BSJ Game Report: Celtics 125, Jazz 97 - Tatum, Brown combine for 52 in dominant wire-to-wire win

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics win over the Utah Jazz, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out blistering hot, almost as if they wanted to give Utah a taste of their own medicine from the first game they played. Boston didn’t miss a shot until the 4:05 mark of the first, going 10-10 from the field (6-6 from 3). They tailed off after that but only a little bit, finishing the game shooting 59.5% (52.8% from 3). They got briefly sloppy to start the third, but they recovered fairly quickly and were never really in danger after going up 20.

HEADLINES

Thorough domination: This was never in doubt. The best the Jazz could do after the first quarter was briefly getting it down under 20. The defense was elite. The offense was on fire. The Jazz never had a chance. 

The Jays … AGAIN: 52 points combined for Tatum and Brown on 19-32 shooting. Another hyper-efficient night for Boston’s top duo. 

Standings watch: Miami lost, so Boston is now 1.5 games behind the Heat for first in the East. They play each other once more, so the top seed is not out of the question. 

TURNING POINT

If I’m being honest, the turning point was Boston opening up hitting their first 10 shots, including 6-6 from 3. The first eight minutes of the game were a strong message that this was not going to be Utah’s night. 

But since the game is long and there are ebbs and flows, I will make note of the lead dropping below 20 and the Celtics starting the third quarter sloppily, but recovering after that to go on a 12-3 run to push it back up to 27. It’s not that I think the game was in doubt or Boston was in any kind of trouble, but they had been messing around and allowing 30 point third quarters so recovering there and holding Utah to 23 was nice to see. 

EIGHT UP

Jayson Tatum: He had it cooking right away and he knew it. He blew three kisses to the crowd in the first quarter alone, and he casually dropped a 26 point, 3 rebound, 3 assist, 1 block night. His streak of 30 point games on less than 20 shot attempts is over because he sat the whole fourth quarter, but he was still on his super-efficient roll.

Jaylen Brown: He’s on a similar roll as Tatum, he just didn’t get to 30 in the last game. He didn’t in this one either, but he matched Tatum’s 26 on similar efficiency. He and Tatum have been on a combined heater recently.

Marcus Smart: He had 9 assists in the first quarter and a career-high 13 overall. Some people will want to say he got the assists because the shots fell, which is obviously, technically true. You need shots to fall to get assists. But it also shows that when the shots do fall, how often the good look is the result of Smart’s passing. This is why I bring up potential assists from time to time, because those measure what could have been if things had gone better. There was no need for that early on, because every potential Marcus Smart assist became an actual one. 

Al Horford & Robert Williams: I’m going to combine these two guys because they were absolute defensive monsters in this game. They combined for 7 blocked shots and Williams added two steals in addition to the general swallowing up of everyone not named Donovan Mitchell (who had the quietest 37 point game I’ve ever seen). These two are such a force.    

Daniel Theis: Theis played so well in one stretch in the second quarter that he came out to a standing ovation when it was time to sit back on the bench. His block on Jordan Clarkson was outrageous.

He also shot well, and his backdoor cut for a dunk was perfect. 

Payton Pritchard: He is 17 for his last 24 from 3, a cool 71% from deep, over the past four games. He’s been a dead-eye shooter who has also been hustling defensively. When you are getting chest bumps from Marcus Smart after a defensive possession, you know you’re doing things right.

Derrick White: He was 2-3 from deep tonight and that's the most welcome sight of all. He doesn't need to hit shots to be effective, but man does it help. 

ONE DOWN

Rudy Gobert: Let’s flip things a little since Boston played a top-to-bottom great game. Gobert came in as one of the Defensive Player of the Year frontrunners and didn’t block a single shot. He did grab 11 rebounds but he was absolutely invisible for most of the night. He made zero impact. 

TOP PLAYS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- This is what happens when Tatum and Brown get hot at the same time. 

Over the last five games, Tatum is averaging 30 points on 59% shooting, including 55.3% from 3. He’s also 96.3% from the line, giving him a true shooting percentage of 79%

Over the last five games, Brown is averaging 27.4 points on 55.3% shooting, including 43.3% from 3. He’s also 71.4% from the line, giving him a true shooting percentage of 64.4% 

Brown is on fire. Tatum is fire. 

We spent a lot of time earlier in the season watching one of these guys have a good game while the other struggled. They’d flip performances, sometimes, game to game, but didn’t really put together very often. It was so spotty, that I wrote this piece on January 13 lauding the pair for finally giving us a glimpse of what they could be together. It included this ending: 

“For one night, against a Pacers team that is certainly on the verge of being stripped down and sold off, Celtics fans got a preview of what could be. 

Like any preview that looks good, the full movie can still suck, we still don’t know what the final version of this will look like. The Philadelphia 76ers are not the Pacers, regardless of their drama. The Chicago Bulls are even better. 

The preview looked great. It whets our appetites for the feature presentation. It’s up to these guys to continue sticking to the script.”

Well, we’re near the end of the movie and -- spoiler alert -- it gets a lot better. 

This stretch is for all the people who wanted to give up on the pairing and go in a different direction. This is what this team is capable of when they hit their stride. This is a fun ride, and it’s because they're both hitting opponents with both barrels. 

- Time to get Tatum some MVP talk

It’s probably too late to change minds, but it’s not too late to get Tatum’s name pushed into the MVP conversation.

He’s the NBA leading scorer in total points, he’s making his team better, and he has his team 1.5 games out of first in the conference. He checks off all the boxes that an MVP candidate would check. 

He won’t win, but he should be entering the debate.