Tyler Zeller’s loss was Kelly Olynyk’s gain.
Zeller, the Boston Celtics’ most effective big man of late, found himself on the bench with foul trouble less than three minutes into Monday’s 105-87 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Enter Olynyk.
The second-year center, the only Celtics player to have lost his spot in the starting lineup during this season, relieved Zeller and made his presence known almost immediately. After the Sixers jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead, Olynyk scored on three consecutive trips down the floor to cut the deficit to 13-9.
With just over two minutes to play in the first quarter, Olynyk grabbed a rebound, carried it up himself, spotted up for a 3-pointer and buried it. Then, after stealing a Tony Wroten pass on the ensuing 76ers possession, he returned to the same spot and lofted up another three.
This one missed. Undeterred, Olynyk called for the ball again, shot once more and swished it through.
Twenty-nine seconds, three shots, six points.
From that point forward, there was no slowing down the long-haired Canadian. While teammate Avery Bradley quickly faded off after his hot start (11 first-quarter points; 15 overall), Olynyk’s shots just kept falling. He went 2-for-2 in the second quarter to up his point total to 18 by halftime, added eight more points in the third and another four in the fourth.
Olynyk’s 30 points (on 12-of-17 shooting) represented a new career high, surpassing the former mark of 28 he set in the same building eight months earlier. The stellar outing also was a glimpse of what Olynyk truly is capable of — a potential he’s fulfilled on only a few occasions this season.
“I think he’s really good,” head coach Brad Stevens told reporters in Philadelphia after the game. “I think he could be a really good player. I talked to him about it — do you want to go from being a player who’s very capable of doing it and does it on multiple nights to a player that does it every single night, so that you establish an even better and more reliable belief going into every game?”
Too often during his sophomore NBA campaign, Olynyk’s answer to that question has been “no.” He was yanked from the starting five in late November after scoring fewer than 10 points four times in five games (including two goose eggs), and while he’s shown flashes since — most notably during the Celtics’ double overtime loss to the Washington Wizards — his game still has lacked both confidence and consistency.
Monday night was a step in the right direction.
“I think that what he needs to be able to do is do that every night,” Stevens said of Olynyk’s effort against the Sixers. “I don’t know if it’s as much that he wouldn’t have done it a couple of weeks ago, as he would have done it a couple of weeks ago on a Monday but not a Wednesday.
“So, you just need him to be aggressive every night, and I think that’s the thing — we need him to make shots. Our team depends on it. He’s a skilled guy who can stretch the floor. We need him to do that.”
Thumbnail photo via Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports Images
