Game Recap

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Taylor Snow

Cause Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown to get mad during a game? You’re in trouble.

Anger both Jays at the same time? That's game over.

After being involved in back-to-back questionable calls toward the end of the second quarter Saturday evening, Tatum, Brown, and the rest of the team channeled their frustration into a 27-point swing in their favor.

The Celtics were trailing 56-51 when emotions began to rise, and the team went on a 41-14 run after that point to put the game away.

Around the one-minute mark, Tatum was called for a technical foul after becoming visibly frustrated by a non-call. On the very next possession, Brown was called for a contentious shooting foul on Zion Williamson, who missed both free throws in ball-don’t-lie fashion. After that, the Celtics scored eight points over the final 37 seconds of the half, including a Derrick White buzzer-beating three to put them up 59-57.

Boston carried its momentum into the third frame and put forth its best defensive quarter in nearly two-and-a-half years. The C’s outscored New Orleans, 24-11, marking the fewest points they’ve given up in a quarter since Nov. 13, 2021, when they surrendered nine points in the first frame at Cleveland.

From there, Boston kept building its lead well into the. The Pelicans went on a small run toward the end, but the game was never in doubt as the Celtics rolled to a 104-92 finish.

Kristaps Porzingis had one of his more well-rounded performances in a Celtics uniform Saturday evening, leading the game in several statistical categories.

The 7-foot-3 center put up 19 points and three assists to go along with game-highs of 10 rebounds, four blocks, two steals, and a plus/minus rating of plus-12 in just over 31 minutes of action.

KP shot 5-of-8 from inside the 3-point arc and also made all six of his free-throw attempts.

Plus, his defense was spectacular against Pelicans' star Zion Williamson, whom he helped limit to just 3-of-9 shooting during the second half.

"I think sometimes you need to get punched in the mouth."

– Jrue Holiday on Boston turning the game around after trailing for most of the 1st half.

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 104, Pelicans 92

The Celtics and Wizards were locked up 17-all midway through the first quarter Sunday night, but it didn’t take long for the former to start running away toward a win.

Boston finished the final six minutes of the opening frame on a 28-10 run, closing out the quarter with a 45-27 lead – their highest-scoring first quarter on the road since Nov. 28, 2018 in Atlanta.

Jayson Tatum was the star of the first frame, scoring 18 points while knocking down 4-of-7 from long range. He played the entire quarter, but only had to play 14 more minutes for the rest of the game thanks to the lead that he helped to build.

Boston stayed up big for the rest of the night, extending its lead to as many as 36 points, before walking away with a 130-104 victory.

Sam Hauser was well on his way to breaking the Celtics’ single-game 3-point record Sunday night before suffering a game-ending ankle injury early in the third quarter.

Prior to that point, he had been playing the best game of his life.

Hauser, in a spot start, racked up 30 points on 10-of-13 shooting from deep, finishing just one 3-point make shy of Marcus Smart’s franchise record. He did it all in less than 23 minutes of action, becoming the first player in NBA history to make at least 10 threes while playing fewer than 24 minutes.

Hauser tied the franchise record for threes in a half with seven makes during the first half. That included a 6-of-7 effort during the second quarter, which included five consecutive makes without a miss.

If it hadn’t been for the injury, he likely would have smashed the franchise record, but it was still probably the most impressive long-range shooting performance ever by a Celtic, all things considered.

“I tell people all the time, Sam is in the top shooters of the league.”

– Payton Pritchard on Sam Hauser's historic 3-point effort

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 130, Wizards 104

Third-quarter woes appear to be a thing of the past for the Boston Celtics, as they’ve emerged from the All-Star break with two straight wins, both of which were fueled by big runs right after halftime.

On Thursday night a 37-21 third-quarter advantage sparked a 129-112 win in Chicago. Then on Saturday night, a 33-13 third-quarter stretch served as the climax for a 116-102 victory in New York.

Now, let’s dive into the latter performance that just took place at Madison Square Garden.

It was a close game for most of the first half and it was all tied up at 64 points apiece just over a minute into the third quarter. It took the C's just nine minutes to turn that tie into a 20-point lead.

Kristaps Porzingis, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown took over this stretch, accounting for 24 of the team’s 33 points. KP logged nine points, JT had eight, and JB contributed with seven, while missing only two shots total (they shot 9-of-11 during this run).

Their combined effort put the Celtics on top 97-77 with just over a minute remaining in the third, a quarter in which they made nine of their first 11 3-point attempts. From there, they coasted to their eighth straight win.

While Rainn Wilson was sitting courtside Saturday night, Jaylen Brown was raining Wilson on the court at Madison Square Garden.

Brown erupted out of the gate with 20 points in the first half on 9-of-12 shooting, mirroring his first-half scoring total from Thursday night’s win in Chicago. It marked the first time in his career that he’s logged consecutive 20-point first halves, and he pulled it off Saturday night in just 17 minutes.

Brown finished with 30 points and eight rebounds, both of which were team highs. He also handed out three assists, snagged one steal, and tied Jayson Tatum for the game-high in plus/minus with a plus-15.

For JB, it was just another day at The Office.

"I prefer any kind of emotion over no emotion. So either it's cheers or boos, I want it."

– Kristaps Porzingis on emracing the boos in New York

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 116, Knicks 102

Jayson Tatum and the Celtics didn’t quite look themselves in the first half out of the All-Star break Thursday night. But once the third quarter rolled around, Boston basketball was back to normal.

Chicago held Tatum to just five first-half points and led the C’s, 62-59, at the break before JT broke out of the gate in the third and left the Bulls swaying in the Windy City breeze.

Tatum scored 15 of Boston’s 37 points in the third frame, while the defense bounced back to hold Chicago to just 21 points.

The Celtics opened the third on a 10-0 run, the first eight points of which were scored or assisted on by Tatum. That put Boston on top, 69-62, and it never looked back from there.

The C’s went up by as many as 15 points toward the end of the frame, marking an 18-point swing from halftime. They maintained almost that exact lead straight to the finish, walking away with a 129-112 victory, their seventh straight in the win column.

Derrick White came out Thursday night like a man who had sorely missed basketball over the All-Star break. He erupted for 12 points and three blocks, and that was just in the first quarter alone.

That was just the first of two double-digit quarters in the scoring department for White, as he also logged 10 points in the final frame.

By the end of the night, he had accumulated a game-high 28 points, just two shy of his season-high, to go along with five assists, three rebounds, three blocks, and two steals.

“Their basketball IQ as a team is really growing amongst each other."

– Joe Mazzulla on the team's ability to bounce back from rough in-game stretches

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 129, Bulls 112

Boston’s 17-point first-half lead over the Houston Rockets Sunday night dwindled to just three points early in the fourth quarter. However, as soon as Houston got within a single possession, the Celtics turned the heat back up.

The C’s went on a 14-6 run from the 7:58 mark of the fourth to the 3:33 mark, bringing the Rockets back down to Earth before easing past them with a 116-107 win.

Kristaps Porzingis started the run with a post-up shot from 11 feet out, and then Payton Pritchard knocked down a 3-pointer to extend Boston’s lead to 98-90.

Amen Thompson – the only Rocket to make a field goal during the run – made a dunk, but Jayson Tatum got those two points right back after a trip to the free-throw line. Tatum then made a 3-pointer and Porzingis capped off the stretch with back-to-back jumpers.

The Celtics maintained at least an eight-point lead for the rest of the frame before walking out of Toyota Center with a nine-point win.

Kristaps Porzingis made Celtics history Sunday night down in H-Town.

The Unicorn logged 32 points, five rebounds, and five blocks while making 11-of-21 shots from the field, 6-of-11 from long range, and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.

In doing so, he became the first Celtic ever to record at least five blocks and six threes in a game – a feat which he has now done twice in his career.

The only other NBA player to pull off that feat twice was another former Celtic, Raef LaFrentz.

For the second straight game, Porzingis logged 15 points in the first quarter. The difference between this game and Friday’s matchup against the Nuggets is that KP kept piling up the points after his strong start (he ended with 11 more points than he had against Denver).

On a night where neither of the Jays topped 18 points, Porzingis came through in the scoring column and helped get the Celtics back into the win column.

"That unit, to me, that's why you put so much stock in them. That's why you believe in them. They have to help you win games like that."

– Joe Mazzulla on the bench unit stepping up

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 116, Rockets 107

The Boston Celtics nearly pulled off a massive fourth-quarter comeback Tuesday night, as they cut Oklahoma City's 18-point lead down to two in a span of less than six minutes. However, the C's couldn't quite catch up with the Thunder, who struck them down with a 127-123 win at Paycom Center.

It was a thrilling finish, but the key moment occurred in the third quarter when OKC built its unsurpassable lead.

Boston entered the second half ahead 61-58; however, the Thunder overtook the C’s within the first 40 seconds of the third period and never looked back.

OKC had two big runs in the third, opening the period with an 8-0 stretch and closing it on a 22-14 run.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey were unstoppable during the frame, combining to outscore Boston 27-25 while shooting 11-of-14 from the field and dishing out seven assists between them.

As a team, the Thunder outscored the C’s 40-25 in that quarter, which was nearly the polar opposite of the 40-23 third-quarter advantage Boston held over San Antonio Sunday night.

In the end, it was too much to overcome, as OKC put an end to Boston’s six-game win streak.

Jayson Tatum finished just two assists shy of a massive triple-double Tuesday night. He logged 30 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists, the latter two of which were both game-highs.

The wing did most of his damage driving to the basket, which also earned him 10 trips to the free-throw line. He came up big on the offensive glass, as well, where he grabbed five of his 13 boards.

Tatum has been putting up loads of these well-rounded stat lines of late. Prior to the game, it was announced that he had been nominated for East Player of the Week after averaging 27.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game from Dec. 25-31.

Clearly, he’s continuing that trend into the new year.

"I liked our fight tonight, and even though it’s a loss, it’s something we’re going to take with us."

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Keys to the Game: Thunder 127, Celtics 123

The Boston Celtics blew the LA Clippers out of the water Saturday afternoon with their second straight offensive eruption. After dropping 144 points on the Sacramento Kings three nights prior, Boston came into Crypto.com Arena with even more in the tank, rolling past LA, 145-108.

The Celtics got going during a 3:32 stretch in the second quarter, in which they outscored the Clippers, 20-6, and upped their lead from 41-34 to 61-40.

Boston’s bench unit got the team going during that run, scoring the first eight points. Oshae Brissett got it started with a 3-pointer, Sam Hauser then knocked down a triple of his own, and Neemias Queta dropped in a couple from the free-throw line.

From there, it was all Tatum. He scored the Celtics’ next 10 points, including three consecutive baskets from long distance.

Boston took its 21-point lead and ran with it, going up by as many as 39 points before finishing with a 37-point victory for its second straight California blowout.

Entering this week, Jrue Holiday had yet to log his first 20-point game as a Celtic. Now he has two 20-point efforts in his last two games.

After logging a season-high 21 points along with eight rebounds and 10 assists in Sacramento, Holiday kept his rhythm flowing into LA where he recorded 20 points, six rebounds, and seven assists.

The Los Angeles native was the most efficient member of the starting five, as he made 8-of-12 from the field, including 4-of-6 from long range. He also committed just one turnover despite his prominent playmaking role as the team’s leader in assists.

They call this time of year the Holiday season for a reason, and Jrue is showing why.

“It's hard to guard us one-on-one. We create a lot of problems."

– Jayson Tatum on Boston's red-hot offense

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 145, Clippers 108

The second half of Friday night’s matchup in Toronto wasn’t one of the prettier shot-making stretches for the Celtics this season, but they found the nylon when it mattered most.

Trailing late in the fourth quarter, Boston made three consecutive shots to take the lead from the Raptors, before eventually walking out of Scotiabank Arena with a 108-105 win and bumping their In-Season Tournament record to 2-0.

The first bucket came at the 1:30 mark when Kristaps Porzingis hit a turnaround jumper from six feet out to tie the game at 101 apiece.

KP’s counterpart, Jakob Poeltl, retook the lead for the Raptors with a tip-in, but Porzingis tied it right back up with another six-foot turnaround shot, nearly identical to his first one.

Dennis Schroder tried to reclaim the lead again from his former team on Toronto’s next trip up the floor, but his driving floater clanked off the back rim and into Jayson Tatum’s hands.

Tatum handed the ball off to Jrue Holiday, who dribbled upcourt, drove to the basket, and kicked the ball out to the left corner where a wide-open Derrick White was standing. White rose up, and swished the shot, putting the C’s up by three with 27.5 seconds remaining.

Scottie Barnes missed a potential game-tying triple 16 seconds later, Tatum grabbed the rebound again, and the C’s sealed the game with a pair of Holiday free throws.

After missing Wednesday night’s game in Philadelphia due to an illness, Jaylen Brown returned to action in Toronto and didn’t skip a beat. A healthy JB poured in a game-high-tying 23 points on a super-efficient 9-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-5 from long distance.

Brown also grabbed three rebounds and dished out four assists, and he posted the best plus/minus among Celtics starters with a plus-4.

Although he was healthy to start the game, he did appear to tweak his groin slipping on the court toward the end of the fourth quarter. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and we see him back on the court Sunday night in Memphis.