C's Pulled Off The Third Biggest Comeback In NBA History Thanks To Tatum's Career Night (60 Pts!!!)

 

    The entire 2020-21 Celtics (34-30 overall, 21-12 home) experience was tightly wrapped up in a single game tonight as they went down by as much as 32 points at the TD Garden to the Spurs (31-31 overall, 18-12 away) before staging an epic rally than ended with a 143-140 overtime win for the home team. Only this group could feel the total dejection of what would have been their worst loss of the season combined with the overwhelming sense of joy from pulling off their best victory of the year. Forgive me for not mentioning Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum yet who scored a career-high 60 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists with no turnovers (!) in 45 exhausting minutes. With that, he tied Larry Bird's (ever heard of him?) franchise record for points in a game while also becoming the first player in the history of this proud team to score 50+ points twice in the same season. 

    Unfortunately, Boston has had more than their fair share of awful losses this season and with the way that they started this game, it felt inevitable that this would be the worst one of all. Thankfully, it didn't have to come to that as besides Tatum, other Celtics like shooting guard Jaylen Brown (17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks), rookie swingman Aaron Nesmith (16 points, 6 rebounds off the bench), guard Marcus Smart (10 points, 12 assists, 2 steals) and center Robert Williams (10 points, 9 rebounds) all did just enough to come out on top. The Spurs were led by swingman DeMar DeRozan (team-high 30 points, 14 assists, five rebounds and two steals) who was great and point guard Dejounte Murray (24 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) who is becoming quite a player. Center Jakob Poeltl (15 points, 10 rebounds) and small forward Keldon Johnson (14 points, 8 rebounds) also stood out for San Antonio who wasted a great game from their bench that outscored Boston's 55-38. Shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV (24 points) was brilliant for the Spurs while UConn's Rudy Gay (16 points) and point guard Patty Mills (11 points) were other impactful reserves who made plays as usual against the Celtics. 

    San Antonio was up 39-16 after one quarter and 77-48 at halftime as the 2300 fans that were at the Garden rightfully sent Boston to their locker room with a chorus of boos. The Celts chipped away with a wonderful third quarter (42-26) before they tied it in the fourth quarter (38-25). Boston actually had a chance to win this in regulation but Tatum missed that shot which sent the instant classic to overtime. For the game, the Celtics hit seven more 3-pointers (18-11), grabbed nine more offensive rebounds (17-8), blocked six more shots (7-1) and had 12 more second chance points (27-15) than the Spurs. 

    As I've said many times in this season full of crazy highs and lows, this win will quickly lose much of its potential meaning if Boston learns nothing from it and comes out flat once again in their next game on Sunday night (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) vs. Portland (35-28 overall, 19-12 away). A mark of a good team is consistency and that is something which this group has struggled with all year. This improbable comeback kept the hunt for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs alive. Boston is tied with Atlanta (34-30) for fifth-place while New York (35-28) is a game and a half in front of them (with a game in hand) and Miami (33-30) trails both clubs by half a game as they currently are stuck in seventh-place purgatory for the play-in tournament. Take a breath and get some rest tomorrow since the meeting with the Blazers-who Boston beat 116-115 in Portland on April 13-should be another doozy with their superstar Damian Lillard liable to drop 50+ points at any time as well. The Celts are 2-1 on this homestand so finishing 3-1 on it with a three-game win streak to boot would be swell. 

For The First Time This Season, Celts Had Their Full Roster But They Lost 110-106 To The Spurs

 

    It only took 17 games (nearly 1/3 of this abbreviated regular season) but tonight the Celtics (10-7 overall, 5-5 away) finally got to see what their team looks like when it is at full strength (ie. nobody out with injuries and/or Covid-19). They had a chance to tie it late but guard Marcus Smart (14 points) missed a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner and Boston fell 110-106 to San Antonio (10-8 overall, 4-5 home) at the AT&T Center. Ever since superstar Kawhi Leonard left town, the Spurs have been mediocre at best. However, with tonight's win, the Spurs are 16-2 in their last 18 meetings with the C's. Boston also dropped to 2-4 in its last six games. Small forward Jayson Tatum (game-high 25 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals) and guard Jaylen Brown (24 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks) were the best players on the floor but in old school San Antonio style, they had six guys score in double-figures compared to only four by the Celts. 

    Small forward DeMar DeRozan (team-high 21 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds) and point guard Dejounte Murray (11 points, 11 rebounds) turned in the two biggest plays of the night, both for the Spurs. DeRozan hit a mid-range jumper that broke the late 103-103 tie then Murray converted a huge steal into a dunk and a four-point lead (107-103) that Boston was never able to recover from. Drafting and developing talent is kind of a lost art in the NBA but not when it comes to San Antonio who is always getting the most out of its young players many of whom were mid-to-late first round, second round or even undrafted picks. With that in mind, forward Keldon Johnson posted a double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) and shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV added 14 points. Center LaMarcus Aldridge (20 points, 2 blocks) can still get it done as proven by his effectiveness this evening against an opponent that he usually owns. Backup point guard Patty Mills also notched 12 points and two steals off the bench. Celtics point guard Kemba Walker had essentially the same offensive numbers as Smart (14 points, 6-of-15 shooting from the field) which is not what they're looking for. 

I have no complaints about Boston's start because they jumped out to a 30-25 lead after the first quarter. Things completely changed in the second quarter as the home team flexed their muscles and basically ran the Celtics out of Texas. The Spurs more than doubled (36-17) up Boston in that frame and went into halftime with a gift turnover and floater at the buzzer by Walker for a 14-point advantage (61-47). The break treated the C's well as they came out and put together one of their best quarters of this season. They outscored the Spurs by 16 points (37-21) which allowed them to carry a slim two-point lead (84-82) into the fourth quarter. Sadly, that just set the stage for San Antonio to execute down the stretch while the Celtics (surprise!) looked like a team that needed some more practice time let alone games to build further chemistry. 

    When you examine the box score, it's tough to explain how this contest was so tight since the Spurs shot 13.2% better from the field (56.1%-42.9) and they grabbed seven more rebounds (46-39) including 11 more offensive boards (37-26). From what I can tell, besides Tatum and Brown, the only thing that kept this close down to the last possession was the fact that Boston had twice as many steals (10-5) and nine less turnovers (19-10). As it says above, the road has not been kind to the Celtics but they better find a way to change that soon since they host the Lakers (14-5) on Saturday night (8:30, ABC) before departing for a season-long five-game West Coast road trip. LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers are a half-game behind the Jazz (14-4) for the best record in the league but is there any doubt that the defending champions are still the team to beat? Saturday Night Live finally returns with a new show this weekend so what better prelude to that than a showdown of the NBA's most storied rivals?