You hear “next man up” all the time in sports. It’s become a cliche across all team competitions, but it truly applies to the Boston Celtics. Head coach Joe Mazzulla has been outspoken about how much he trusts the guys on his team and that mentality has embedded itself within the players themselves.
Saturday night’s win against the Charlotte Hornets was a great example of why that trust is there. The team still managed a double-digit win without reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown in the starting lineup because guys like Luke Kornet seamlessly dealt with his inheritance of added responsibility.
Kornet was inserted in Boston’s starting five against the Hornets and delivered a 19-point performance to help his squad come away with the W.
When asked about his impressive outing, he pointed to the team’s mindset as a whole.
“I think it’s just kind of what our identity is,” Kornet told NBC Sports Boston’s Kayla Burton. “It’s all about just winning the game in hand. You don’t know who it’s going to be, but everyone who came in contributed and it’s all rolling in the same direction to get the win.”
Despite a season-high in minutes, Saturday’s box score only shows four rebounds for Kornet. According to Mazzulla, those statistics are pretty flawed when it comes to capturing the big man’s effectiveness on the glass.
“He gets a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed,” said Mazzulla (via NBC Sports Boston). “One of the things that they don’t chart is block outs when someone else gets the rebound…A great job keeping his guy off the glass so someone else can get it.”
An outing like Saturday’s shouldn’t come as a surprise. Last year, when he was given a similar opportunity against the Toronto Raptors he had his best game of the season. Kornet finished that night with 20 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks against the Raptors. Two of the points came in the closing minute and proved to be the deciding factor in the win.
“I think a couple of years playing the way I have, I think I just got really comfortable with it. The focus for me this year has been really consistent with taking care of my body and putting myself in a good position every single day,” Kornet told CelticsBlog’s Bobby Manning. “I feel like as long as I’m taking care of those things and after games, looking back and seeing what decisions I made and then just continuing on with that process.”
It can’t be stated enough how fortunate the Celtics are that Kornet elected to re-up on a minimum multi-year deal. He could’ve certainly gotten paid more by teams around the association but decided to stay with the champs. This not only says a lot about Kornet’s character and what’s important to him as a basketball player, but also to the environment that the Cs have built.
Big Korn isn’t the only guy who’s having games like this. As a team, Boston has built an identity of being ready for the moment. Both Kornet and Payton Pritchard, members of last season’s “stay ready group,” have had solid starts to the 2024-25 campaign by thriving in the niche areas that the team needs them to.
