For the primary time in 210 days, the Celtics had been in a position to trot out their most well-liked beginning 5 Monday night time at TD Backyard.
The consequence: a hero’s welcome for the now-healthy Kristaps Porzingis and a complete beatdown of one of many NBA’s hottest groups.
Boston steamrolled the Los Angeles Clippers 126-94 in Porzingis’ return from offseason leg surgical procedure.
Porzingis performed 22 minutes in his season debut, exhibiting some anticipated indicators of rust however ending with 16 factors, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal. Jayson Tatum led all Boston starters with 20 factors on 7-of-15 taking pictures. Derrick White added 19 factors, seven assists, 4 rebounds and a steal, and Jaylen Brown scored 17, plus six boards, 4 assists, three steals and one block.
White (5-for-9) and bench scorers Payton Pritchard (6-for-10) and Sam Hauser (3-for-3) led one other explosive 3-point effort for the Celtics, who went 22-for-51 (43.1%) from downtown within the win. Pritchard scored 20 factors and grabbed two steals as his NBA Sixth Man of the 12 months marketing campaign continued.
The Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers, house owners of the league’s fourth-best defensive score, got here in using a five-game win streak, throughout which they allowed simply 96.8 factors per sport. The Celtics surpassed that mark earlier than the tip of the third quarter.
Porzingis, who missed Boston’s first 17 video games, waited till 10 minutes into warmups to take the court docket, doing so with a smile on his face and a paper espresso cup in his proper hand. His solo entrance preceded a customized hype video that performed on the Backyard Jumbotron, its remaining shot an all-caps declaration: “HE’S BACK.”
The fan-favorite massive man remained the focal point as soon as the sport tipped off. Porzingis tried 3-pointers on three of the Celtics’ 4 possessions and 4 of their first seven. Although he made simply a type of — after his third miss, he grinned, seemingly acknowledging the affect of his lengthy layoff — he was instantly impactful on the defensive finish.
Earlier than being subbed out for Neemias Queta seven minutes in, Porzingis helped power misses by Ivica Zubac, Amir Coffey and Derrick Jones Jr. with sturdy contests on the rim.
Rim safety was considered one of Boston’s largest areas of concern in Porzingis’ absence — they dropped from fifth-best final season to eighth-worst this season in opponent taking pictures share contained in the restricted space and first to 14th in blocks per sport — so this needed to be a welcome sight for Joe Mazzulla and Co.
Queta, a wholesome DNP in Sunday’s win over Minnesota, blocked two pictures within the first quarter, together with one by James Harden. He had some difficulties towards Zubac, who was LA’s solely constant scorer within the sport (23 factors on 11-of-14 taking pictures, 10 rebounds), however was a stable second possibility with Al Horford (sickness/relaxation) and Luke Kornet (hamstring) each unavailable.
The Celtics led 27-20 after one quarter, then stretched their result in 29 factors within the second by doing what they do greatest: flooding their opponent beneath a tsunami of threes. They went 12-for-17 from deep throughout a cruel 51-point quarter — the third-highest-scoring quarter in franchise historical past and highest since 1970. White hit 4 triples on his personal. Brown and Pritchard made three apiece. Sam Hauser and Vacation every had one.
The 12 made threes tied the NBA document for a single quarter. It additionally equaled the overall variety of threes the Clippers tried in your entire first half. Boston led 78-49 at halftime.
Porzingis didn’t have a hand in that second-quarter 3-point parade, however impacted the sport in a number of different areas. He threw down an acrobatic dunk off a Brown alley-oop, scored on a put-back after a Brown miss, assisted on two made threes, notched one steal and recorded one official block, plus one other because the Clippers’ shot clock expired to power a 24-second violation.
The Celtics went chilly to begin the third quarter, surrendering a 10-0 Clippers run that spanned greater than 4 1/2 minutes. Tatum ended Boston’s scoring drought with a dunk, then Porzingis went to work, manipulating post-ups to attain six straight Celtics factors throughout 4 possessions.
A flurry of threes from Pritchard (two) and Hauser (one) gave Boston some extra respiration room, and regardless of scoring simply 21 factors within the body, it took a 21-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Celtics cruised from there, with the Backyard crowd reaching max quantity after Pritchard slipped previous a Clippers defender and lofted a lob to Porzingis, who slammed it house.
Joe Mazzulla emptied his bench halfway by way of the fourth, giving late minutes to the seldom-used Jaden Springer and Baylor Scheierman. Queta was a power in rubbish time, ending with 12 factors on 5-of-6 taking pictures, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks and two steals.
The Celtics are off till Friday, after they go to the Chicago Bulls of their remaining sport of NBA Cup group play.
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