BSJ Game Report: Celtics 116, Blazers 115 - Celtics keep finding ways to win

Everything you need to know about Boston's 116-115 win over the Portland Trailblazers with BSJ insight and analysis.

Box Score

Celtics do it again. Jayson Tatum outdueled Damian Lillard and got the last laugh with a dagger 3-pointer late in the game. Boston has now won four in a row and six of seven games. With losses by the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets, Boston is now alone in fifth place in the East. 

Jayson Tatum is on one. He scored 25 of his 32 points in the second half on 8-of-12 shooting, including 3-6 from deep and a perfect 6-6 from the line. Tatum got to the line 10 times overall. 

“This is about the time, number of games, where last year he started taking off,” Brad Stevens said after the game. “And you can kind of see that in the last so many weeks. You can kind of see he’s really into a rhythm of knowing what he wants to do on a given possession and also where his opportunities are going to come from.”

TURNING POINT

Jayson Tatum’s side-step 3-pointer with 8.5 seconds left to give Boston a 116-112 lead. 

TOP PLAYS

Tatum’s game-winner

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1382191178133565449

Just look at this hustle from Marcus Smart

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1382169927394729986

SIX UP 

Jayson Tatum: He’s averaging 29.6 points on 50.2% shooting (40.4% 3pt, 91.8% FT), 8.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.0 steal over his last 11 games. He’s on a superstar tear.

Jaylen Brown: Brown has mostly kept pace with his teammate over that stretch, averaging 22.5 points on 47.4% shooting (41% 3pt, 73.5% FT), 5.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, 1.2 steals. Brown was a steady force in this game, sort of filling in the scoring blanks when necessary on his way to a 24 point night.

After the game, he didn’t want to talk about basketball. Here’s his full quote about the state of the world: 

“You're going to have to pardon me. I know that we're here to talk about basketball, but I've got nothing basketball to talk about. Many main events have recently made headlines over the last week, last month, last years, and at this point, we shouldn't be pleading or persuading people to see things for what they are. We know what this system is and we know what it's capable of. If you're watching this, listening, or tuning in, I just want you to know that your life has value, so much value that they're trying so hard to make you feel otherwise. My life has value. My life had value before I played for the Celtics and then real long after. At some point, you realize what you're dealing with, but power has and always will be with the people. You gotta stand up and fight. What other solution do we have? That's really all I got. See you guys later.”

Kemba Walker: Walker was big early in the game, scoring 14 of his 21 points in the first half on 4-9 shooting (3-6 3pt) and dishing 5 assists to go along with 6 rebounds.

“I thought Kemba’s energy was great. Even on the shots he missed, he had great bounce into them,” Stevens said. “He had some really good defensive plays, including the charge, which he usually does.”

Marcus Smart: He was a defensive menace in this game. He also hit some big shots and tied Walker for a team-high 7 assists. 

“I thought he guarded Lillard as well as anybody I’ve seen as far as handling those screens,” Stevens said. “A couple of the shots Lillard made were not on him and weren’t certainly due to him. I thought he impacted him as well as you possibly could.”

Robert Williams/Tristan Thompson: I’m lumping these two together because they gave the Celtics what they needed at the right times in this game. Williams made some defensive mistakes but Thompson came in and did a good job of making up for what Williams was lacking and vice versa. Stevens adjusted the usage of his centers in the second half to better match up.

ONE DOWN 

Payton Pritchard: Tough night for the Oregon native, shooting 1-7 and 0-3 from deep. He had some decent looks though. Some of those just didn’t fall

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

Things are different now. Admit it, the Celtics look better. They don’t look perfect, but they look a lot better. They’re playing with greater energy. They’re playing better defense. They’re playing with better pace and tempo.

The Celtics are finally getting healthy, and they’re able to use better combinations, and they’re able to use guys in better roles.  

When Robert Williams was having trouble with Jusuf Nurkic, Stevens matched Thompson up against him more often. Semi Ojeleye was given a shot and, when that didn’t work, he sat for the rest of the night instead of Stevens being forced to go back to him. 

What’s different? 

They just spent a bunch of time at home instead of crisscrossing the country. They’re healthier. They’ve had one back-to-back in three weeks. Tatum’s COVID-19 recovery has progressed. In fact, he’s still not 100%. 

“Close, very close,” he said about being back to normal since testing positive. “It’s a process. It takes a long time. I take an inhaler before the game since I've tested positive. This has kind of helped with that and opened up my lungs and, you know, I never took an inhaler before. So that’s something different. I for sure feel better now than I did a month ago.”

And they’re actually catching some breaks with the teams they’re facing being in tougher situations. The Denver Nuggets were at the end of a long stretch of games. Lillard is in a bit of a shooting slump and Nurkic isn’t his full self yet.  Finally, Boston is catching some breaks. 

It should be absolutely no surprise that as all of these things happened, they started to play better. They’re actually starting to find their level. They’re not in the contender class, but they’re looking very much like a team that can grab the fourth seed and make some noise in the playoffs.