How ‘Bout Them Celtics: The War on Theis continues and a brutal Pacers stomp

And we are back with another edition of HBTC Tri-Weekly.

Boston Celtics roster moves, the duality of the bench unit, and a Halloween dance extravaganza all featured on the episode, but let’s dive into a couple of the top topics.

Sam’s Pick: The War on Theis continues

The Celtics absolutely rolled the Pacers on Wednesday night, yet former Cs center, the GOAT, Daniel Theis, couldn’t get any minutes for Indiana????

What is Rick Carlisle doing, man?

You know the Garden crowd would’ve loved to see the big German get some run. Especially after he just won a gold medal at the FIBA World Championships.

Theis first joined the Celtics back in the summer of 2017, coming over from the Euroleague as a 25-year-old rookie. He spent three and a half seasons in Boston during his first stint with the team before being traded to the Chicago Bulls in 2021.

He then returned via trade just a year later and was part of the 2022 NBA Finals roster. When the deal happened, he said that Boston was the destination he preferred to be dealt to and was happy to be back.

In 257 total appearances for the Celtics, Theis started in 112 total games. He averaged 18.8 minutes, in which he was able to tally 7.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.

The man was a fan favorite, and the love was mutual. Theis returned to TD Garden earlier this year to cheer on the Cs as a spectator during the 2023 NBA Playoffs.

The least Carlisle could’ve done was trot him out there so he could get a nice round of applause.

Jack’s Pick: Celtics good, Pacers bad

May as well go for the back-to-back. Last edition, it was “Celtics good, Wizards bad.” This time, same story, different opponent.

This title is a bit unfair to the Pacers, who were without All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, but the fact of the matter still holds true: The Celtics were simply the better team in Wednesday night’s 51-point win. Outside of a small second-quarter lull, there was not a single point in the game where Boston looked like the inferior team.

Against Washington, it felt like the Celtics relied strictly on pure talent to assert their dominance. And it worked. Against Indiana, they combined their talent with a healthy dose of free-flowing offense and team-first offense. And it worked even better.

For the first time this season, the Celtics gave fans a glimpse into what the ceiling of this offense could look like, and it resulted in utter domination. Up to this point, the Celtics used mismatch hunting to generate easy isolation looks, but on Wednesday, they used it to drive their entire offensive scheme.

It’s obviously early in the season, but this looks like a team that could reach some historical peaks.

Those were just a few of the main talking points from Thursday’s podcast. Also featured were the early struggles of Boston’s bench, James Harden’s trade to the LA Clippers, and the famous “Rat List.”