Celtics cruise to 20-0 at TD Garden
Last week, amid a grueling stretch, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum said he had read that his team had the NBA’s easiest remaining schedule. He then used an expletive to make it clear that it certainly did not feel that way.
On Wednesday, however, Boston got a rare respite when Victor Wembanyama and the seven-win Spurs came to TD Garden.
Boston fans saw Wembanyama make a few plays that showed why he is the most hyped prospect since LeBron James, and they also watched their team roll to a 117-98 win.
“This is the part of the regular season you’ve got to embrace, because you get complacent and you can get mentally checked out,” forward Jaylen Brown said. “But we’re trying to make sure that we’re all engaged. This is where you build your endurance for long playoff drives . . . We’re going to just keep stacking our wins.”
This win extended the Celtics’ franchise-record home start to 20-0. Afterward, coach Joe Mazzulla said he was unaware that the 1985-86 Celtics went 40-1 at home, but he made it clear that this team does not intend to burn energy trying to top that record.
Wednesday also marked the season’s midway point. Although there have been a few minor bumps, it’s hard to take issue with Boston’s NBA-best 32-9 mark. But Mazzulla knows there is value in finding blemishes.
“Just live in the healthy space of, ‘We’re really good, but let’s be picky. Let’s be hard on ourselves about the details,’ ” he said.
There wasn’t much to be picky about Wednesday, when the Celtics cruised despite the absences of Kristaps Porzingis (knee) and Derrick White (ankle).
Mazzulla continues to harp on the
importance of holding opponents to 25 points or fewer in each quarter, so he could have dissected the third period Wednesday, when the Spurs scored 33 and briefly sliced a 30-point deficit in half.
But he was pleased with how the Celtics’ fourth quarter response, when they held the Spurs to 20 points.
“The trick isn’t to get caught up in trying to prevent [a bad quarter],” Mazzulla said. “I know that . . . The trick is, when it does happen, quickly get yourself out of it. So if we were to follow up the third quarter with another [bad] fourth quarter, that’s a problem.”
Tatum had 24 points for Boston, and Jrue Holiday drilled 6 of 7 3-pointers and finished with 22. The Celtics made 18 of 38 3-pointers, but the final miss was the toughest for fans to swallow.
Rookie forward Jordan Walsh received a loud ovation when he made his Celtics debut with three minutes left in the fourth quarter and the game in hand. The crowd roared after each of his four rebounds and urged him to shoot whenever he caught the ball on Boston’s side of the court. But his attempt from the left arc with 47 seconds left was off.
The night was a thrill for him anyway. “Amazing, for sure,” Walsh said. “I’m never going to forget that. Wish I would’ve made the shot, though. But yeah, it was definitely a good feeling being out there.”
Wembanyama had 27 points in just 27 minutes to pace the Spurs. The 7foot-4 rookie remains a curiosity, and this season fans around the NBA are taking their turns getting their first glimpses. He showed flashes of what the hype is about during his five-minute first-quarter stint, when he rolled to the rim for an alley-oop before hitting a pair of 3-pointers.
But within these highlights were moments in which he looked inexperienced and physically overmatched.
He awkwardly lost the ball on one drive against the sturdy Al Horford and coughed up a turnover soon after. During the second quarter he flopped trying to draw a charge against Neemias Queta (6 points, 8 rebounds) and surrendered a dunk. Then he coughed up the ball inside, leading to a Payton Pritchard 3pointer at the other end.
Nevertheless, in the first half he had 14 points on 6 of 11 shooting, in just 12 minutes. And in the third quarter he extended his arm like it was a firehouse ladder and dropped in a dunk over Luke Kornet, eliciting some oohs.
“He’s fun to play against,” Holiday said. “He’s an anomaly.”
After connecting on 4 of 6 tries in Boston’s win over the Raptors on Monday, Holiday smiled and admitted he has been left open this season more than ever, with opponents forced into seemingly impossible choices by the Celtics’ array of weapons.
Even with Porzingis and White out Wednesday, Holiday found space to be damaging, draining his first five 3-pointers to help stake Boston to its 70-45 halftime lead.
The Spurs trailed by 30 early in the third before their 23-6 run that pulled them within 81-68. But the Celtics’ 11-2 run at the start of the fourth ensured that there would be nothing to worry about.