Three Studs, One Dud From Celtics’ Cruising Victory Over Clippers
The Boston Celtics found all sorts of rhythm against the Los Angeles Clippers at TD Garden Monday night. When Joe Mazzulla’s team gets hot from three-point range, there’s quite literally no way to stop them, especially when their X-factor is back on the floor.
The Celtics took the early lead with a barrage of outside shooting and never looked back in a 126-94 victory over the Clippers to win their sixth straight contest.
The potential fatigue of a back-to-back clearly didn’t affect Boston as the lineup just kept rolling after Sunday’s tight win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Here are three studs and a dud from the solid win for the Celtics.
STUDS
Kristaps Porzingis
Obviously.
The star center took the floor with the Celtics for the first time since the clinching game of the 2024 NBA Finals, Porzingis made his season debut less than five months after surgery to repair his postseason injuries and his impact showed early.
He made important contributions across the stat sheet in slightly-limited time. He brought the TD Garden crowd to life with a three-pointer to start the scoring for the Celtics.
Porzingis finished with 16 points on 50% shooting in 23 minutes to go with six rebounds, two assists, a steal and two blocks.
Three-point shooting
There’s too many choices, so we’ll tip our cap to the collective team for absolutely cooking from beyond the arc Monday night.
Boston tied an NBA record with 12 made three-pointers in the second quarter. That helped the Celtics set a franchise record with 51 points in the quarter on a purely absurd showing of elite offense from the talented roster. The Celtics had five players drain at least two attempts from deep.
Payton Pritchard
Okay, maybe one three-point shooter stood out.
Pritchard went bag into his bag and showed off some serious range yet again with a few deep daggers in the third quarter. Pritchard reached double figures before the half and tallied six more threes to finish with 20 points.
DUDS
Clippers defense
The Clippers got production did their thing, but the Celtics, who did not see any true lackluster efforts, were simply too dominant Monday night. They turned in a much different result than the statement effort Los Angeles made in January at TD Garden.
Los Angeles had not allowed 100 points in any of their last four games. The Celtics needed just 24 minutes to tally 78 points by the half and consistently got whatever they wanted against Ty Lue’s squad.