Less than 24 hours after one among their finest wins of the season, the Celtics may have made excuses.
Travel points made the Celtics keep an additional evening in Milwaukee after their blowout win over the Bucks, they usually didn’t land in Boston till about six hours earlier than tip-off for his or her recreation towards the Jazz. The guests’ high gamers – together with All-Star Lauri Markkanen – have been out. The Celtics’ high two frontcourt gamers, Al Horford and Robert Williams, have been additionally lacking from the lineup.
The Celtics have suffered many puzzling losses to inferior, shorthanded opponents all through the season and a few week till the playoffs, Friday’s matchup – the second evening of a back-to-back – had the substances for an additional one. But coach Joe Mazzulla needed his crew to study from their errors of outdated and emphasised responding to wins as a lot as they did losses, like they did on Thursday after Tuesday’s dangerous loss to the Wizards. Mazzulla mentioned Thursday’s large win over the Bucks wouldn’t matter with out the identical effort an evening later towards a crew that beat them earlier this month.
They heard the message. It actually wasn’t fairly, and the Celtics have been from their sharpest, however they in the end completed the mission. Behind 39 factors from Jayson Tatum – who continued his robust taking pictures surge – and 19 factors off the bench from Malcolm Brogdon, the Celtics held off the feisty Jazz with a 122-114 victory at TD Garden.
The Celtics have now received 4 of their final 5 video games and are beginning to click on on the proper time because the playoffs loom with 4 video games left within the common season. They moved inside 1.5 video games of the Bucks as they proceed to have faint hopes of capturing the No. 1 seed within the Eastern Conference.
After a powerful end to the primary half, the Celtics opened up an 11-point lead early within the third quarter earlier than they suffered from some empty offensive possessions and defensive slippage. Johnny Juzang drilled a turnaround 3-pointer and Ochai Agbaji transformed a transition dunk to cap a 7-0 Jazz run and shut Boston’s result in 4.
That pressured Mazzulla to name a timeout – one thing he’s rising to do extra typically – and the message was seemingly obtained. Malcolm Brodgdon hit back-to-back triples out of the timeout, Grant Williams made one other for a 9-0 run, and Brogdon made it 4 for a 12-2 run. The Celtics’ inside protection continued to let the Jazz get simple buckets – Utah completed with 68 factors contained in the paint – however they ended the quarter on a 21-10 run as they regained a commanding double-digit lead.
The Jazz didn’t threaten once more and solely bought inside eight within the fourth quarter regardless of some questionable officiating that appeared to rattle the Celtics. Blake Griffin and Tatum have been every assessed technical fouls that allowed Utah to chop their result in 11 with 4:32 to go.
But Tatum hit a 3-pointer on the finish of the shot clock, the Celtics drew an offensive foul on Jazz guard Kris Dunn. Griffin then took the ball away from Dunn, which agitated him and he rapidly picked up two technicals and was ejected because the Celtics seal the win.
Source: www.bostonherald.com