Anfernee Simons didn’t let a Friday night benching prevent him from leading the Celtics to victory on Sunday
“I think he just has to have an understanding of what we have to do on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said, “and I thought he did a better job of that in the second half.”
Simons sounded unfazed by his first-half benching. He acknowledged that the team needed a burst of energy, and he was pleased that Hugo González and Jordan Walsh had provided one. Then Simons was asked why he hadn’t done that himself.
“I think it’s just being more attentive to what’s going on and valuing those possessions,” he said. “Those could be growing pains. Us, as a team, being in those positions together for the first time, and I think as we go through these situations, I think we’ll get better at them. I think this is one tonight where we can learn a lot from.”
A spree of 3-pointers is not necessarily evidence that a message was received, but Simons’s first half in Sunday’s rematch against the Magic certainly did not resemble the preceding one.
After the Celtics once again stumbled into a double-digit hole with a rocky start, Simons came in and provided the lift they needed. With the Celtics trailing, 21-9, he hit a step-back 3-pointer from the left arc that was followed by a transition three from a similar spot. When the Magic defense picked him up farther from the basket to take away his long-range darts, Simons took a handoff from Josh Minott and raced to the rim for a 3-point play.
Just like that, the deficit was sliced to 33-30 by the end of the quarter, and the momentum shift was underway. But Simons was hardly done. Over the first 2:10 of the third quarter, he hit a baseline jumper that was followed by three consecutive 3-pointers.
“He’s one of those guys, when he gets in a rhythm like that, there’s nothing you can do to stop him,” center Luka Garza said. “So, we’re just trying to feed him and get him into actions so he can stay comfortable and stay in a rhythm.”
By the end of his 14-minute stint, the 12-point deficit had been transformed into a 3-point lead, and Simons had erupted for 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting. His forgettable first half from Friday night had become a distant memory.
“It was great to see him be aggressive in the first half and get it going,” forward Jaylen Brown said. “That’s what we need, and it takes pressure off everyone. So, going forward we’ve got to look for that more. And it’s a long season, so we’ve just got to keep an open mind.”
Simons did not score in the second half, when Walsh and Gonzalez sparked a 13-0 fourth-quarter run that helped the Celtics grab their 111-107 win. But Mazzulla said Simons’s presence was still impactful. He pointed out that Simons’s disruptive first half led the Magic to shift their pick-and-roll coverages on him later.
Rather than playing in drop coverage or switching on screens, they tended to send two defenders Simons’s way, and that opened up opportunities for players such as Garza, who capitalized with some floaters after setting screens for Simons.
“That’s what great players do, is they cause so much gravity that they’ve got to put two on the ball or whatever it is,” Garza said. “I’m glad Anfernee was trusting me in the pocket in the seam.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
