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On Saturday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics rolled into Chicago and demolished the Bulls despite playing without starters Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday, extending their Herculean lead over the rest of the Eastern Conference playoff picture in the process. While it wasn’t his most efficient game, Tatum did more than enough to help lead his Celtics squad past a Bulls team that has been mired in inconsistency and injury struggles all year.
In recent weeks, the Celtics have begun to start sitting players in preparation for the upcoming 2024 NBA playoffs, with head coach Joe Mazzulla and his staff coming up with creative ailments to assign their players on a nightly basis, before magically healing said ailments the next night, and then reverting back to them for (most likely) rest purposes.
The point being, several members of the Celtics’ rotation have missed time recently, including big men Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, which has opened the door for backup center Luke Kornet to see some extended playing time down the stretch run of the season. That trend continued on Saturday in Chicago, as Kornet logged eight points and 13 rebounds in limited playing time vs the Bulls.
After the game, Kornet was asked how he is able to be such a tenacious presence on the glass, and his answer is sure to motivate the next generation of hoopers.
“Kids, just try hard,” said Kornet, per Celtics on NBC Sports Boston on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.
Good effort, along with winning the genetic lottery and growing to be over seven feet tall, are indeed both very helpful for achieving success in the NBA.