Terry Rozier has had two starts in his NBA career. In the first, he recorded a triple-double against the New York Knicks. In the second, he dropped a career-high 31 points on the Atlanta Hawks.
Tougher opponents are coming. The Celtics will play their final six pre-All-Star-break games against teams that are currently at or above .500. But with both Kyrie Irving (quad bruise) and Marcus Smart (lacerated hand) out, Rozier has been given the biggest opportunity of his career, and to say that he has taken advantage of it would be an understatement. ESPN‘s Chris Forsberg has the story:
Rozier has often drawn praise from Celtics veterans dating to last season when Al Horford first arrived in Boston. But even Horford didn’t know just what Rozier was capable of in elevated minutes.
“He’s come a long way,” Horford said. “I was always just impressed with his ability. A lot of the time, you don’t know if that’s gonna translate. For him, the more that we’ve played him — it doesn’t matter what position we put him in — he just keeps learning and growing and he’s playing the right way. He’s playing aggressive.
“What I like most about him is that he commits on the defensive end, rebounds great. I’ve just been happy to see his progress. He’s gonna continue to get better.”
Over his past five games since Smart was injured, Rozier is averaging 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1.6 steals over 29.4 minutes per game. The Celtics own an offensive rating of 115.3 when Rozier is on the court and a net rating of plus-21.3 overall in that span.
