BOSTON — Luka Garza played in Sunday’s regular season finale against the Magic as teammates Neemias Queta and Nikola Vučević sat, a signal that he could start the postseason behind them. That’s how three games following Vučević’s return from a broken finger played out, but Garza delivered a reminder how effectively he can fill in minutes with 27 points, 12 rebounds and 3-for-6 shooting from three in the stunning upset of Orlando’s regular contributors. Garza also poured in a face-up three after catching the in-bounds pass that won the game.
Garza also revealed that he spoke to the rest of the team that suited up
“I’ve been, you know, in that position for most of my career and obviously still am at certain points where you’re kind of just dying and waiting for that opportunity and especially some of the guys who really hadn’t seen any real rotation minutes yet,” Garza told CLNS Media on Saturday at Celtics practice. “I know how big these games are. I know how important it is, and in that moment, I just wanted to implore everybody to be present and take advantage of this opportunity and enjoy it because we’re lucky to have it. It doesn’t come around often. There are seasons where you never get that opportunity, and when it comes, you can’t take it for granted. You got to enjoy it.”
The Celtics provided Garza his first consistent NBA opportunity after failing to break through with Detroit as a rookie then spending most of three years in the G-League with the Minnesota Timberwolves organization. Garza only would leave for the Wolves for a real chance to play, and saw it with Boston, who initially played him as Queta’s back-up before his fellow former Minnesota teammate Josh Minott surpassed him as the team’s back-up center. The Celtics went small-ball rather than playing Garza for roughly one month, but unlike past stops earlier in his career, he knew opportunity would return.
By the end of the season, Boston moved on from all of its offseason additions — Anfernee Simons, Chris Boucher and Minott. Garza remained, and finished the season posting 17.9 points and 9.0 rebounds per 36 minutes while shooting 43.3% from three. He said he proved his outside shot, more than anything, during his first season logging consistent NBA minutes.
“I feel great about it,” Garza said. “There are different moments in the year where I was challenged or taken out of the rotation and had to adjust and bounce back, and I feel like each time, I was able to be ready for that challenge and the biggest thing for me this year was I was able to carve out an identity, a role, that people can know that, ‘hey, this guy’s gonna do this every single night he’s on the floor,’ and, I think that’s centered around screening and offensive rebounding and then obviously showing the rest of my game as well, but I think that was big for me. When you come into the league, it’s all about molding yourself and figuring out how can I impact winning at a high level and I think this year is the first year I’ve been able to show that consistently and showed the whole league that I’m a guy who can play every night and there’s a role I could fill and and do it at a high level.”
