Boston, MA
With Jayson Tatum out, Celtics debut brand-new starting lineup in Game 7
With Jayson Tatum unavailable, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla threw his starting lineup into a blender for Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Boston opened Saturday’s win-or-go-home game at TD Garden with a five-man unit of Derrick White, Ron Harper Jr., Baylor Scheierman, Jaylen Brown and Luka Garza.
White and Brown are longtime starting-lineup staples, and Scheierman, Harper and Garza all started games at different points this season. But this was that quintet’s first time sharing the floor. They’d played zero minutes together during the regular season or postseason.
Harper, Scheierman and Garza were part of Boston’s top-performing lineup in Game 6. Those three, along with Payton Pritchard and Jordan Walsh, staged a late-game rally, cutting a 23-point deficit to 12 before losing steam in the final minutes of Philadelphia’s series-extending 106-93 win.
The trio of new additions also played key roles in one of the Celtics’ most memorable wins of the season: the Game 82 matchup with the Orlando Magic that Boston won despite sitting their top seven rotation players. Harper, Scheierman and Garza combined for 84 points in that win, with Garza hitting the decisive 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter.
Scheierman and Garza have seen sporadic playing time in Boston’s first-round playoff series, but Harper — who only had his two-way contract converted to a standard deal last month — had only played in blowouts before his surprise start on Saturday.
The radical lineup change pushed usual starters Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser to the bench. Queta had started 81 of the 82 games he’d played this season, including each of the first six playoff games, but he’s struggled to stay out of foul trouble against the Sixers. The Celtics were outscored with Hauser on the floor in four of the first six postseason contests.
Mazzulla opted for Garza over veteran center Nikola Vucevic, who has been Queta’s primary backup when healthy.
Tatum was ruled out for Game 7 with left knee tightness.
As the Boston Red Sox struggle with offense like never before, the trade deadline seems to be zooming forward quicker than ever.
Though they scored six runs on Friday night and seven in a game earlier this week, the Red Sox still rank 29th in both runs scored and home runs out of the 30 Major League Baseball teams. The American League is weak, which means their 22-28 record hasn’t yet sunk their ship, but if they’re going to make any noise whatsoever this year, they’ll need more offense.
It’s no secret that trade talks have been happening across the league at a faster pace than usual for May. CEO Sam Kennedy said on WEEI this week that the Red Sox were looking to add offense. But they’ve also got some baseline criteria that The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey reported on Saturday.
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Red Sox looking for right-handed bats
According to McCaffrey, the Red Sox’s preference is to add a right-handed bat, with position being something of an afterthought. The team’s weakest offensive positions thus far have been all over the infield, excluding first base, catcher, and left field.
“What caliber of bat and what the Red Sox would be willing to trade in return remain the biggest questions,” wrote McCaffrey.
“While an immediate trade is unlikely, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has shown early aggressiveness before. He traded Rafael Devers, one of the team’s most productive hitters, to the San Francisco Giants in a stunning deal on June 15, 2025.”
A sneaky dream target for Boston
While we don’t yet know every player available across the league, a few teams have fallen out of the race. We could examine a few trade candidates and their fits with the Red Sox, but because the preference is for a righty, a name to circle (maybe just in pencil) is Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto.
The Red Sox were known to be high on Neto in the offseason, but ultimately couldn’t get a deal done. It didn’t sound like things were particularly close to getting across the finish line. But the Angels, who have started the season a ghastly 18-34, have to at least be considering a total sell-off.
Neto, 25, has rebounded from a slow start to post a 115 OPS+ in the earlygoing this season. The real question is whether the Angels see him as too valuable to let go this soon, but they’re not going to get a better package for him in the future than they would now.
Just food for thought, not a report that the Red Sox are back on Neto’s tail. It’s a fit that would make sense as long as Trevor Story can’t be depended upon, and Neto could easily move infield positions someday as well.
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A West Yarmouth, Massachusetts man has been charged in connection with a pair of armed bank robberies in Boston last month.
Federal prosecutors say 25-year-old Angel Gonzalez brandished a firearm during the robberies at a Santander Bank branch in Roxbury and a TD Bank branch in Roslindale on April 28. His alleged accomplice, Steven Harris, was charged with armed bank robbery earlier this month and remains in federal custody.
During the first robbery in Roxbury, Gonzalez allegedly dragged an employee from her office to the teller window, held her at gunpoint and threatened shoot her.
Less than two hours later, Gonzalez and Harris allegedly robbed the TD Bank in Roslindale. Prosecutors say Harris moved multiple employees from their offices to the main area of the bank, while Gonzalez threatened to shoot them if they did not comply. Gonzales then allegedly took $3,000 from a teller drawer before they left in a getaway vehicle.
Radek Weirdeowski was inside the Roslindale bank at the time of the robbery, and told WBZ-TV it happened so quickly. “While one guy was at the teller with the gun, the other guy was kind of rounding everyone else up,” he said. “And I thought we would all get robbed as well. But fortunately, they just took the bank’s money and took off.”
Gonzalez is charged with armed bank robbery and is currently in state custody in connection with unrelated offenses. He will make his initial appearance in federal court at a later date.
A young man was shot and killed in Boston early Friday morning
The shooting near 260 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester was caught on surveillance video that showed a group of people running and ducking for cover behind cars in a parking lot.
Boston police confirmed one person died in the shooting, which happened at about 1 a.m. Family members identified the victim as 21-year-old Giovanni Bala. They lit candles with messages written on them, remembering Bala as a loving and caring person.
“It’s a sad situation. I’ve never seen this happen in this area before,” said Oral Pierre, the manager of One Family Diner.
The restaurant’s cameras captured the shooting and the chaos that followed. Pierre has worked at his family’s restaurant for 20 years and was shocked to see the large crime scene when he got to work Friday morning.
“We saw in the parking lot two cars with bullet holes,” he said. “And when I get the video I saw about 15 people in the parking lot just running and shooting.”
Police shut down the area of Bowdoin and Hamilton streets with crime tape. Investigators scoured the area with police dogs and three cars were towed from the scene.
Kelvin Bell lives nearby and was upset to see violence in his neighborhood.
“I just heard loud bangs, commotion and sirens,” he said. “I just shook my head and said ‘enough is enough’ with the gun play. Whatever this is isn’t important enough to be taking lives. Trust me, this is not a video game, you can’t press reset.”
The Boston Police homicide unit is investigating. There’s no word on a motive or any arrests.
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