Scheierman’s defense earns himself big game moment

It wasn’t Baylor Scheierman’s “welcome to the NBA” moment. The second-year pro had those last season.
However, our hometown hero more than earned his turkey dinner last week ahead of the holiday.
Scheierman’s efforts off the bench were a huge factor in the Boston Celtics defeating the Detroit Pistons 117-114 Nov. 26, and most of his contributions didn’t come on the offensive end.
They certainly did in the first half, as Scheierman sparked an otherwise dead Celtics offense with 13 points and kept Boston within reach.
Once the game got late and the pay window opened up, it was Scheierman’s defense that dazzled Boston’s fans, bench and made this No. 55 fan put his own guard hand up from the sofa. 
You see, Scheierman was tasked with slowing down Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, who has become arguably a top 10 player in the league at this point. 
Scheierman’s job wasn’t to stop Cunningham; it was to contain him. Cunningham got his -- it’s the NBA for goodness sakes. 
But, on the most critical possessions, Scheierman forced a missed shot or a pass. Our hometown hero handed out contact, stayed in front and each shot that was made was more than earned.
Scheierman played more than 30 minutes in the game and nearly all of the fourth quarter before eventually fouling out. 
In a late game, high-pressure situation, Scheierman was trusted to defend one of the league’s best offensive threats, and came out successful on the other side. 
I found a comment from Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla really interesting following the game. Mazzulla views young players getting better through a lens -- a failure lens.
He wants to see those young players fail. He wants to see how they respond to those failures. 
“He (Scheierman) takes what he’s done well, where he needs to get better, and he applies it immediately,” Mazzulla shared with local reporters. “And again, you have to have thick skin. And so he has that. And he can work through failure, he can work through mistakes, he can work through criticism, and it just makes him better. And I think all the guys there are showing moments of that.”
The game against Detroit was a great example of that. Scheierman is the first to admit he’s had growing pains on the defensive end. That’s not new -- he’s worked on that end of the floor since wearing Husky red. The kid knows he can hit a shot from 45 feet. He wants to work on his defensive technique.
You’re not going to play in this league without it. 
Hopefully, it leads to more trust and a possible increased workload within the Celtics rotation in the month of December. 
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at sports@hamilton.net.