the funniest player on the team, Kornet had clearly asserted himself as the funniest player on the team. Anyway, everyone seemed to enjoy the brief back-and-forth to end another successful night.
■ So, what have the Celtics been doing so well during this winning streak? Well, how much time do you have?
The 3-point line is the best place to start. The Celtics have connected on a league-best 42.9 percent of their attempts. That would be a tremendous number on its own, but when combined with the fact that they have attempted a league-leading 45.6 3-pointers per game during this stretch, the efficiency is almost inconceivable.
The last nine games, Boston also leads the NBA in turnover percentage (10.3), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.99), opponents’ free throw rate (.147), and opponents’ points off turnovers (13.3). Blend this together and one can see how the Celtics are outscoring opponents by 18.8 points per 100 possessions during the streak. It has been championship-caliber stuff.
■ Tatum has a lengthy postgame routine and is usually the last player to leave the arena. The last bus always waits as long as he needs because, well, he is Jayson Tatum. But the All-Star got a rare night off when the Celtics faced the Pistons Friday, and afterward he seemed to relish the chance for a speedy departure.
“I ain’t never been on Bus 1 before,” he said as he grabbed his bag and bounded out of the locker room.
■ Hauser is in the midst of one of the most scorching stretches of 3-point shooting in team history. Last Sunday he made 10 of 13 3-pointers in just over two quarters and appeared poised to shatter Klay Thompson’s single-game NBA record of 14 before a sprained ankle cut Hauser’s night short. He missed two games with the injury but hardly missed a beat, draining 7 of 8 long-range attempts Saturday.
Hauser, who is shooting 43.9 percent from beyond the arc this year, said there is no real secret to this success.
“My teammates are finding me when I’m open,” he said. “I’m trying to get into windows and set myself up for success as well, and being a little more aggressive coming off screens, running behind a guy in transition for them to flip it back. So, just trying to find my place and be a star in that role.”
Mazzulla said the others are realizing how to best thrive with Hauser, either by freeing him up for open looks or by using him as a decoy to create two-on-one advantages elsewhere.
“He has an innate ability to balance the floor with spacing, but also create indecisions,” Mazzulla said. “So we don’t run a ton of plays for him, but the guys have really learned how to use him as a weapon offensively.”
■ It’s hard to say Al Horford is turning back the clock when his game has hardly regressed over the years. But as he poured in 23 points in Saturday’s win, Bulls coach Billy Donovan’s presence provided a reminder of how long Horford has been doing this. Donovan recruited Horford to Florida more than 20 years ago.
■ The Bulls re-signed forward Javonte Green to a 10-day contract Friday and he was in uniform for Saturday’s game against the Celtics. Green started his career as an undrafted free agent out of Radford with Boston in 2019 and spent 1½ years with the team before being traded to Chicago midway through the 2020-21 season. He was slowed by a knee injury last season, and this year had played for the Warriors’ G League affiliate in Santa Cruz.
Green developed a particularly close bond with Tatum during his tenure, so it was no surprise to see him stop by Boston’s locker room after Saturday’s game to catch up with his old friend.