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Key Moment
Boston sliced a 14-point, third-quarter deficit all the way down to four early on in Wednesday night’s fourth quarter against Charlotte. That, however, was as close as the C’s got before falling 111-102.
They had three chances from the 7:58 mark to the 6:45 mark of the period to finally make it a one-possession game. They failed to capitalize on each of those opportunities, however, which in turn kept the pressure off the visiting Hornets.
Those three opportunities came from Jayson Tatum and Josh Richardson. Tatum first had his shot blocked at the rim by P.J. Washington, and then Richardson misfired on consecutive 3-pointers that were separated by just 22 seconds.
Charlotte followed those misses up with a 7-2 run to make it a 98-88 game with 4:56 remaining in the contest. Boston called for a timeout at that moment of the game, and it did convert a 3-pointer out of that timeout, but that shot wasn’t enough to turn the momentum. The Hornets never allowed Boston to claw closer than six the rest of the night before finishing off their win.
Key Player
Al Horford finds himself in our Key Player slot after logging his ninth double-double of the season. That total is two more than he tallied during his two previous seasons combined.
Horford finished with 13 points while tying for the game high in rebounds with 10. No other player on the team grabbed more than seven boards on the night.
In addition to his scoring and boards, the starting big man also dished out four assists during his nearly 32 minutes of action.
Box Score Nuggets
- Charlotte made two more 3s than Boston (16-14) despite attempting seven fewer (46-39).
- Terry Rozier led all scorers with 28 points, and he also dished out 10 assists to tie teammate LaMelo Ball for the game high.
- Dennis Schroder led the Celtics with 24 points.
- Al Horford logged Boston's only double-double with 13 points and 10 boards.
- Ball logged a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
- Both teas tallied 27 assists.
- Boston shot just 43.3 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from 3-point range.
- Kelly Oubre Jr. led all reserves with 18 points.
- Charlotte doubled Boston up in points in the paint with 18 to Boston's nine.
- Payton Pritchard, at plus-five, was the only Celtics player who finished with a positive plus/minus rating.
- Jaylen Brown totaled 21 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals.
- Romeo Langford tallied 11 points off the bench for Boston on 4-for-7 shooting.
Quote of the Night
Ime Udoka on Boston's shot selection