BSJ Game Report: Celtics 129, Blazers 116 - Tatum in total control in win over feisty Blazers

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

The Celtics closed a balanced first quarter strong, led by Jayson Tatum, to take a 10-point lead. They lost it all and then got it all back plus three behind 19 combined from Derrick White and Sam Hauser. Tatum had a monster third quarter but the Blazers hung around to keep it at 12 going into the fourth. The teams went back-and-forth after that with Portland never threatening. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Tatum in total control: He finished with 30 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. It’s his fifth game this season where he’s fallen one stat shy of a triple-double in assists and/or rebounds. He dominated the first half with is passing and the second half was more about his scoring. 

- Big 3-point night: The Celtics hit 23 3-pointers, with Hauser hitting eight, on their way to a 46% shooting night. They're almost impossible to beat if they hit that kind of volume and percentage. 

- Bench contributions: They got 28 from the reserves. And even though Portland’s bench scored 38, Boston’s did enough to keep that number close and not have it be a costly disparity. 

- Five in a row: The Celtics are on their second five-game winning streak of this month, fourth of the season. They’ve won 10 of their last 11 games.

TURNING POINT 

The teams were tied at 43 at the 5:49 mark of the second quarter when Boston went on a 21-8 run to lead by 13 at halftime. The Blazers never quite went away, but they also never got within double digits after that. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Tatum running the offense: He cooked switches. He cooked single coverage. He cooked blitzes. Tatum was in absolute control of this game.  He wasn’t hitting shots early on but he never forced anything. It’s what you expect in a situation like this, but not HOW you expect because he didn’t just try to do everything himself. 

- Tatum working on stuff: He was 4-6 on fadeaway jumpers in this game, all of them in the midrange, mostly around the elbow. He averages less than two per game. So why the six? Call me crazy but I think he’s trying to hone in on those shots because he knows he’ll need that in the playoffs. Those are money shots that should fall at a pretty high rate for him. 

- Derrick White: You know why.

17 points, eight assists, two steals, and a block. He shot 50% from the field, 40% from 3, and he was just plain having fun out there. 

- Sam Hauser: He went 8-10 from 3 to give Boston 24 much-needed points on a night they were without Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, and Kristaps Porzingis. 

- Luke Kornet: He was great. He was a perfect 6-6 for 13 points (he hit one free throw), three of his five rebounds were offensive, and he had three assists. We also got the barking celebration to have some fun along the way.

- Payton Pritchard: He recovered nicely after sitting with three early fouls. He ended up with 16 points, which Boston really needed. The starters combined for 101 points, but it would have been less if Pritchard let the foul trouble get into his head.

- The rest of the bench guys: Baylor Scheierman had a good stretch in the first half, doing a bit of everything. JD Davison’s eight minutes were solid. Torrey Craig played 13 minutes checked in with five points, three rebounds, and an assist. Everyone but Scheierman was a positive +/-, but I thought Scheierman played well.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Payton Pritchard’s early foul trouble: He joked in his walkoff interview that he probably should stay coming off the bench because he committed three fouls in rapid succession. I, like many, was watching for him to have a big night in front of his hometown fans. We can argue that at least one of them was a soft foul, but they were still fouls. It’s a shame because I wanted to see him go off … and not because it was an easy story to write. 

Well, not JUST because of that.

Okay, mostly because of that.

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Welcome to the NBA, Donovan Clingan 

The Celtics tortured this poor kid. They attacked him every chance they got, to the point that Drew Carter flat-out said on the broadcast that Clingan was in hell trying to defend the Celtics. 

This is going to be how every slow-footed big man is going to be attacked by Tatum especially. He is getting so good at it that teams will have no choice but to double him. And once they do that, they're going to get killed by the remaining Celtics. 

Big like this are either going to have to play a deep drop coverage or they won’t be able to play at all. There's no way they can keep up. 

What they did to him was unfair. He’s going to be having nightmares about it for a little while. 

Next up: The Celtics take on Sacramento on a back-to-back tomorrow night at 10.