PHOENIX — Baylor Scheierman has been living out one childhood dream after another.
The 25-year-old Celtics guards played 29 minutes in Sunday’s game between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, and reflected on the experience at shootaround on Tuesday morning in Phoenix.
“It was unreal,” Scheierman said. “It was a dream come true. Being from a small town in Nebraska, I had a lot of hometown friends and family who were taking pictures of the TV screen, sending it to me, ‘You’re on the court with Lebron James. LeBron James is guarding you.’”
Scheierman has started four straight games for the Celtics — and 10 in total this season — carving out the role of someone who can defend opposing teams’ best players, rebound the ball, and space the floor.
He’s shooting 38.1% from three on the season, and averaging 5.6 defensive rebounds per 36 minutes, third-best on the team among non-bigs (trailing Jaylen Brown and Hugo Gonzalez).
He’s also beginning to master the art of the no-dip three-point attempt, a shot form that saves him a little bit of time on the release and thus allows him to get up more attempts.
“It definitely helps me get two or three more shots that I probably wouldn’t get if I had to dip it down,” Scheierman said. “Even in the last game against the Lakers, LeBron is closing out. If I dip it, I’m definitely not getting it off. I think it definitely has helped me get more shots. And when I’m out there, obviously that’s what I want.”
In Sunday’s game, Scheierman was largely tasked with guarding Luka Doncic, and he helped hold the star to a 5-13 shooting performance, per NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forbserg.
The day before, Jaylen Brown pulled aside Scheierman and the Celtics’ other wing defenders — Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Sam Hauser — to go over some of the tendencies of the Lakers’ stars.
“Obviously, Jaylen is one of the best two-way players in the game,” he said. “He’s guarded Luka before. So giving us advice definitely helped.”
Celtics-Lakers was a dream come true in more ways than one
After the game, Scheierman also completed a jersey swap with James Lafferty, an actor from the television show One Tree Hill.
“It’s my favorite show of all time,” Scheierman said, grinning. His agency had reached out to Lafferty’s ahead of the Celtics-Lakers game, and it turned out that Lafferty was a fan of Scheierman’s as well.
“That was crazy,” Scheierman said. “It’s kind of cool to be able to call him my friend and whatnot. It was an unreal feeling.”
In many ways, Scheierman is having the breakthrough NBA moment he’s long hoped for
He’s not putting up crazy numbers — he’s averaging 3.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game — but anyone closely watching this team can attest to the fact that Scheierman has been a crucial part of its recent success.
And the Celtics have seen a lot of success as of late. They’re winners of 8 of their last 9 games, and currently have the second-best record in the Eastern Conference (and fifth-best in the entire NBA).
Scheierman is still pinching himself — not when the game is going on, of course — but afterwards, as he reflects on the fact that he’s sharing the floor with some of basketball’s all-time greats.
“It’s a surreal feeling, something that, in the moment, I don’t really like pay too much attention to,” he said. “But after the game, being able to sit there and reflect and think about it, it’s an unreal experience. And, it’s a dream come true.”