Hornets players available Monday:
Theo Maledon
Kelly Oubre
Jalen McDaniels
PJ Washington
Mason Plumlee
James Bouknight
Nick Richards
Kai Jones
Bryce McGowens
This game was absolute craytown, with the Hornets missing Rozier, Ball, Hayward, and Bridges.
Of course, the Celtics were without Brown, Horford, and (of course) Rob. Blake! started, picked up a couple of quick fouls, and Mazzulla pretty much just left him in. Made a couple of hustle plays keepung rebounds alive and hit a wide open three to open the game.
The Celtics went crazy in the first running out to an 43-16 lead with 2:40 left. Then they started fucking around and trying all sorts of fancy passes none of which worked. They were trying to be the Globetrotters but ended up more like the Washington Generals. They wound up with 6 turnovers in the first, most at the end of the quarter, but, incredibly, Charlotte could not take advantage. At the end of one, it was 45-19.
Boston, with mostly bench players on the floor, did not play that well at the start of the second, with Charlotte eventually cutting the lead to 19 by outscoring the Celtics 14-9 in the first 3.5 minutes. The Celtics finally got it going about halfway through the quarter, with the catalyst being, unbelievably, a one-handed alley-oop dunk by Blake!, who managed to get way above the rim somehow. Charlotte outscored the Celtics 36-33 in the second, but the Celtics were up 78-55. Despite 10 turnovers in the half.
The third quarter was all Boston, Celtics winning the quarter 43-27 to up their lead to 121-82. Tatum missed a driving layup at the end or it would have set the Celtic record for points through three quarters; only twice in all of Celtic history have the Celtics scored more than 120 through three. Tatum and Smart were done for the night after 3, Tatum with 35 points, Smart with 22 and a career high 15 assists.
The fourth quarter was mostly bench guys, though Blake! (who had a second less impressive dunk later in the game), White and Grant got a few minutes in the 4th. Charlotte outscored the bench unit 23-19 but that did not change much.
As a team, the Celtics shot 59%, but they were at about 68% through three quarters. They had 40 assists. They shot 24-52 from three.
Hauser had a pair of blocks along with his more typical 11 points on 3-6 from three kind of game.
Just crazy.
Edit: Just so no one thinks I am making this up:
View: https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1597401409552404480?s=20&t=7Y_zZcOCqP37JIBAoZyRSg
Boston Celtics:
Do ya thing 91