2022 - 2023 POST GAME PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Looks Closer To Dominant Form In Win
Damian Lillard wasn't enough for Portland


NESN by Keagan Stiefel

7 hours ago

Portland Trail Blazers
The Boston Celtics defeated the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night, leaving Moda Center with a 126-112 victory.

The C’s improved to 49-22, while the Blazers fell to 31-39.


ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics rolled into Portland and put together a good old-fashioned butt whooping on the Trail Blazers.

Well, at least for three quarters.

Damian Lillard, in all of his future Hall of Fame glory, was tremendous but not enough to take down a Celtics squad that was clearly motivated to put together a complete performance. After bookending a loss to the lowly Houston Rockets with ugly wins against the Atlanta Hawks and Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston nearly just that.

The Celtics did all of the little things head coach Joe Mazzulla has been asking for since they returned from the All-Star break. Boston grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, assisted on 29-of-41 made shots and won the turnover battle. That allowed them to build enough of a lead to old off an insane Lillard fourth quarter and take home a victory.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jayson Tatum put together another tremendous performance. The 25-year-old finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals, making 8-of-20 shots from the floor.

— Blake Griffin is a scrapper. The six-time NBA All-Star grabbed nine rebounds, including six (6!!!) on the offensive end, in 14 minutes off the bench.

— Lillard was superb for Portland, finishing with 41 points — including 25 in the fourth quarter, five assists, four rebounds, one steal and one block.

WAGER WATCH
Al Horford was given -120 odds by DraftKings Sportsbook to surpass 18.5 total points, rebounds and assists. The veteran didn’t even need his rebounds to hit the mark, netting $100 bettors a $183.33 payout.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will hit the fourth leg of their six-game road trip Saturday when they take on the Utah Jazz. Tipoff from Vivint Smart Home Arena is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.

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Sans the TO's and some sloppy play on occasion, this game was somewhat in the style of earlier this season with all the driving to the lane, getting fouled, dishing out, forcing multiple switches, lots of touches, etc.  When you play like that and essentially match their TO's, you're going to win every time.  And guess what?...We did!

Rolling into Utah on a B2B with BOS(-4.0),  I'm going to double down on taking the other side.  If you took the opposite of what I predicted for last night's game, you're rolling in it.  

Currently not seeing AH on the IL @ ESPN.  Another Santa sighting potentially with PHI @ IND tonight.  IND handed MIL a loss this week.  Why not PHI?  We'll have to set up our own gift by winning tonight to at least have a chance to get PHI off our backs temporarily if they were to lose to IND.  TOR@ MIL tomorrow on NBATV.  

Too many ifs.  Let's see how the dust settles.  

db

Look at that:

We won. And you know what goes with that...

The coach is smart again.
The lineup was good again.
Tatum and Brown are stars again.
Smart is the leader and should start again.
Stevens built a good roster again.

For now anyway.

Finally the Celts played with purpose. I was getting sick of the games where they were just putzing around.

Hopefully this creates a good trend and get focused these last few regular season games.

NYCelt wrote:Look at that:

We won. And you know what goes with that...

The coach is smart again.
The lineup was good again.
Tatum and Brown are stars again.
Smart is the leader and should start again.
Stevens built a good roster again.

For now anyway.

Who said it?