BOSTON — Following a dominant 112-93 win over the Miami Heat, there was plenty of praise to go around for the Boston Celtics, specifically toward a key role player who filled a void in a major way.
The Celtics were without both Marcus Smart and Gordon Hayward on Wednesday night, leading Brad Stevens to lean on Semi Ojeleye as a key contributor in the win. The forward finished with five points and seven rebounds on the night, but his impact was far more important than what the box score read.
Stevens gave a lot of love to the third-year player after his 24-minute outing.
“Well I just think he’s really improved,” Stevens said. “You know, I feel really good when he shoots the ball, he’s worked really hard on his shot. Nobody spends more time, we talked about that. He made a huge shot tonight when he cut it to five and then hit the three behind the ear out of bounds on a nice pass from Brad (Wanamaker). Then defensively, he’s in the right spot. He’s where he’s supposed to be. He plays with good physicality. And he got a number of deflections in the paint just by being in the right position. I agree with you, he was really good. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence those 24 minutes were our best 24 minutes tonight.”
Stevens was not the only one to send praise Ojeleye’s way, as Jayson Tatum happily highlighted his work ethic.
“I’m happy for him,” Tatum said. “He works his tail off every day — in the gym, in the weight room —Â so he was bound to get him some and hopefully he keeps it going.”
The Celtics’ leading scorer on the night, Jaylen Brown, expressed Ojeleye’s communication made all the difference for the team Wednesday night.
“Communication,” Brown responded when asked about Ojeleye’s impact. “You can always hear him talking. Semi does a good job being communicative on defense, so he is an anchor down there. So, we started the second half with him and it helped us out a lot.”
Finally, Kemba Walker topped off the rave reviews for Ojeleye by alluding to how great he was for them.
“He’s great, Semi was great,” Walker said. “He was really loud. You know, talking behind the defense. Making sure everybody was in the right spots. And that’s Semi is for us as well. You know, he’s a great player. You know, we need him to be great defensively. Make open shots like he’s doing. Making the hustle plays. He’s always first onto the floor. That’s where we need him.”
Ojeleye finished as a plus-21 on the night off the bench, which further shows simply how good he was in Boston’s second straight win.
