Crucial Point
Following the All-Star break on Thursday night, Jayson Tatum and the Celtics didn’t quite look like themselves in the first half. But by the third quarter, things had returned to normal for Boston basketball.
Before JT came out of the gates in the third quarter and left the Bulls wobbling in the Windy City breeze, Chicago restricted Tatum to just five points in the first half and led the C’s, 62-59, at the half.
In the third quarter, Tatum accounted for 15 of Boston’s 37 points, but the defense recovered to limit Chicago to just 21 points.
Tatum scored or assisted on eight of the Celtics’ first ten points as they launched a 10-0 run to start the third quarter. Boston won 69–62 as a result, and it never looked back after that.
The C’s led by as many as 15 points at the end of the quarter, for a difference of 18 points from the half. They won 129–112, their seventh consecutive triumph, and kept practically that exact lead all the way to the finish line.
Durrick White, a vital player, looked like a man who had desperately missed basketball during the All-Star break on Thursday night. In only the first quarter, he scored 12 points and racked up three blocks.
White scored ten points in the last quarter, making it only the first of his two double-digit quarters in the scoring column.
Just two points short of his season high, he finished the game with a game-high 28 points, five assists, three rebounds, three blocks, and two steals.
Box Score Nuggets: Kristaps Porzingis and Dwyane Wade each recorded three blocks, while the Bulls only managed two. Jrue Holiday led the Celtics with six assists. Jrue White led all scorers with 28 points. Boston shot 23 of 47 (48.9 percent) from 3-point range.
The Celtics are only the sixth NBA team in history to record a game with at least 20 three-pointers, 10 blocks, and 10 steals.
Four of Boston’s five offensive rebounds came from Luke Kornet.
With a plus/minus rating of plus-19, Brown was the game’s leader.
Towards the end of the fourth quarter, rookies Jaden Springer and Xavier Tillman both saw action with the Celtics.
“As a team, their basketball IQ is really growing amongst each other,” was the night’s quote.
Joe Mazzulla on the team’s capacity to recover from difficult periods during games
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