Key Moment
The NBA’s best hosted one of the NBA’s worst Wednesday night at TD Garden.
You can probably guess how that went.
Boston did exactly what everyone thought it would by taking control of the Spurs early on and cruising to a 117-98 victory. The Celtics led for nearly the entire first quarter and pulled away for good midway through the second. That’s when Boston rattled off a 13-2 run to pull ahead by 21 points, and the lead remained at 13 or more for the remainder of the night.
Surprisingly, it was Luke Kornet who was the centerpiece of the run for Boston.
Kornet got a spot start Wednesday night while Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White were out with injuries. He was a superstar in his role, and such was especially the case during this run.
Kornet scored or assisted on eight of the first 10 points of the 13-2 spurt, including eight straight. He put home a layup off a dish from Jayson Tatum, and then assisted on consecutive 3-pointers by Tatum and Al Horford. The five points he didn’t play a role in were the first two, via a dunk by Tatum, and the final three, via a 3-pointer from Jrue Holiday.
This game was over at the very moment Holiday’s triple dropped through the net. Boston went on to pull ahead by as many as 30 points before eventually winning its 20th straight game at home to open up the season.
Key Player
Joe Mazzulla said Monday night that Jrue Holiday is still adjusting to Boston’s offense.
It sure doesn’t look it.
Holiday, who entered Wednesday night as the NBA’s leader in corner 3-point percentage, had another stellar shooting night against San Antonio. He drained eight of his 14 shots and six of his seven 3-pointers. He made one triple from the left corner, two from the left wing, and three from the right wing. His only miss from beyond the arc came from the right corner.
Holiday piled up 22 points to tie his season high – a season high which he just set Monday night. He has now broken the 20-point barrier five times this season, and three of those instances have arrives in the last nine days.
So, as we were saying, Holiday is looking pretty darn comfortable in the system nowadays.
Box Score Nuggets
- Boston scored 15 second-chance points and 15 fast break points.
- No player in the game reached double-digits in the rebound department.
- Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 24 points, while Victor Wembanyama led San Antonio with 27.
- The Celtics shot an impressive 47.4 percent from long range.
- Boston made 18 triples, while San Antonio made just seven.
- Luke Kornet's three blocked shots tied San Antonio's entire team total.
- Kornet also led the game with nine rebounds.
- Jaylen Brown stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists, a steal and a blocked shot.
- Tre Jones led the game with 10 assists.
- Payton Pritchard led all reserves with 12 points.
- Jrue Holiday scored 22 points to tie his season high, all while making six of his seven 3-point attempts.
Quote of the Night
"We've gotta fight like hell to find the good, but also know we can get better."
– Joe Mazzulla on the urgency for Boston to continue to understand that it is not yet a finished product