No Jaylen Brown, no problem as Celtics steamroll Hawks to move to 7-1

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Nov 4, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Most NBA teams struggle when their star players are unavailable. The Boston Celtics continue to prove they’re a historically dominant outlier.

Playing without an injured Jaylen Brown for the second consecutive game, Boston bludgeoned the Atlanta Hawks 123-93 on Monday night at State Farm Arena. The win capped a 3-1 road trip for the Celtics, who will carry a 7-1 record into Wednesday night’s wildly anticipated matchup with the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden.

Brown, who’s nursing a hip flexor strain, has missed a total of 14 games since the start of last season, and the Celtics have won all 14, underscoring just how uniquely deep and talented their roster is. They’re also 38-7 during that span without starting center Kristaps Porzingis, who has yet to return from offseason leg surgery.

Jayson Tatum ensured there would be no letdown against the underdog Hawks, pilling up 28 points, nine assists, six rebounds and two steals in arguably his finest performance of the young season. Tatum shot 10 for 21 from the floor and 6 for 14 from 3-point range, and his totals would have been higher had the Celtics not led by 30-plus for most of the second half, resulting in an early hook for Boston’s starters.

Twenty-six of his points came in the first half.

Tatum is sure to be uniquely motivated for Wednesday’s contest after Warriors head coach Steve Kerr infamously glued him to Team USA’s bench for much of the Summer Olympics. Eight games in, he’s certainly looked not just like a player deserving of Olympic minutes, but like a legitimate NBA MVP candidate.

The Celtics’ backcourt trio of starters Derrick White and Jrue Holiday and sixth man Payton Pritchard combined for 47 points and nine made threes. Center Neemias Queta scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds and was a team-best plus-31 in the first start of his NBA career.

All-Star Hawks guard Trae Young managed just two points in 23 minutes on 1-of-10 shooting, snapping his streak of 70 straight games with at least 10 points and five assists.

Tatum, the NBA’s top first-quarter scorer by a country mile this season, delivered another dominant opening frame: 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 4 for 6 from 3-point range. He’s scored at least 13 first-quarter points in six of Boston’s eight games.

The Celtics trailed early in the second quarter, but an 11-0 run fueled by White, Holiday and Pritchard gave them a lead that quickly ballooned to double digits. Holiday and White both blocked shots during that spurt, and Holiday and Pritchard both drained threes, with White assisting on both.

Pritchard, an early favorite for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, entered Monday ranked fifth in the league in made 3-pointers per game (4.1), trailing only Anthony Edwards, Buddy Hield, LaMelo Ball and Jordan Poole. Tatum sat just behind him in sixth (3.9).

Boston led by five when Tatum, who played the entire first quarter, reentered at the 6:29 mark of the second. The Celtics proceeded to score 23 of the next 29 points to take a 75-53 lead into the locker room. They feasted on Atlanta’s 28th-ranked defense and routinely capitalized on Hawks errors, owning a 22-0 edge in fast-break points and a 20-2 advantage in points scored off turnovers before halftime.

The lead swelled to 37 in the second half, and Boston hit the 100-point plateau before the end of the third quarter. Head coach Joe Mazzulla emptied his bench with more than eight minutes remaining, giving ample late-game minutes to Jordan Walsh, JD Davison, Jaden Springer and Baylor Scheierman.

Seven different Celtics players recorded steals in the game, and six blocked shots, with Al Horford notching two of each.

____