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Celtics Wrap: Boston Overcomes Sloppy Third Quarter Vs. Kings
The Celtics dominated when it mattered most


NESN by Gio Rivera

The Boston Celtics are winners in back-to-back contests, defeating the Sacramento Kings 122-104 at TD Garden on Friday night.

With the win, the Celtics improved to 14-4 on the season and 8-1 at home, while the Kings fell to 10-7 with their second consecutive loss.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics have been dominant at defending their home thus far, as was the case yet again. However, it wouldn’t come easy against the Kings.

After kicking off a strong and efficient first half, in which the Celtics both dominated the outside shooting game and limited their turnovers at six to Sacramento’s twelve, Boston struggled mightily. The Celtics followed by making several costly turnovers and allowed the Kings to battle back while simultaneously creating unnecessary foul trouble. With 6:02 minutes left to play in the third quarter, veterans Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart raised their foul total to four.

However, the Celtics came out strong and showed why they’re among the best in the NBA at defending their home floor. The Celtics came through with a major dominant push late push, due in large part to the leadership of go-to man Jayson Tatum.

Boston’s reserves did their part with Sam Hauser leading the bench with nine points while Payton Pritchard and Malcolm Brogdon both added eight — all three finished with a 20-plus positive plus-minus.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tatum led the way for the Celtics with 30 points, including 14 points during a crucial 16-0 run over the Kings to close out the third quarter. The 24-year-old finished shooting 10-for-17 from the field and grabbed eight rebounds along with four assists.


— Jaylen Brown followed Tatum’s lead and finished with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field while collecting five rebounds and four assists. The strong performance served as Brown’s fourth consecutive in which the 25-year-old scored 25-plus points while also shooting over 45% from the field.

— Domantas Sabonis did his best to keep Sacramento within reach throughout the night. The 26-year-old flirted with a double-double as he scored 16 points while totaling nine rebounds with six assists for the Kings.

WAGER WATCH
Before game time, DraftKings Sportsbook set the odds of Al Horford notching over 2.5 assists at +100. The 36-year-old cleared those odds with ease. Horford finished with five assists against the Kings, which tied his season-high.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will remain on their home parquet and return to action on Sunday, facing the Washington Wizards. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.

112288

This may have been in front of our eyes all the time, but this stat or combo of stats is usually saved for an individual player of the likes of a Steph Curry. You hear it a lot more now as a very rare feat. The coveted 50/40/90 stat.

Well hold onto your seats everybody, our coveted Celtics got so close to pulling this rare individual stat off FOR THE WHOLE TEAM in the game vs. SAC!! Check it out:

Versus SAC, we shot

49.4% FG's
43.2% 3-Point
88.9% Free Throws

That's ridiculous Gus!!

I think the writer of this article missed the point and had a few typos with the stats.

So the Celtics went 2-1 while my sons were here. Not bad. Still should have beaten CHI. But as long as this is the start to another streak, I'm cool. No NBA team has gone 82-0. One team, who I can't mention, won 33 in-a-row. Might we scare that one this year? Is that a Joe DiMaggio record that will never be broken?

We were not going to keep SAC down. Not with their high powered offense. SAC might want to check their history. This team looks surprisingly like the Mike Bibby teams that shot the lights out during the regular season and were fun to watch but when the playoffs came around they folded up like a cheat suit because there was no defense.

Hopefully the Celtics showed them you have to play some defense. The 32-4 run was amazing. A complete shutdown and Brick-ville for SAC administered by us.

Mike Brown had that look on his face like all the other coaches sans CHI and CLE...How in Hell's Bathroom do you stop this?!! That 32-4 run was a beautiful, unforgiving onslaught we witness there against the most potent offense in the NBA. When you are dishing it out, you're legs don't get as tired. When you are receiving the brow beating, your legs simply give out later in the game. Mike Brown tried to prepare for this by playing a lot of guys. Well, that didn't work either. Hence the look of disbelief.

My middle son has made a Celtic fan out of his girlfriend he told me last night! My youngest son while watching last night's game said, "How can you not like watching the Celtics?!! What a fun team to watch!!"

Converting fans one person at a time....

Love Always,

db

I was hoping ESPN would surprise me today with their headlines given the two top offensive teams went at it last night and that's what the NBA wants...can't find a write up on that game anywhere in the headlines.  

There's Lebron, Gordon Hayward with another big injury, Kawhi and PG out of the line up again, KD talking about LeBron on the cusp of history, etc., yet crickets on our game.

What more do these guys and gals and the league want?!!  WTH, Bo?!!

Now if SAC had won...well, that's different. There would have been parades, endless stories on what's wrong with Boston, etc. I'm just sayin'!!

db

Entertaining game, had some adversity. Kings have some young talent, when they move the ball and run, can put some points up in a hurry. Took the lead after overcoming our 16 point lead. We had some foul issues and were in a dogfight in the middle of the 3rd. Then in came Kornet and Pritch and the momentum and energy changed. Tatum carried us as well, great to see that combination work, leading to a huge run. Then Tatum took a rest and Jaylen came in and helped put these pesky kids away.

Great to see Pritch hustling both ends, his 3’s were huge. Kornet with some timely blocks and dunks off Tatum feeds. Good to see other guys contribute off the bench besides Brogden and Hauser who also hit some 3’s. Bad 2nd quarter, but good game overall by Coach Joe, further developing the bench and getting another win.

Kornet has to be the surprise of the year so far. TBH I thought he was as useless as an appendix. But every time he is out there he has contributed. He doesn't run around like the other guys, but as he was recently quoted as saying, at the end of the day he is still 7-2.

Pumpsie Green wrote:Kornet has to be the surprise of the year so far. TBH I thought he was as useless as an appendix. But every time he is out there he has contributed. He doesn't run around like the other guys, but as he was recently quoted as saying, at the end of the day he is still 7-2.

Agreed, he can clog the lane and he and the coaches have done a good job of getting him to roll and finish. I would like to see him play with Horford in certain match ups.

dbrown4 wrote:This may have been in front of our eyes all the time, but this stat or combo of stats is usually saved for an individual player of the likes of a Steph Curry.  You hear it a lot more now as a very rare feat.  The coveted 50/40/90 stat.  

Well hold onto your seats everybody, our coveted Celtics got so close to pulling this rare individual stat off FOR THE WHOLE TEAM in the game vs. SAC!!  Check it out:

Versus SAC, we shot

49.4% FG's
43.2% 3-Point
88.9% Free Throws

That's ridiculous Gus!!

I think the writer of this article missed the point and had a few typos with the stats.  

So the Celtics went 2-1 while my sons were here.  Not bad.  Still should have beaten CHI.  But as long as this is the start to another streak, I'm cool.  No NBA team has gone 82-0.  One team, who I can't mention, won 33 in-a-row.  Might we scare that one this year?  Is that a Joe DiMaggio record that will never be broken?

We were not going to keep SAC down.  Not with their high powered offense.  SAC might want to check their history.  This team looks surprisingly like the Mike Bibby teams that shot the lights out during the regular season and were fun to watch but when the playoffs came around they folded up like a cheat suit because there was no defense.

Hopefully the Celtics showed them you have to play some defense.  The 32-4 run was amazing.  A complete shutdown and Brick-ville for SAC administered by us.

Mike Brown had that look on his face like all the other coaches sans CHI and CLE...How in Hell's Bathroom do you stop this?!!  That 32-4 run was a beautiful, unforgiving onslaught we witness there against the most potent offense in the NBA.  When you are dishing it out, you're legs don't get as tired.  When you are receiving the brow beating, your legs simply give out later in the game.  Mike Brown tried to prepare for this by playing a lot of guys.  Well, that didn't work either.  Hence the look of disbelief.    

My middle son has made a Celtic fan out of his girlfriend he told me last night!  My youngest son while watching last night's game said, "How can you not like watching the Celtics?!!  What a fun team to watch!!"

Converting fans one person at a time....

Love Always,

db            

db, you say, “I think the writer of this article missed the point and had a few typos with the stats.”  The writer also said we improved to 14-4. Me thinks we are 15-4. Me thinks I oughta give Gia a buzz. A little coaching may not hurt.
Great analysis by the way!

Should we start a new thread where each of us has to write some sort of apology to Luke? He’s been a pleasant surprise. Shows you how much we know. LOL
I’ll start it if y’all promise to follow up.

Once again the NBA's schedule interfered with my Friday Happy Hour (last night we were blind taste-testing 16 year old Belvenie Speyside Scotch in French Oak cask and 25 year old Shieldaig Speyside Scotch).

27 assists on 41 fgm. We consistently have a high assist-to-fgm ratio. We're not the league leaders but we're pretty good and our fgm are a ridiculously high number of 3pt fgm.

68-64 Sacto with 8:40 left in the 3rd. 84-78 with 3:12 left in the 3rd, and then we went on a 14-0 run to end the quarter up 10. That's how Championship level teams end quarters. If the other team is feeling good about itself with a few minutes left they aren't feeling that way when they come out for the next quarter. Pritchard and Luke came in at the 3:12 mark for Grant and Al. Tatum, Brogdon, Fast PP, Luke and Sam were the unit that blew the game open to end the 3rd. One starter, our 6th Man and 3 subs, two of whom played a combined grand total of 246 NBA minutes last year. That is just absolutely sick depth.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
9 hours ago
Sam Hauser (+21 Friday in 21 minutes, +142 for the season) regained the NBA lead in +/- earlier tonight, with Jayson Tatum moving into 4th. (Nikola Jokic about to reclaim the league lead though in the late game)


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468430


Bob


.

Some post-Sacto team stats.  We are:

Defensively:
1st in giving up points off of turnovers (i.e. we give up the fewest)
14th in giving up points off of 2nd chance shots (need to take better care of our boards).
7th in giving up points off of fast breaks (so we're good at slowing them down)
12th in giving up points in the paint (so, better interior defense than I thought, to be honest.  Will be better with RWill)
16th in Defensive Rating (@ 111.4ppg.  Slowly climbing the ranks.  Was 23rd or so last month)
30th in Steals (dead last.  That sucks)
11th in Blocks (5.4pg.  That will go up with the Return Of The Time Lord)


Offensively:
1st in Points Per Game (we just thrashed #2 last night.  Currently 119.8pg)
4th in FG% (48.8%.  1st place Brooklyn is 49.4%)
2nd in 3pt FG% (39.7%.  Denver is 39.8%.  The league mean, #15, is Memphis @ 36.2%)
20th in FTAs (22.5.  King Tatutum needs more help)
2nd in FT% (84.3%.  Miami is 84.7%.  They're 14th in FTAs, so we know where a lot of their offense comes from)
28th in Offensive Rebounding (just ruined my day)
11th in Assists/game (26.7pg.  #1 GSW is @ 29.6pg.  We're only .1pg from 10th.  .5pg away from 9th)
4th in Turnovers/game (13.1pg.  #1 Dallas is 12.6pg.  Toronto 12.9pg and Atlanta 13.0pg.  So we're very close to #2)

We are #2 in MoV @ 6.9ppg.  #1 Phoenix is 7.2ppg.  Our closest competitors in the East are Cleveland at #3 @ 6.7ppg and #5 Milwaukee @ 4.6ppg.  Phoenix beat GSW 134-105 in game 4 of the regular season.  That 29 point MoV will have a big impact because we're only 18 games into the season.  The deeper we go into the season the more significant all stats are, but especially MoV.  For comparison, our 2007-2008 Championship team had a MoV of 10.3ppg.  Our closest competitor in this was Detroit @ 7.4ppg.  We not only won 66 games that season, we dominated in our victories.


Bob


.

DB...as a former French teacher I would suggest using sauf instead of sans. Sauf means except. Sans means without.

Ktron,

Yeah, our record was the obvious one. SAC's record was wrong as well. Then P-Squared had 9 as well to match Doogie off the bench. I should be more forgiving.

worcester,

Good point. Never thought of it as RWIII is coming back. I took French as well but don't remember sauf. Oui, Oui. Baguette!

db

Oo la la.