Two of the biggest shots of Wednesday’s statement Celtics victory — one from 26 feet out, the other from about five inches — came off the injured left hand of Baylor Scheierman.
Early in the fourth quarter at TD Garden, Scheierman crashed from the corner, slipped behind Thunder wing Jalen Williams and turned a missed Jayson Tatum layup into a putback dunk that gave Boston an eight-point cushion.
Less than two minutes later, the second-year Celtic received a pass from Payton Pritchard, dodged around a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander closeout and nailed a 3-pointer that stretched his team’s lead to double digits.
Scheierman also hit two earlier threes, grabbed five rebounds and pestered Gilgeous-Alexander to force a third-quarter turnover to help Boston [take down the defending NBA champions](https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/03/25/jaylen-brown-outduels-sga-as-celtics-top-thunder-in-potential-finals-preview/) 119-109. It was the latest high-impact performance from a player who’s become a Celtics staple during his breakout sophomore season.
“It’s just who he is,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He’s just got a knack for making plays. He doesn’t want to be defined by one thing. He doesn’t care if he shoots. He doesn’t care if he has to play defense, crashing, taking care of the ball, he just has a knack for making basketball plays. It’s a huge strength of his, and it gives us a different dynamic on our team. So he’s got to keep doing it.”
A former deep reserve who was healthy-scratched as recently as early January, Scheierman has carved out a role that’s remained stable even after Jayson Tatum’s return from Achilles surgery. Tatum’s comeback pushed the 2025 first-round draft pick out of the starting lineup — where he resided from early February through early March — but it hardly dented Scheierman’s workload.
Nor did the [fractured left thumb](https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/03/01/celtics-baylor-scheierman-playing-through-fractured-thumb-im-not-going-to-sit-out/) Scheierman suffered during Boston’s Feb. 27 win over Brooklyn. The 25-year-old lefty has played through the injury, wearing a protective splint on the finger that fell off during Wednesday’s tense battle against OKC, and has logged at least 18 minutes in each of the Celtics’ last 22 games.
Since Tatum’s season debut on March 6, Scheierman ranks sixth on the team in minutes played, trailing starters Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Neemias Queta and Tatum, and sixth man Payton Pritchard. He’s seen more action than the Celtics’ fifth starter, veteran wing Sam Hauser.
Scheierman is shooting 42.9% from 3-point range during that 10-game stretch (18-for-42), and only centers Queta and Luka Garza have grabbed more offensive rebounds than his 16. Against the Thunder, he scored 11 points and was a plus-11 across his 20 minutes.
“Just playing hard, I guess,” Scheierman said. “Just having a little bit of a feel for the game and a nose for the ball, and then just competing super hard on both ends of the floor.”
It’s been quite the rise for the 6-foot-6 Creighton product, who saw action in 31 games as a rookie but didn’t sniff Mazzulla’s veteran-laden postseason rotation. But Scheierman said he’s “not surprised” by his Year 2 leap.
“I’m super confident in my abilities, and I think the work I put in coming into my rookie year, coming into this year, has prepared me for this,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it’s just taking one day at a time, one game at a time. I’m super blessed and grateful for the opportunity, and I just try to take advantage of that. But to answer your question, no, I’m not surprised. I’m super confident in my abilities.”