Final: Trail Blazers 129, Celtics 119- Brutal ending mars good basketball

TIP OFF: 7:30 p.m. @ TD Garden
RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub
TV: NBC Sports Boston

Predicted Starting Lineups

Celtics
G: Marcus Smart
G: Evan Fournier
SF: Jaylen Brown
PF: Jayson Tatum
C: Robert Williams III

Trailblazers
G: Damian Lillard
G: CJ McCollum
SF: Norman Powell
PF: Robert Covington
C: Jusuf Nurkic

LIVE COVERAGE, by John Karalis

Fourth quarter

• Nesmith is unconscious. He's up to 16 points on 6-7 shooting


• The officials were very wrong about an offensive goaltending on Tristan Thompson. Instead of Boston being up 1, McCollum came down and hit a 3 to give Portland a 4 point lead


• That could be the swing of the game. Carmelo Anthony drilled a 3 and Portland is up 7 with 6:49 left


• McCollum is catching fire. He hit a 3 to put them up 7 again


• Marcus Smart was ejected for what the officials deemed an intentional shot to Nurkic's groin


• Tatum and Brown collided with about :40 left and both limped into the locker room. Brown looked to take the worst of it on his already sore right ankle


• This game deserved a better ending. The missed goaltend, the questionable ejection, the injuries... this was a great game and went south

• The Celtics have come out sloppy with a few turnovers, though one was due to a missed call that got Brad Stevens hot on the sidelines.


• Jaylen Brown has made some tough shots. He went cold earlier, but he's still aggressive and getting himself good looks.


• The Blazers continue to bury just about everything. A couple of 3's from Covington and Nurkic plus a pair of free throws from Powell (after a bad turnover) were part of a 10-2 run to give the Blazers a 10 point lead


• Evan Fournier is blazing hot, hitting his first 7 shots of the game scoring 18 points


• Tatum only scored 2 points in the 3rd

• The shot making in this game is ridiculous. Both teams are shooting nearly 60%


• Jayson Tatum is up to 22 first half points.


• We actually had a little bit more than a minute of game time without a basket, which felt weird in this one.


• Payton Pritchard scored 5 quick points to give Boston the lead again


• Each team has scored 71 points in the first half. What an offensive display

• The Blazers came out hot, running a bunch of the early offense through Jusuf Nurkic who collected two early assists


• Evan Fournier came out hitting shots. he's 2-2 for 5 points so far, which is an encouraging sign after a struggle coming back from COVID.


• C's defense stepped up at the rim to stem another big start from a Celtics opponent


• Aaron Nesmith just drilled a 3 to cap an 8-0 run. He is shooting with confidence


• Jaylen Brown is starting to feel it too. He's up to 8 points. Boston has outscored Portland 20-11 since it was 12-4


• Jayson Tatum got in on the fun, hitting a couple of 3-pointers to put Boston up 6


• Another disaster end to a quarter for Boston, which is happening too often. After Marcus Smart missed a 2-for-1 attempt, Portland got a 3-pointer, Boston turned it over with an illegal screen, and McCollum hit a 3 at the buzzer

• Point Spread: Trail Blazers -1.5


• Over-Under: 234.5 points


• Money line: Blazers -117, Celtics -103

Prediction