How about those Celtics (28-26 overall, 11-16 away)? They started their difficult three-game West Coast road trip with a bang this afternoon as they won 105-87 against the Nuggets (34-19 overall, 18-10 home) at the Ball Arena (seriously, that's what their building is now called). It looked like it would be a routine loss for Boston as they trailed by double-digits in the third quarter but then they locked it down with a 40-8 run that included outscoring the home team 31-8 in the fourth quarter. Yes, Nuggets star point guard Jamal Murray was out with a knee injury but the C's-who are not a good defensive team by any measure-holding Denver to eight points in the fourth not to mention their lowest scoring output of the season and worst shooting percentage (36.4%) are all major reasons to celebrate for a few days.
With the victory, Boston has won three games in a row and five out of their last six. Coming off his career-high 53 point performance on Friday vs. Minnesota (14-40), swingman Jayson Tatum's (game-high 28 points, 10 rebounds) encore was pretty solid. He had plenty of help too as shooting guard Jaylen Brown (20 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks), point guard Kemba Walker (14 points, 6 assists), guard Marcus Smart (14 points, 5 assists) and center Robert Williams (10 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks) all scored in double-figures as well. Last seen bitching about his touches in the bubble playoffs, Denver was led by small forward Michael Porter Jr. (22 points, 11 rebounds) as center/MVP candidate Nikola Jokic (17 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds) was (sort of) held in check without his running mate Murray to work with. In his place, point guard Facundo Campazzo scored 14 points and Brewster Academy product Will Barton added 13 points and six rebounds.
The Nuggets entered as the hottest team in the league since they had won their last eight games in a row to reach fourth-place in the Western Conference. For that reason, I feel like this was near the top of the (very short) best wins list in 2020-21 for the Celts. If you claim that you saw this coming, you are a liar my friend. Denver was up 27-16 after the first quarter and 51-45 at halftime. Boston cut it to 79-74 heading into the fourth quarter before they morphed into the '98 Bulls. The C's shot 44.8% from the field, made five more free throws (20-15), grabbed six more rebounds (52-46) including nine more defensive boards (42-33), blocked three more shots (7-4), scored 10 more points in the paint (56-46), had eight more second chance points (21-13), five more fast break points (13-8) and seven more points off turnovers (11-4) than the Nuggets.
That huge rally out of nowhere today makes Tuesday (10, NBC Sports Boston) at Portland (31-22) and Thursday (10, NBC Sports Boston) at the Lakers seem more winnable. The Celtics just swept the season series with Denver who is currently ahead of both the Blazers and Lakers. It won't be easy by any means but Boston is finally playing some good basketball when it really matters-down the stretch of the regular season with the playoffs just around the corner. Tatum has started to resemble a superstar again and everyone else is playing their role which is all that head coach Brad Stevens can ask for after the non-stop turbulence of this campaign.
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