Celtics beat New Orleans, 104-92

It’s understood that any game without Marcus Smart leaves the Celtics in a lesser state. And with Robert Williams out for personal reasons Monday, and renowned glass-crasher Jonas Valanciunas anchoring the paint for New Orleans, the C’s were clearly at a loss in the brawn category as well.

But in terms of their main problem — frequent bouts of offensive awfulness — there was nothing like an overpowering fourth quarter to produce the team’s fifth win in its last six games, 104-92, over the Pelicans.

Jayson Tatum scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth — 11 of those in a game-breaking 22-7 run — and Dennis Schroder scored 11 of his 23 over the same stretch. Jaylen Brown (23) was the third Celtic to cross the 20-plus barrier.

Schroder — first from downtown and then with a drive in the last 32 seconds of the third quarter — gave the Celtics their first two leads of the game, including a 71-69 edge to close out the third.

Tatum, with 12 points over the first three quarters, immediately took charge, opening the fourth with an 18-footer followed by a spin for a three-point play and a 76-69 lead. He would add a dunk off a steal and floater over Valanciunas in a subsequent 22-7 run that also included five straight points from Aaron Nesmith — his three-point play set up by a Tatum pass off another steal.

The mammoth run covered the first 6:28 of the fourth quarter, and staked the Celtics to a 93-76 lead.

The Celtics covered up a lot of sins — like 10 first half turnovers and 23.8% (5-for-21) 3-point shooting — thanks to closing out the second quarter with a 12-2 run that cut New Orleans’ lead to 46-39. Tatum, with six points, was off to one of his slow starts, this time missing his first four shots, including three 3-point attempts, before contributing four points to the aforementioned run.

The Celtics extended the run to 16-2 with the first four points of the third quarter, and cut the Pelicans lead to two points four times, before the Celtics took the lead twice in the last 32 seconds, first on a Schroder 3-pointer and then a drive by the Celtics guard for a quarter-closing 71-69 lead.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fA3Lt7