The Celtics were facing a seven-point deficit against the Knicks when Hugo Gonzalez got the call to enter the game at the start of the second quarter. For the next 12 minutes, Joe Mazzulla was unable to take him out as Boston turned the game around in part due to the rookie\u2019s defensive spark. <\/p>\n
The 19-year-old guarded everyone from Karl-Anthony Towns to Jalen Brunson while helping limit the Knicks to a 20-point second quarter. The Celtics erased a double-digit deficit in the frame and ultimately held on for a 123-117 win against their division rivals. <\/p>\n
Gonzalez had largely been the odd man out of the rotation recently, having not played more than nine minutes in a game since November 9. However, he finished with a career-high 23 minutes against the Knicks, with his defensive versatility and effort standing out in Boston\u2019s biggest comeback win of the year. <\/p>\n
The performance left a major impression with teammates along with Joe Mazzulla. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought whenever we put Hugo, he just did a good job of getting underneath him, just kind of being physical with him, and you saw just kind of the depth of our team throughout some of that game, and it started with Hugo and finished with Josh and Jordan. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just see him being a dog,\u201d Jordan Walsh said. \u201cEvery day, everywhere, you just see the way he works out. He\u2019s like zipping. It\u2019s also cool to see\u2014I love when he gets in the game. Last time we played New York he did a great job on Brunson. He obviously did the same thing this time. I thought he did a great job. Him and Josh came in and gave great minutes, were amazing contributors. They made the difference in the game, I feel like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mazzulla\u2019s shift to playing more small ball lineups should open the door for more minutes for Gonzalez as Josh Minott and Jordan Walsh spend additional time at center. The entire wing trio had their moments in the win as Luka Garza earned his second straight DNP-CD. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought whenever we put Hugo, he just did a good job of getting underneath him,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cJust kind of being physical with him, and you saw just kind of the depth of our team throughout some of that game, and it started with Hugo and finished with Josh and Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being the youngest player on the roster, Mazzulla also praised Gonzalez\u2019s defensive acumen while facing the Knicks firepower. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got good defensive instincts, which most younger players don\u2019t have,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI think that just comes from being well coached and playing in a league where you have to play team defense, and you\u2019re constantly in rotations, you\u2019re in 1-on-2s, you\u2019re physical at the point of attack, you have to really understand spaces. I mean, he\u2019s just been well coached and has played high-level basketball for a long time. I think that just gives him his defensive instincts, and he pays attention to detail and has an understanding of tendencies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mazzulla\u2019s gameplan will certainly change based on the opponent but he\u2019s clearly trending more towards small ball now. Garza has only played five minutes in the last three games and the Celtics continue to find success with smaller looks. Gonzalez has plenty of competition for minutes on the wing, but there may be room for everyone to get a chance now if Mazzulla sticks with his rotation tweak. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Celtics were facing a seven-point deficit against the Knicks when Hugo Gonzalez got the call to enter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-327915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}