Jabari Parker didn’t have time to earn Brad Stevens’ trust.
There wasn’t practice between the time he signed with the Celtics on Friday and Saturday’s 8:30 p.m. game with the Warriors. He took part in shootaround Saturday morning, got issued a new No. 20 jersey and dressed for a pretty important game at TD Garden. Nobody would have been surprised if he only played a couple of minutes in low-pressure spots, barely a day after joining the team.
Instead, he played a big role in Boston’s 119-114 win at TD Garden.
Brad Stevens didn’t wait to ease him in. He put Parker in for Jayson Tatum with 4:50 left in the first quarter. Parker turned the ball over twice in his first minute. But once those were out of his system, he settled down. He had a dunk off an offensive rebound to stop a 12-0 Warrior run early and had four points in six first-half minutes.
Still, even with Jaylen Brown out, the idea of going to Parker much down the stretch seemed unlikely. He hadn’t played since March 15 or attempted a shot since Feb. 21. The former Duke star played just three games all season for Sacramento before being released on March 25.
But even a rusty Parker offered more offensively than Tristan Thompson, Grant Williams or Semi Ojeleye was providing Saturday. So Stevens went back to him.
“We went through that stretch at the start of the fourth quarter where we needed to score,” Stevens said. “He gave us some opportunities there. But in the first half and the second he played on the baseline and played to his strength. He did a lot of good things. He’ll pick up our defense as time goes on and we’ll figure out how best to play with him on both ends.”
On the fly, it still turned out pretty well. Stationed in the right corner when Marcus Smart pulled up for a 3-pointer with just under 8 minutes left and the Celtics down a point, Parker darted around Kent Bazemore to grab the sinking airball and laid it in to put Boston up 97-96.
Stevens put him back in with 1:52 left in the game. Parker didn’t score, but he’d done enough up to that point that Draymond Green was forced to guard him opening things up for everyone else.
Parker had seven points in 10 second-half minutes and finished with 11 points and four rebounds in 16 minutes overall.
Smart was impressed.
“We just told him ‘Go out and play as hard as you can. We’ll work you into the plays and walk you through it. Don’t worry about that, just go play hard.’ He did very well,” Smart said. “We were definitely ecstatic with the way he came out. Not really knowing the system, he just played basketball. Once he gets more involved in the plays and learning, everything else with mesh in even more. For his first time out there, he played very well and we’re proud of him.”
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