Take a bow, Luke

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In three out of five games, the Boston Celtics have looked good value for money going into halftime, only to crumble in the third and fourth quarters. Wednesday night was not one of those times.

Without Jayson Tatum, missing his first game after suffering an Achilles tendon tear, multiple Celtics stepped up. Both the Celtics and the New York Knicks went into the half with the game still in the balance.

Then, things changed. Luke Kornet was injected into the starting unit, replacing the ineffective and, honestly, downright disappointing Kristaps Porzingis. Everything got rolling from there. Kornet was a monster. He ended the game with seven, SEVEN, blocks to his name.

According to Law Murray of The Athletic, Kornet’s performance put him among some elite company.

While Kornet wasn’t the only Celtic who impressed, he was among the most impactful. Something about Kornet’s journey from New York to Westchester to Maine to Boston to NBA Champion keeps me locked in on his development.

He keeps finding ways to improve his game and earn a slightly bigger role year over year, and all of this culminated in what could potentially be a defining playoff moment in his career.

One of the Knicks' biggest advantages throughout the series has been their ability to generate consistent offense via the pick-and-roll. Whatever scheme Joe Mazzulla has tried, New York has had an answer and/or a counter. Interestingly, for most of those struggles, Kornet has been glued to the bench despite being the team’s best answer when it comes to containing the pick-and-roll.

“Luke’s a guy that can shoot the ball, but we’ve also been really intrigued with Luke for a long time because of his pick-and-roll defense,” Brad Stevens said all the way back in 2021. “He’s always in good position. He’s long, he affects shots; he’s a guy we’ve always had an interest in because of those two things.”

This play leads to Kornet’s first block of the game. He begins the possessions in a shallow drop, likely two steps away below the level of the screen. For Kornet, this is strong positioning; he’s close enough to use his length on a close-out, but far enough that he can rotate to take away the drive and/or force the ball-handler onto their weaker hand or a contested shot — and that’s exactly what he does in the above clip.

Watch how Kornet looks to take away OG Anunoby’s dominant hand by cutting off the angle. This is known as “weaking” as it forces players to attack on their weaker side. Anunoby has to change his entire body positioning after hitting his gather step, giving Kornet ample time to read the action and Korntest the shot, resulting in a strong block.

Credit to Derrick White for funneling Anunoby, too.