The Boston Celtics finished its four-game homestand Friday night with as many wins, and one thing that was a constant in each of those victories was some quality rebounding.
The Celtics out-rebounded the Minnesota Timberwolves 56-43 in their 91-84 win Friday, a season-high for Boston, which was particularly impressive given the behemoth that is Karl-Anthony Towns — who grabbed 23 rebounds himself — cleaning the glass for the opposition.
In fact, rebounding has become such a big factor for the Celtics that they’re 22-0 when out-rebounding their opponent.
Part of that success largely can be attributed to a couple of big men who ordinarily don’t pad the stat sheet in Aron Baynes and Daniel Theis. Each grabbed 10 rebounds in the win over Minnesota, while the Celtics posted a season-high 16 offensive rebounds that allowed for 19 critical second-chance points.
With the way the Celtics currently are built, they’ll never stun anyone with their ability to rebound. But they’ve done just enough this season to stay in the top half of the league in rebounds per game, sitting at eleventh with 44.5 per game entering Friday.
The rebounding performance in the win over the Timberwolves should be encouraging given Boston’s inability to make shots for the majority of the game. If the Celtics lose the rebounding battle, their seven-point victory surely is jeopardized, if not totally eliminated.
And what makes Baynes and Theis so interesting is that they are, well, rebounders.
In head coach Brad Stevens’ system, the big men often are encouraged to box out and clear the lane so the guards can come in and grab the rebounds. While that works in many cases, it can skew how a bigger body on the Celtics actually is contributing when it comes to rebounding. It’s the reason 6-foot-10 Al Horford can look underwhelming when he grabs less than eight rebounds per game.
But with Terry Rozier and Kyrie Irving each grabbing nine rebounds apiece in Friday’s win, it’s clear that not only are Theis and Baynes grabbing rebounds of their own, but they also are doing what Stevens is asking of them to make way for the guards.
As recently as the 2016-17 campaign, the Celtics getting a nightly thrashing on the boards led to a few ugly losses. But now that the new pair in Baynes and Theis can grab rebounds and clear the lane for guards, it’s giving the team some direction in terms of rebounding, and even getting Horford out of the lane in some cases, an added bonus as his perimeter shooting continues to improve.
Here are some more notes from Celtics-Timberwolves:
— The Celtics now have beaten the T-Wolves in 12-straight matchups at TD Garden.
— Boston has held opponents to less than 90 points nine times this season. That’s tied for the most in the NBA with the Utah Jazz.
— Irving has grabbed eight-plus rebounds in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.
— Rozier became the first Celtics reserve since Evan Turner in the 2015-16 season to score 10-plus points in six consecutive games.
