BSJ Game Report: Celtics 124, Nuggets 104 - Jokic neutralized as C's run away with blowout win

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics win over the Denver Nuggets with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics and Nuggets played even basketball until Nikola Jokic sat late in the first quarter. Boston went on a run until he returned, but instead of his return leveling things off, Boston went on a massive run to take a 25 point halftime lead. They relaxed a bit in the third quarter, and they let the lead get down to 16 in the fourth, but they turned it on enough to hold on.

Box Score 

HEADLINES

The ball movement is *chef’s kiss*: Another 29 assists for Boston in this game, led by Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum, who had 7 each. That second-quarter run was amazing with 9 assists on 13 made baskets.

The Jays, again: Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 60 points, on 23-36 shooting, including 9-16 from deep. This comes after combining for 62 against Sacramento on 23-34 field goals, including 10-15 from deep. I repeat, no one is beating the Celtics when they shoot like that. 

Big bench contribution: Boston’s bench put up 43 points, thanks to a combined 30 from Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams. Take away the garbage time minutes and Boston’s bench outscored Denver’s.

Defense does it again: Jokic started strong but the C’s defense shut him down during that second quarter. He shot 2-11 overall, 0-2 from 3, and had only 1 assist while the Celtics were running up the score. They relaxed a bit with the big lead in the second half, but they never fully lost control of the game. 

TURNING POINT

Will Barton hit a 3-pointer to close the gap to 44-39 with 6:08 to go in the second quarter. What ensued is rated NC-17 in most states. Boston went on a 24-4 run to close the half, shooting 9-11 from the field and 6-8 from 3. They had 5 assists on those 9 buckets, and each of those assists came from a different guy. That's how good the ball movement was.

Meanwhile, Denver shot 2-15 (0-3 3pt) over that stretch, including 2-9 (0-2) from Jokic. If you’re doing the math there, Jokic is the only player to score over the final 6:08 of the second quarter for Denver. Five Celtics scored during that run (Tatum and Payton Pritchard had 9 each). The beatdown was so thorough, Michael Malone bench his starters to begin the third quarter. 

"If somebody is kicking our ass and we're fighting and competing and they're just better than us, so be it," he said. "They're a very good team, but if we're getting our butts kicked and we're just taking it, possession after possession, heads are dropped, body language giving in, I'm not going to reward that behavior. There are principles in life, and they go against every principle in my body."

FIVE UP

Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown: They -- again -- each scored 30 while taking fewer than 20 shots each. They’ve done this for two straight games. That has to be a record of some kind. 

Payton Pritchard: the last time he missed was the 3:13 mark of the fourth quarter against Golden State. He was 5-5 in this game and is 11 of his last 12 from deep. He’s now on a three-game streak of double-digit scoring, his longest such streak of the season. 

Grant Williams: His block of Jokic that turned into a Tatum 3 on the other end was phenomenal.

And then he got the ball in the right corner, attacked a close out, and hit a fadeaway in the lane. It was unlike anything we’ve seen from Williams. 

“Grant did a great job,” Brown said. “He wanted me to tell the media he wanted his nickname to be Batman. Now, I said I don't know about that one Grant. But if you play like you played today, I might give you a Frank Lucas or something like that. So Grant held it down on defense. I'm proud of him.”

Batman? I don’t know about that either. Let’s run that one by Tatum to see what he thinks. 

“I can't understand why Grant would want to be called Batman,” Tatum said with a confused look on his face. “I'm sure I'm going to ask him when I get on the bus. Grant played great tonight but I'm going to call him Grant, not calling him no damn Batman.”

Nice try, Grant. 

Daniel Theis: He didn’t play a lot, but his first stint was actually really great, hitting a mid-range jumper, 3-pointer, and catching an alley oop against DeMarcus Cousins. He was a big part of why Boston was able to built its first lead of any substance. 

ZERO DOWN

Nah, not today. We’re basking in the glow of this one.

TOP PLAYS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- The Celtics still have an outside chance at winning the East. 

It’s tough to make up 3.5 games with 10 left to play, but it’s possible. 

The Sixers lost to Toronto tonight. So now Miami in first, Milwaukee in second (3 games back) and Boston/Philadelphia in third (3.5 games back). 

Milwaukee is off tomorrow and Miami plays Philadelphia. If Boston wins, they’ll move into a tie for the second seed no matter what. If Miami and Boston win, the Celtics will be tied with Milwaukee, 3.5 games back. If Philadelphia and Boston win, the Celtics will be tied with the Sixers, 2.5 games back. 

Which brings me to …

- The Celtics are absolutely title contenders

This comes with the standard caveat of staying healthy. The Celtics have almost no margin for error there when it comes to making a deep playoff run.

That said, the way they’ve been swarming defensively and using those stops to fuel big runs is absolutely the stuff of a contender. They can hang their hats on the defensive end with their ability to play a few different styles. 

Switch everything? Sure. Al Horford and Robert Williams have shown themselves capable of hanging with guards well enough on the perimeter that it’s not something teams are itching to do. Meanwhile, Marcus Smart and Derrick White are capable of boxing out and rebounding against bigs. 

Switch 1-4 or 1-3? Sure. Boston made sure to stick Horford to Jokic’s side in this game and then when he went to make an offensive move, they sent Robert Williams to double and bother Jokic’s vision. 

Blitz a ball handler? Sure. We saw it against Brooklyn and Atlanta and it was a key strategy to winning those games. The communication behind those blitzes has become rock-solid, allowing Celtics defenders to make their move knowing they have help behind them. 

The one thing we haven't seen this season is zone defense, but I wouldn’t be shocked if there's a wrinkle up Udoka’s sleeve if he needs it. 

If Tatum and Brown continue to move the ball the way they have, and if a couple of guys off the bench can hit some shots, this is as good a team as any in the NBA this season. The East is wide open. The West has some tough teams at the top but there are openings there for Boston as well. 

There may be a few teams that can stake a claim to contender status, and now we can include Boston in that mix.