After an 0-3 start to the season, Boston (2-3) needed a bounce back in a big way on Monday night in New Orleans.

With Zion Williamson out for the Pelicans (0-4), the Celtics took care of business in a decisive 122-90 victory.

Win No. 1 secured. Mission accomplished.

With one day of rest, it was back to stiff competition on Wednesday night at TD Garden. This time, it was the defending No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference coming to town, as the Cleveland Cavaliers (3-2) looked to continue their strong start to the 2025-25 season with all that continuity on their roster.

Instead, the Cavs showed up flat, and the Celtics shooting took advantage.

In their most impressive performance of the season, Boston beat the Cavaliers 125-105, showing for the second straight night that Mazzulla Ball can still be an effective tool to win basketball games with a depleted roster.

Here’s “5 Takeaways” from Wednesday’s game in Boston:

1. We Might Just Have Ourselves a Starting Five!

After going with three different starting fives in four games, head coach Joe Mazzulla gave us the same starting five on Wednesday night that he did on Monday night:

1. Payton Pritchard
2. Derrick White
3. Jaylen Brown
4. Josh Minott
5. Neemias Queta

With Jayson Tatum likely out for the entire 2025-26 season and with the departures of Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet, we knew Mazzulla was going to be working with a different deck of cards at the top of his rotation in his fourth year as head coach.

Five games into year four, it appears Mazzulla may have found a mix that’s going to work for this season, with back-to-back convincing wins over the Pelicans and Cavs.

With that said…

2. The Rotation Is Still Weird

After playing 23 minutes against the Knicks, rookie Hugo Gonzalez started against the Pistons. He then got a DNP against the Pelicans, and only played 4 minutes tonight against the Cavs.

What the hell is going on here?

After coming out of the preseason looking like the obvious choice to start next to Queta, Chris Boucher started the season as a rotational bench big. He went from 16 minutes on opening night, 15 minutes in Game 2, 9 minutes in Game 3, 3 minutes in Game 4, and a DNP in Game 5.

What the hell is going on here?

One thing we do know is Anfernee Simons is this team’s offense off the bench (more on him in a bit).

3. Hauser In The House!

Welcome to the 2025-26 season, Sam Hauser!

The Celtics sharp-shooting forward has been relatively quiet to start the regular season, scoring double digits just once in his team’s first four games.

That quiet start came to an end as soon as Game 5 got underway, with the 27-year-old hitting 5 first quarter threes to help Boston pull out to an early lead. No player in the NBA so far this season has hit more threes in a single first quarter than Hauser did on Wednesday night.

Hauser finished the night with 21 points, going 7 for 13 from beyond the arc. He did so coming off the bench, logging 21 minutes in a role he’s more than familiar with from the first 4 years of his career.

Mazzulla has had Hauser in his starting five twice to start the season. His best game is coming in the role he’s accustomed to. I wonder if this is the start of the Celtics easing him back into his bench shooter role moving forward.

4. Simons Might Be Special

OK, that might be a bit hyperbolic. But it’s clear that the 26-year-old is fitting in splendidly within Mazzulla’s run-and-gun offense.

In 26 minutes on Wednesday, Simons was 4 for 6 from three, dropping 14 points in 26 minutes off the bench.

This game comes just one night after he dropped a season-high 25 on New Orleans, where he shot 46.2% from three.

On the season, Simons is shooting 36.7% from three - a tick below where you’d want him to be, but trending towards being the go-to shooter off the bench after shooting 13 for 23 from distance over the last two games.

5. Rebounding Continues!

After struggling mightily on the board in the two games leading into Game 4, Boston ended up dominating the Pelicans on the glass 54-35.

While the discrepancy wasn’t as pronounced on Wednesday, Boston had yet another good effort on the glass, outrebounding Cleveland 52-42.

Mazzulla was asked postgame about how he can get his team to sustain that success rebounding moving forward.

“It’s just one of those things that you have to make the choice every day when you wake up that you’re going to rebound on both ends of the floor,” said Mazzulla. “So it's not something that we figured out. You have to remind and watch it tomorrow.

“And then we’re either going to do good or we’re not, and then we’re going to remind and do it again. So it's just one of those habits and disciplines that never goes away, you just constantly have to work on it.”

Lingering Thoughts & Nuggets:

- With 2:47 to go, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson emptied his bench with his team down 14 at 116-102. I don’t know about you guys, but that feels like plenty of time to make up that ground for a comeback. I know it’s early in the season and his team looked like they just didn’t have it tonight, but still. These games count the same as games later in the season!

- Hat tip to Payton Pritchard’s night as a facilitator, dishing out 10 assists for the eighth double-digit assist night of his career. He hasn’t been able to be the scorer he was last season on his way to 2025 Sixth Man of the Year, but maybe settling into a role as the team’s true point guard.

- If I didn’t make it clear before, I just want to say it plainly right here - I want Josh Minott to remain in this starting lineup moving forward.

Up next for the Celtics - the first night of a back-to-back, as Boston heads to Philadelphia for a rematch with the 76ers (4-0) on Friday night. Their Atlantic Division rivals are off to a great start, using their big opening night win at TD Garden as their launching pad for a bounce-back season in 2025-26.

The 76ers will be coming into that one on two days rest. Boston will be accounting for a game against Houston at TD Garden on Saturday. The Rockets are one of the best teams in the NBA, and are coached by Mazzulla’s boss in Ime Udoka. You know he’s going to want that one for his guys.

…I’m hammering the Sixers to move to 5-0 on Friday.

Tip-off for that one is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.