Final: Celtics 140, Pelicans 105 -- C's erupt on offense to snap three-game losing streak

Brad Stevens had been downplaying the panic around the C’s in the aftermath of the three-game losing streak and that mentality proved to be correct on Saturday night. The C’s had their highest-scoring first quarter of the year (41) against an undermanned Pelicans squad and did not look back, posting a season-high with 140 points, which doubled as the most points in the Stevens era. Enes Kanter added 22 points and 19 rebounds off the bench in just 23 minutes while Gordon Hayward posted 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting to give the C’s their biggest win of the season. Frank Jackson had a game-high 22 points off the bench for the Pelicans who played without four rotation players including Derrick Favors, JJ Redick and Jrue Holiday.

Tatum became just the third player in Celtics history to score over 40 points in 30 minutes or less, joining Hall of Fame company in Larry Bird and Tommy Heinsohn en route to a career-high 41 points. The third-year forward was a model of efficiency against an overmatched Pelicans defense, going 16-of-22 from the field and 6-of-9 from 3-point range in just three quarters of work. His hot scoring helped the C’s open up a 20-point first half lead and the hosts never looked back as they rode Tatum’s 19 points in the third quarter to build a 30-plus point lead and allow the starters to rest for the entire fourth quarter.

• The Pelicans will be extremely shorthanded for the second half of their back-to-back beyond just Zion Williamson's absence. JJ Redick, Derrick Favors and Kenrich Williams will all miss the matchup while Jrue Holiday remains doubtful. Romeo Langford will still remain out due to illness for Boston along with Rob Williams (hip) and Vincent Poirier (finger). Poirier is on track to return to action late next week after finger surgery.


• Brad Stevens on the team's recent three-game slide: "Even after watching the film against Philly, knowing that that was a tough week for us and knowing how we came out and competed, I felt good about us. Obviously we would have liked to have gotten that win. I did not think we played well in the previous two games, but I thought that was a good response that night and we’ll see how we continue to respond because this isn’t ending. This is just going to pile up one after another as far as games go.”


• The Pelicans may be one of the worst teams by record in the Western Conference but they have been playing very well lately, winning seven of their last nine games including on Friday night at MSG.


• Brad Stevens doesn't sound like a man considering lineup changes in the wake of a losing streak. “You’re thinking about that all the time but I also don’t want to overreact. I know at the end of the day that if we want to be in the conversation to truly accomplish what we want to accomplish, we gotta have all these guys playing at a really high level. So to get the most out of everybody is really important and that’s why I think the one thing I don’t want to do is overreact to three games in four nights all over the place. We’ll see how we play as we come up in the next week or so.”