The Celtics threaded every necessary needle on Tuesday, blowing out the Bulls 124-97 while the Nets defeated the Raptors 115-103, thereby securing their place in the inaugural In-Season Tournament quarterfinals.
Here are the takeaways.
1. We do, in fact, have to hand it to Adam Silver: The In-Season Tournament is an unqualified success on a number of levels.
The money involved seemed trivial in light of contracts like the one owed Jaylen Brown (and the one that will be owed Jayson Tatum after next offseason), but $500,000 per player is a lot of money for Luke Kornet and Sam Hauser, which is important to players like Brown and Tatum on a well-connected team like the Celtics.