In a marquee matchup between rivals, the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 111-101 in their first meeting since Luka Doncic joined LA.
Jrue Holiday was able to make his return to the Celtics lineup after having missed the last four games with “mallet finger” on his shooting-hand pinky. It’s an ailment that had Celtics fans expecting him to miss significant time, unsure if he’d even be healthy for the playoffs. Thankfully, given his return, it seems as though he’ll be able to play through it by keeping his finger in a cast.
Boston is going to need him going forward, and he gave us a reminder of that against the Lakers.
Holiday may have had some extra motivation to come back for the rivalry. He’s an LA native, born and raised, and even went to UCLA for his one year of college ball. It’s almost impossible not to know about their bitter basketball rivalry with Boston, and even more so when you grow up in one of the two cities, especially coming from a basketball family. While the two teams haven’t been on the same competition level for a while now, it feels as though the fire may finally be back, and Jrue wanted to get in on the action.
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Holiday’s stats don’t jump off the box score, but that’s not part of his job description at this point. He’s all about doing the little things to elevate the team’s defense and keep the offense connected. He finished the game with 7 points, 1 assist, and 5 rebounds on 3-6 shooting, 1-3 from three-point range, and a +9 net-rating.
Although it came on low volume, it was encouraging to see Holiday knock down a few shots. The biggest concern with his injury is that it could affect his shot-making ability. With a field goal percentage of 43.9% on the season, and a three-point percentage of 34.2%, he was just about on pace for the game.
He’s undoubtedly still getting adjusted to the cast on his finger, so we’ll need a bigger sample before we can judge how much it affects him. With that being said, teams still have to respect Jrue while he’s on the floor, and he’s crucial to Boston’s spacing, whether that be with him initiating the offense, hanging out in the corners, or setting himself in the dunker spot. More than his scoring, the Celtics rely on Jrue for his game IQ and his ability to put himself in the right spots on offense.
Four of his five rebounds were offensive against the Lakers, providing Boston with extra possessions in a defensive-focused game that was relatively low-scoring for both teams. Ultimately, only two of them led to buckets, but offensive boards are an energy spark. They’re a product of effort, and in the grand scheme of a game, they obviously give a team more chances to put points on the board.
A great example of that came late in the fourth quarter. The Celtics were up by just 7, and Jaylen missed a three-point attempt with a little over two and a half minutes left in the game. Derrick White made a timely hustle play, saving the ball from going out of bounds, and finding Jrue, who did a good job of making himself available. Holiday took a dribble towards the basket, drawing the attention of all five Lakers players, and causing them to converge on the paint as they were trying to regather themselves. In doing so, Jrue was able to create plenty of space to kick it out to Jayson Tatum who found himself wide open for a dagger three at the end of the shot clock.
Tatum was raving about Jrue after the game. ESPN’s Lisa Salters asked him about what the Celtics were doing defensively. “Just competing,” he said, adding, “we missed Jrue… We’re a totally different team when Jrue’s out there. So many things he does out there on both ends that may not always show up on the stat sheet. We’re so much better with Jrue Holiday.”
Jayson continued to sing Jrue’s praises when the Celtics got back to the locker room. Joe Mazzulla commanded the huddle to start sharing his thoughts on the game with the team. When he opened up the floor for the players to chime in, Tatum spoke directly to Jrue. “Way to play, man. What you did on both ends of the floor, the extra points and rebounds on the offensive end gave us life. Happy to have you back.”
As JT said, Holiday clearly means a lot to this team. He is a key component to their overall success on both ends of the floor, and his impact isn’t easily replaceable. Between the new finger injury and the shoulder impingement that he’s been dealing with throughout the season, there’s valid concerns about his ability to stay on the court come playoff time. We’ll have to monitor both ailments, but his name didn’t show up on the most recent Celtics injury report, which is certainly encouraging.
