A shooting clinic in Sacramento, showed exactly why the Boston Celtics are the best team in the NBA right now. After a disappointing loss to the Warriors, the Celtics came flying back against a talented young Sacramento Kings team, winning 144-119. The Celtics were without Jayson Tatum and big man Al Horford, but that did not matter as five different Celtics reached 20 points to lead Boston past the Kings. Boston also saw meaningful contributions from its bench, as Neemias Queta and Payton Pritchard played big roles to steer Boston to yet another victory.
The first quarter showed off two of the best offenses in the league with both Boston and Sacramento putting up 38 and 41 points respectively. The Kings nailed 11 3-pointers in just the 1st quarter and were led incredibly by De'Aaron Fox, who scored 29 points. However, Boston kept up with the Kings early scoring pace thanks to Jaylen Brown and Derrick White who both had 28 points in the win. White shot fantastically from three as he went 6/8 from the field.
The second quarter was where Boston really started to etch out a substantial lead, as Kristaps Porzingis, fresh off a game off against the Warriors, really started to dominate as he continued to dominate switches inside. He eventually finished with 24 points and nine rebounds, also holding opposition all-star center Domantas Sabonis to just 13 points on 6/14 shooting. The Celtics bench unit also significantly helped to stretch out the lead mainly through the great shooting of Payton Pritchard, who had one of his best performances of the season dropping 20 points and 4 assists.
Boston continued to extend their lead in the third quarter as all five Celtics’ starters contributed successfully. Jrue Holiday and White hit consecutive 3s to extend the Boston lead beyond 20 for the first time in the game where they never looked back. After giving up 11 3-pointers in the first quarter the Kings were held to only 10 threes in the rest of the game. Holiday had a fantastic outing putting up 21 points and 10 assists to guide the Celtics to the win. Neemias Queta had a fantastic outing against his former side he helped Boston’s rebounding dramatically as he hauled in eight rebounds (including 4 offensive boards) to help the Cs bench unit.
Boston’s outstretched lead was held throughout the fourth quarter as the Celtics’ bench played well to uphold their lead. The Celtics’ offense was what pulled off this one as five Celtics all had at least 20 points in Boston’s 144-119 victory.
Post game Derrick White spoke to ESPN about the Celtics’ performance: “They play fast. They got a lot of talented players, but we stepped up to the challenge tonight”. Kings Coach Mike Brown had this to say after their loss to the Celtics: “Give the Celtics a lot of credit especially coming off a back-to-back. They for sure didn’t look like the team that was waiting on us here”. Boston will continue their road trip heading to the Crypt.com Arena for a showdown with the Los Angles Clippers on Saturday.
By Will C
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