After losing three straight games, the Celtics finally got back in the win column tonight against the Hornets 119-103. This one was a blowout after the huge second quarter the Celtics had. They scored 39 points and only allowed Charlotte to score 21. This was the best game the Celtics have played all week obviously. They shot 50% from the field and 33% from deep. The scoring was done mostly by Kyrie Irving who had 25 points, and Jayson Tatum who had 17. Aside from them, Marcus Morris had 12, and Al Horford had 10. The Celtics also played some of their best defense tonight holding the Hornets to 103 points. The Hornets only shot about 43% from the field and 25% from deep. The only Charlotte player that caused the Celtics any problems tonight was Kemba Walker who had 21 points. Three things to take away from tonight are: it’s nice to have Al Horford and Marcus Morris back, Kyrie was red hot, and it seems like the team meeting paid off.
Good to Have Them Back
After missing the last few games with knee problems, both Al Horford and Marcus Morris came back to the lineup tonight against the Hornets. The two of the each made an impact for the Celtics. One significant difference was the team’s rebounding. Morris and Horford combine for a total of 14 rebounds. Over the last few games, the C’s had struggled with rebounding quite a bit. Tonight was a different story. The Celtics outrebounded Charlotte 47-37. The rebounding battle makes a huge difference in games. Just look at the game against Milwaukee. The Bucks turned the ball over 15 more times than the Celtics did and it didn’t matter because they got 19 more rebounds. The extra possessions matter, and it showed tonight. Morris and Horford also had solid nights scoring the basketball. Horford scored 10 points and shot 4-4 from the field. Morris scored 12 of his own making 5 of his 10 shots. Tonight was a good night to get both Morris and Horford ready for Christmas day.
Kyrie Came Out Hot
During the first quarter the Celtics scored 29 points total. Kyrie had 17 of them. If it hadn’t been for Kyrie I think the Celtics could’ve lost tonight. They would’ve fallen behind early without his 17 point first quarter. Irving came out and made his first 6 shots which included 3 threes. Once he drilled two pull up jumpers in a row to start the game, you could tell that he was feeling it. The rest of the shots were all just a result of how locked in he was. Kyrie made a super tough three to beat the buzzer about halfway through the quarter and made it look easy. Kyrie’s hot start kind of overshadowed how good Kemba was to out of the gate too. Walker had 14 first quarter points and was just as hot as Kyrie. Irving finished the game with 25 points and shot 9-12 from the field.
Kyrie’s highlights:
The Team Meeting Paid Off
After the lack luster effort on Friday against Milwaukee, the Celtics held a team meeting. I talked about it a bit earlier in the game preview so I won’t go to far into it. Kyrie said the team had issues with selfishness and a lack of coherence. Tonight was a completely different story. The Hornets actually played a lot of zone defense early on which forced the C’s to move the ball around to get the best possible shot. It’s amazing how perfectly that worked out. It was also helpful to have Horford back because of his presence on the floor. It’s nice to have a big man that can serve as a point guard when needed. As far as selfishness goes, there wasn’t much of it tonight. Boston finished the game with 30 assists on 43 made baskets. I was also able to see a lot more hustle from the team which was great because that was an issue Friday night. There was one possession where the ball just seemed to keep find a different Celtic who was making a hustle play.
The Celtics play the 76ers on Christmas day. This will be the first time they’ll play Philly since the big trade involving Jimmy Butler. They really need to win this one because it could be a playoff match up and there’s a bit of a rivalry there.
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