Final: Celtics 108, Nuggets 95 -- Jaylen and Jayson lead the way in runaway win

The Nuggets arrived in Boston with the No. 1 ranked defense in the NBA on Friday night and the Celtics young guns picked them apart for the better part of 48 minutes. Jayson Tatum finished with a team-high 26 points and 7 rebounds while Jaylen Brown added 21 points and 7 assists himself, helping the hosts pull away in the second half for a commanding double-digit win. Kemba Walker added 19 points and 3 assists in the highly efficient offensive performance for the C’s as all five starters shot above 50 percent from the field including a returning Marcus Smart (4/5 FG). It was the third straight win for the C’s overall who now improved to 9-0 at home and 16-5 on the season. Nikola Jokic had a game-high 30 points for the Nuggets.

TWO UP

Enes Kanter: The big man bounced back from a DNP-CD to score eight points in just seven first-half minutes off 3-of-3 shooting. Facing off with a slow-footed big man in Jokic is the ideal matchup for the big man.

Jaylen Brown: The swingman continued his hot shooting stretch in the first quarter, scoring 11 of his 21 points in the frame on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point range. He also grabbed a team-high six rebounds in the first half.

TWO DOWN

Kemba Walker: A tough shooting first half for the All-Star, who missed six of his nine shot attempts including a couple of bunnies at the rim.

Turnovers: The Celtics piled up eight of them in the first half, putting them on pace for well above their season average of 12. Most have been unforced, taking away easy scoring chances for the C's.

TOP PLAY

Good lord Jayson pic.twitter.com/l5z9iGcOBy

— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) December 7, 2019

• Marcus Smart will be back in the lineup following a one-game absence due to illness. He is still bothered by a sore oblique after a collision with Kevin Knox on Sunday but Smart doesn't think he needs to take any more time off to rest. "I know my body better than anybody, I’ve been through a lot," he said. "Just like anybody else will tell you. They know their body better than a lot of people and that’s the thing, so like I said, if anything is too critical where, I just knew I couldn’t go out there and wouldn’t be okay where I could do something worse, I wouldn’t play. But like I said, these are minor injuries and it’s part of the game, and if you live your whole life worried about getting injured, that’s where injuries start to happen."


• More positive news out of shootaround on the Gordon Hayward return front as Brad Stevens anticipates the swingman will be returning ahead of his original six-week timetable schedule. “I would say that if I were making percentages it would be somewhere in the high-70s, low-80s,” Stevens said of a potential return ahead of Christmas. Hayward went through some drills with coaches on Friday.


• Brad Stevens on the last matchup with the Nuggets: “We weren’t very good for three quarters. Obviously it was a unique night with Kemba going down, but we weren’t playing very well up to that point. We had 11 points in the first quarter until the last possession. They had a lot to do with it. Their defense is excellent. I think it’s one of the top two or three defenses in the league. They do a great job pressuring the ball and they’re great in their help. Like, they’re really outstanding in their help. Their offense has always been good. And now it looks like it’s really hitting its stride. We’re going to have to play a lot better than we did two weeks ago to have a chance to win this one.”


• Enes Kanter was a DNP-CD in the second half of the win against the Heat but that decision was not indicative of Stevens' plans going forward in the middle. "Said it the other day: That’s going to be how we think the game is going, who we think has the best chance against that particular team, in that moment. The other day, with the way they were driving us in the first half, the way that we were, especially the way that Adebayo went at us early on, we felt like, obviously, we started off the third quarter well with Theis and then I thought Rob played so well we couldn’t take him out. That’s going to happen some. I appreciate all those guys because they’re all preparing every day to play big minutes. But the reality is, those guys plus Grant with some minutes there, there’s only so many minutes to go around."