Jayson Tatum became the youngest Celtic ever to reach 10,000 career points in a 124-114 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night. Boston started their road trip in style earning them a perfect 5-0 record to start the new NBA season. Brooklyn battled throughout the game exploiting some lacklustre defence from the Celtics but ultimately the Celtics’ star power shone brightest as they were able to come away with the win.
Boston jumped out to an early nine-point lead mainly through the interior dominance of Kristaps Porzingis, who once again exploited the mismatches of a side without a starting center. Porzingis, joined by Jayson Tatum, dominated the early stages of the game as Tatum nailed two 3-pointers to open his account. However, former Lakers’ Guard Lonnie Walker scored 9 consecutive points at the end of the first quarter for the Nets to tie the game at 34 to end the quarter.
The Nets continued to keep it a tight contest despite having three starters out injured (Ben Simmons, Cam Johnson, and Nicholas Claxton), even gaining a 3-point lead to begin the second quarter, although the Celtics’ offence found its level, putting up 70 points in the first half for the 3rd time in as many games. This resulted in a 70-58 lead at halftime.
Jaylen Brown found it hard to find his shooting touch in the game, shooting just 2-11 from three in the game, after finding some offensive consistency in the last couple of games. He still found ways to impact the game with 4 assists (second amongst Celtics) and 5 rebounds which in the end helped the Celtics to another win. The officiating was questionable throughout the game with multiple missed calls and some particularly late calls in the second half which prevented a little more separation in the 3rd quarter.
The third quarter allowed Brooklyn to fight back as they took advantage of the Celtics’ poor perimeter defence, as Cam Thomas and Mikal Bridges started to get going. The pair finished with a combined 46 points (27 points from Thomas). The Celtics’ defence undoubtedly missed Derrick White, who missed the game for the birth of his second child (Congratulations Derrick!) as Brooklyn exposed the defensive issues of the Celtics’ bench. Luke Kornet struggled guarding the perimeter throughout the game, as he was unable to keep up with the pace of the Nets’ guards. He did, however, provide some good interior scoring with 11 points and 7 rebounds in the game.
The Celtics eventually separated themselves from the Nets with some excellent production from Al Horford and Jrue Holiday, with the latter putting on arguably his best performance as a Celtic, finishing one rebound short of a triple-double. Horford - as usual - was there when the Celtics needed him down the stretch as he ended the game with an astounding plus-minus of +29 in a game where the Celtics won by just ten points. Tatum eventually iced out the game finishing with a 32-point and 11 rebound double-double in another important Celtics’ victory.
Tatum discussed the Celtics’ win on ESPN saying: “What’s special about this group is we’ve got some really good guys, and we got some guys who really just compete. Guys who want to win”. Joe Mazzulla also commented on the Celtics’ win: “Our guys continued to play hard. Credit to our guys for continuing to chip away, chip away at the Brooklyn defence”. The Celtics will head to Minnesota for their first Western Conference matchup of the season against the Timberwolves, looking to improve of their league best record at The Target Center.
By Will C
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