BSJ Game Report: Celtics 113, Hornets 103 - Tatum, Pritchard get hot early, C's avoid total collapse

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Charlotte Hornets, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

Jayson Tatum started strong again, scoring 13 first-quarter points to lead Boston to a 14-point lead. It got up to 21 thanks to Payton Pritchard’s 3-point explosion and settled at 18 at the half. The C’s started the third lazily and paid for it by giving up a 17-2 run, but they recovered later in the quarter to salvage an 11-point lead heading into the fourth and Charlotte never truly threatened after that. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- No Grant Williams fallout: So much for double-techs and revenge. The Celtics didn’t target him in any way. There was no jawing at him outside of a sort of stare-down after a Neemias Queta dunk. The only thing we saw was Derrick White pushing Williams out of the way to inbound the ball late in the game. 

Grant might get a flopping fine for that one. 

After the game, Tatum simply said he didn't want to talk about it, they're moving on to Atlanta, and that he’s not trying to make games about himself. 

So that's that. 

- Living at the line: The night after they shot 29-35 from the line, they kept up the attack for a 25-28 night. Their 3-pointers did not fall consistently in Charlotte, but the Celtics, and Tatum, specifically (14-17) were able to make up the difference by getting to the line. The Hornets are very undisciplined. Charles Lee has a lot of work to do there to change things.

- Other guys stepping up: Pritchard, Luke Kornet, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday all big moments and stretches where they carried the offense. The Celtics even ran more than seven minutes of the fourth quarter without Tatum because the lineup that was out there was doing a good enough job holding Charlotte off on their own. 

“I didn't want to stop the momentum,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I thought we were getting stops. I thought we got some offensive rebounds on the offensive end. I liked what we were doing offensively, and knew especially Jayson was coming in to close it for us. And so I just kind of liked the momentum and how we were playing the game.”

TURNING POINT

Holiday and Al Horford ran a simple, yet disciplined two-man game that resulted in an open 3-pointer that stopped Charlotte’s massive 17-2 third-quarter run and triggered a 15-7 response from the Celtics. Once again, clutch shots don’t have to come in the last few minutes of a close game. That 3-pointer was the most important shot of the game.

THINGS I LIKED

- How they started: They looked pretty good out of the gates. Tatum had a huge first quarter and looked good attacking, then Pritchard got super hot in the second to open up a 21-point lead. White sprinkled in some great plays, Kornet was making a contribution … it was pretty methodical Celtics basketball putting up 68 points while holding the Hornets to 24 and 26 points in the first and second. 

- Jayson Tatum (besides his shooting): I’ll get more into this later, but without Jaylen Brown for this game, Tatum was the focus of Charlotte double teams and he picked it apart. I’m surprised he only had three assists, but Boston was bad through most of the third quarter and Tatum sat for a lot of the fourth. I bet his potential assists and secondary assists are pretty high. He did shoot 1-9, though. This is becoming a problem.

- Payton Pritchard: He is NOT shy about shooting, but he’s making a huge impact off the bench. He is making the most out of the added opportunity. 

- Luke Kornet: 19 points on perfect 6-6 shooting and 7-7 from the line. My only issue was some sloppiness on the pick-and-roll. He had two turnovers, but he also fumbled some catches that threw the timing off of some plays. But those also weren’t entirely his fault. I think we saw that cleaned up in the fourth. 

Also, I just have to say that I'm so happy that his stupid "contest" of a shot from 10 feet away is gone. He actually made it all the way out to the 3-point line, blocked a shot, and was rewarded with an and-1 on the other end. That play made me happy. Actually contesting shots, it appears, is better than jumping up in front of the rim.

- Derrick White: He struggled with his shooting, but once again he was there to block shots and make plays. I’ve run out of ways to say White is good. I’m just going to put his name here and write “you know why” from now on. 

- Jrue Holiday: Six assists and a team-high +11. That third-quarter shot was huge. He’s in that White category of giving this team the same kind of consistent effort and execution on most nights. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- The third quarter: They recovered late, but man they stunk out of halftime. It felt like their Gatorade was replaced by Nyquil and they came out groggy and sloppy. Mazzulla called a timeout two minutes into it and Charlotte at only a 5-0 run, but the Hornets came out of it hitting three more 3-pointers to make it a 14-0, and ultimately a 17-2 run. 

- Seriously … NO response to Grant Williams?: I’ll just say that I’m an old man who grew up in a far gone time where transgressions against teammates were handled differently. It doesn’t make it better or worse, it was just a different time. This is not then, and I probably shouldn’t be asking these guys to be what those guys were. That's not where the league is and that's not where players’ heads are. 

But because I have to accept it doesn’t mean I have to like it. I have to be the one to evolve, but evolution can come with growing pains. And it pains me to see this game go by with little more than a shove at the end of the game. Oh well. 

HIGHLIGHTS

FOUR TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Starting double-big shows Mazzulla doesn’t trust his wing depth: The jumbo lineup had its ups and downs, but the biggest thing it showed is that Mazzulla doesn’t trust Jordan Walsh, Jaden Springer, and the rest of those guys at the end of the bench quite yet. He could have moved Sam Hauser into the starting lineup, but Mazzulla knew he needed someone off the bench to keep pace with the Hornets’ second unit. 

Walsh has gotten some minutes, but he’s not where he needs to be yet to be fully trusted early on. And maybe we can argue that he should get opportunities like this regardless so he can learn, but this isn’t exactly the team where young players get extended minutes as teaching tools. Charlotte has that luxury. Boston doesn’t. 

So Mazzulla is going with the guys he trusts and those guys are the bigs. I can’t shake the feeling that Lonnie Walker would have helped make this easier, but they're 6-1 so it’s hard to make a strong argument for spending all that money for one more win in October. 

We’ll see how this plays out. 

- I liked Charles Lee fouling late: I have no issue with a coach of a team like Charlotte trying to get his guys to keep playing hard until the final buzzer. There were teaching moments in there and he’s trying create a winning culture. Opportunities against live opponents don’t come very often, so I think Lee was smart to try to get something useful out of a situation like that.

- Teams can’t double the Celtics, even when they're down guys: 

“The Celtics did a good job of actually just punishing us for, I feel like, a bad rotation or a bad execution of a pick and roll coverage,” Lee said after the game. “They kind of just capitalized on a lot of those opportunities.”

Doubling the Celtics is asking for trouble, even without Brown and Kristaps Porzingis. 

- Boston crowd travels: Grant Williams got booed at home when he was introduced, which is wild. There were loud “Let’s Go Celtics” chants in the building. That was almost like a home game for Boston. 

Next up: The Celtics wrap up their road trip in Atlanta on Monday night.