BOSTON — As well as they have played for most of the season, the Celtics have proven susceptible to losses to inferior opponents. They’ve lost to the Magic three times. More recently, they lost to the Rockets, the worst team in the Western Conference. Those defeats may be pivotal in the race for the No. 1 seed.
But in returning home for the stretch run of the regular season, the Celtics have seemed to turn on their focus. They took care of business over the Pacers in their first game after a long road trip, which is routinely a more challenging game than lets on. On Sunday, they didn’t have Jayson Tatum, but that was hardly an excuse against the lottery-bound Spurs.
After falling behind early, the Celtics went on a run and never looked back. Jaylen Brown scored 41 points with 13 rebounds, Malcolm Brogdon had 20 points and nine assists and Derrick White had 19 points on four 3-points against his former team. Not even another Marcus Smart ejection could rattle the Celtics as they cruised to an easy 137-93 victory over the Spurs for one of their most dominant wins of the season.
The Celtics – who won their third consecutive game and seventh in their last nine – moved within 1.5 games of the first-place Bucks, who lost at Denver on Saturday night. Boston has seven regular-season games left, with a head-to-head meeting at Milwaukee looming this Thursday that will break the tiebreaker between the East’s top two teams.
Sunday’s rout was rarely in doubt. The Celtics went on 13-2 and 11-0 runs in the second quarter to build a double-digit lead, and went into another gear in the second half behind another strong defensive display and efficient shooting, specifically from Brown. The All-Star went just 2-for-10 from behind the 3-point line, but the Spurs never had an answer for him inside. Brown got whatever he wanted as he went 16-for-21 from inside the arc.
Brown hit a turnaround jumper with 6:45 to play to give him 41 points – his third 40-point game of the season – and immediately headed to the bench to finish his night. He was given a standing ovation from the TD Garden after one of his best performances of the season.
With their starters pulled, the Celtics pushed their lead to as large as 47 late in the fourth.
Other takeaways from the game:
– After a slow start, the Celtics found themselves in an eight-point hole early in the second quarter but turned it around thanks to the steady play of Brogdon, who returned after a one-game absence. With the C’s down four, the guard made a point to attack the basket and drew three fouls as he scored five consecutive points from the free-throw line. After Derrick White gave the Celtics a lead with a layup, Brogdon’s putback bucket capped a 13-2 Boston run.
The C’s briefly lost the lead but regained their footing by getting stops defensively and translating those into transition buckets. They seized control with an 11-0 run, which was capped with an exclamation point in transition as Brogdon found Brown, who soared for an impressive one-handed dunk with his right hand.
– On one sequence late in the first quarter, Brown seemed to get knocked in the face while handling the ball. He went to readjust his mask – which he’s still wearing after suffering a facial fracture last month – and he unexpectedly got the ball back on a pass from Brogdon and fired up a 3-pointer that missed. But Brown stayed in the game and didn’t look affected. He powered the Celtics in the first half with 26 points, matching his career high for a first half.
– Smart was ejected for the second time in the matter of weeks after picking up two technical fouls late in the third quarter. He received his first with 2:58 remaining in the period before getting his second with 1:14 left. It was immediately unclear why he was ejected. After being ejected, Smart claimed innocence as he walked off the court, appearing to say, “I didn’t do nothing,” to his Celtics teammates.
