While he might not get the gawdy stat lines of accolades of his teammates most nights, Boston Celtics center Daniel Theis has been a crucial part of the team’s success this season.
Boston’s Feb. 10 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder was just the most recent example of the quiet intensity the German big man brings to the table in ways which have helped the Celtics exceed preseason expectations on a near-nightly basis.
You might expect the 6-foot-8 Theis to be overmatched against the Thunder’s mountain of a center Steven Adams, who, at seven feet tall and 265 pounds, outweighs the German by 20 pounds.
The 27-year-old managed to outmaneuver his less-fleet-of-foot opponent Sunday, however, instead of trying to take him on directly, and the results were impressive.
“He’s like a tree … you just can’t move him,” noted Theis (via team reporter Taylor Snow).
All Daniel Theis does is outplay every center he faces put some respect on his name
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) February 10, 2020
Instead, Salzgitter’s favorite son used his superior speed to his advantage as he helped the Celtics secure the 112-111 win.
Theis matched the New Zealander for 11 boards despite a clear height disadvantage, explaining “I just try to box him out early … I try to work him early so he doesn’t have position.”
The third-year big man wasn’t just battling Adams with success — he also had some critical plays when facing off with smaller, faster players against Oklahoma City, a point emphasized by Celtics head coach Brad Stevens.
“What he’s great at is covering for us all,” Stevens offered.
“He’ll guard those [bigs] as hard as he can, but it’s still hard to keep Adams from getting a bucket every now and then, or [Nerlens] Noel’s rolls, or the big guys that he guards night-in, night-out. But what he does is he sniffs out issues with everyone else and covers for us. He does so much that doesn’t go into the box score.”
Even on that last play, he had [Chris] Paul and guarded Paul on one of the last plays of the game,” added Stevens. “His length bothered the shot. He just does a lot of good things.”
Theis’ isn’t just a defensive anchor, though — he has been able to help facilitate crisp passes and setting up plays to make his teammates better with clockwork regularity, something he did five times against the Thunder Sunday.
He also put up 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
“Offensively, he’s just got a great feel for the game – screening, rolling, half-rolling, popping,” noted teammate Gordon Hayward. “Today, I think he did a good job of passing it as well. He’s been instrumental to our success.”
Even still, the German center doesn’t demand touches or get upset that his contributions aren’t lauded at the same rate as some of his teammates. It’s a quality that has made an impression with veteran point guard Kemba Walker as well.
“He just does so many things that don’t show up on the stat sheet, and he never complains,” Walker noted.
“He just wants to win and … battles every night, gets his butt kicked every night just because of the work he puts in. He’s a smart player. He’s fun to have around. He loves basketball, loves to compete.”
“You can’t ask for more than that,” added the UConn product.
It’s hard to argue that you could, when you put everything in context.
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