First of all, I apologize for my long leave of absence from the Blog, but unfortunately part of being a student is focusing on assessments. In my absence, the Celtics have continued to dominate, especially at home (14-0), and have a record of 10-4 across the 14 games.
After claiming a win in Memphis in the final exchanges, Boston headed to Charlotte to play the Hornets. Which ended catastrophically with an overtime loss, despite Jayson Tatum’s incredible performance. He had 45 points and 13 rebounds, but it was not enough to overcome LaMelo Ball and the Hornets as they came away with the win.
Boston then returned home to the TD Garden to their biggest threat in the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks. The Celtics pulled off the win, with Jaylen Brown having arguably his best game of the season. He finished with 26 points and 8 assists on 62% shooting to lead all Celtics scorers. Also 7/8 of the Celtics that featured in the game scored double digits, in an important home victory.
The Celtics then headed to the sunshine state to face the Orlando Magic in the penultimate game of the In-Season Tournament group stage. Unfortunately, for the Celtics they were struck by a killer revenge game by former Celtics’ center Mo Wagner, who put up 27 points, as Boston fell 113-96 to the Magic, knocking them from top spot in the IST group.
The Atlanta Hawks headed to Boston for what was the beginning of an eight-game regular season homestand for the Celtics, and despite 33 points and 7 assists from Trae Young the Cs still pulled of the win. As Jayson Tatum led the way with 34 points, alongside another stellar performance from Derrick white who had a 15-point double-double.
It looked an almost impossible scenario for Boston to qualify for the quarterfinals of the In-Season Tournament, as they had to beat the Chicago Bulls by 23 points to reach the knockout stages. Boston battered the Bulls and closed out a 27-point victory, meaning the Celtics were able to qualify for the quarterfinals over the Orlando Magic. Jaylen Brown dominated in this one with 30 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists.
A conference semis rematch awaited the Celtics at the Garden next, as the Philadelphia 76ers rolled into town for a third match-up of the season. The sixers where without stars Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid but they still put up a fight, especially after Tatum was ejected unfairly in the third quarter. However, Brown, White and Al Horford combined for 61 points and closed out another great team performance with a 125-119 win.
The Celtics then hit the road to travel to Indiana for the quarterfinal of the inaugural In-Season Tournament. And Despite 30 pieces from both Jays, they were unable to overcome an incredible second half performance from Tyrese Haliburton (26-point triple-double). Meaning the Celtics blew their chances of a trip to Las Vegas for the semis.
Boston returned home to play the New York Knicks in what was their third meeting of the season. Disappointingly for the Knicks the result was no different, this time Derrick White showed exactly why many of the Celtics’ faithful believe he is an all-star. White scored 30 points and showed is defensive prowess with 2 blocks and 2 steals.
Last season the Cleveland Cavaliers proved to be a thorn in Boston’s side as they lost the season series (3-1). But Boston’s big three showed that this season would be an entirely different story, as Tatum, Brown and Porzingis put up a combined 71 points in a 120-113 win over their conference rivals.
They faced the same opposition just two days later, with the result remaining the same. As all five Celtics’ starters scored 14+ points in yet another impressive home win. Tatum with a terrific performance scoring 27 points and 11 rebounds to steer his team to victory.
Orlando were 4-0 across their last four meetings against the Celtics and they were becoming a bit of a bogey team for the Cs, but Boston faced the Magic in a back-to-back, looking to rewrite the script. They did just that, with a dominant performance from Tatum who poured in 30 points and was joined by bench point-guard Payton Pritchard who had 21 points (6/7 from 3).
The final game of the Celtics’ eight-game homestand rolled around, as Boston looked to keep their perfect home record intact. They pulled this off with another stellar performance from Jaylen Brown. He had 31 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in the 114-97 win over Orlando. Leaving Boston with a perfect 14-0 home record to begin the 2023/24 NBA season.
Boston then headed out west and began their road trip against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Despite Boston amassing a comfortable lead heading into the fourth quarter, Curry heroically drove a Warriors comeback. As Golden State eventually pulled off a 132-126 victory in overtime.
Moving forward game reports will be returning, starting with Boston’s trip to Sacramento, as well as all other exclusive Boston Celtics content here on the Road to Banner 18 blog.
By Will C
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