“Just a bad week at work,” was Jayson Tatum’s summary of the Celtics’ recent struggles following Thursday night’s loss to the LeBron James and Anthony Davis-less Lakers. “Everybody in here got a job. Nobody has great days every day. We’re no different. This is our job. We would love to be perfect. We would love to win every game and make every shot, but it’s just not the case. We’ve gotta be better and look ourselves in the mirror.”
The Celtics took accountability for the “bad week,” and fortunately for them, their opportunity to turn things around came at the beginning of a new week. And they did just that, responding with a dominant 131-91 win over the lowly Memphis Grizzlies. The 40-point win marked their second-largest victory margin of the season.
“I thought we did our job,” Joe Mazzulla said postgame. “The game went how it was supposed to go from the standpoint of I thought we played well, we executed, and we played with the right mindset.”
Much like the Lakers on Thursday night, Memphis was shorthanded. Only the Grizzlies took it to another level. The visitors had 13 (!) players on their injury report. Among those injured was Marcus Smart, who continues to nurse a finger injury. Memphis had just eight available players. Each active player saw at least 23 minutes of action.
Astonishingly, they only had two 15-man roster players available (Luke Kennard and David Roddy), as the visitors played with three players on two-way deals and three on 10-day contracts.
However, unlike Thursday night, the Celtics didn’t mess around and play down to their competition. While Memphis kept things close for the first 18 minutes, the Celtics closed the first half on a 24-6 run, building a 20-point halftime lead and putting things out of reach for a banged-up, inferior Grizzlies team.
“You can’t not appreciate the times where you just come in, do your job, and get out,” Mazzulla said postgame. “I think that’s important.”
As the Celtics cruised to an easy wire-to-wire win, their starters rested the entire fourth quarter, paving the way for 8:33 minutes of Jordan Walsh action for the TD Garden crowd.
“Any chance you can achieve your goal of winning a game, and guys staying healthy, and not having to play significant minutes, I think that helps,” Mazzulla added. “And it saves us a lot of energy to practice on Tuesday.”
With the win, the Celtics, without Jaylen Brown (low back tightness), advanced to 38-12 on the season, including a 23-3 record at home as we hit the 50-game mark.
Here are three takeaways as the Celtics advance to 3-2 on their current seven-game homestand and 11-1 following a loss this season.
No answer for Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis
Approaching the midway point of the third quarter, Roddy attempted to make a cross-court pass to Jacob Gilyard. Tatum saw the pass coming from a mile away, intercepted the ball, and quickly took off in transition with a two-on-one opportunity.
As Gilyard attempted to slow down Tatum, GG Jackson sprinted towards the paint. Tatum created space away from Gilyard with a behind-the-back dribble, and as Gilyard kept running in front of Tatum, the five-time All-Star stopped in his tracks and buried a pull-up three.
It was one of those nights for Tatum.
The triple marked his 29th points of the night. Tatum finished with a game-high 34 points while snagging eight rebounds and dishing out a team-high seven assists in just three-quarters of work.
The hospital Grizzlies had no answers for Tatum, nor did they for Kristaps Porzingis.
Porzingis jumpstarted the Boston run to close the first half, as the big man scored or assisted on six of Boston’s 12 makes in the final six minutes of the first half.
Porzingis finished the night with 26 points, eight rebounds, two assists, a steal, and two blocks.
Tatum and Porzingis had their way with way Memphis all night. To no fault of the Grizzlies, this felt like JV vs. Varsity. Anything short of a blowout against this depleted Memphis team would have been a severe letdown, and Tatum and Porzingis ensured that didn’t happen.
Jordan Walsh scores first career points
On a night Celtics fans had plenty to cheer about, one of the loudest non-Smart applauses came when rookie Jordan Walsh checked in at the 8:33 mark of the fourth quarter.
Those cheers only intensified 30 seconds later, as the 19-year-old scored his first career points on a thunderous two-handed transition dunk, becoming the 503 player in Celtics’ franchise history to score a point.
“I’m taught to run to the corner, so I just sprinted out, and nobody was in front of me, so Oshae [Brissett] kicked it ahead, I caught it, and saw a lane to the rim, and was like ‘Oh yeah, this is the time,’” Walsh said as he recounted the play with a smile hugging the game ball. “It was amazing, for sure.”
The rookie deserves credit. Instead of trying to force more scoring, the former Arkansas Razorback continued to simply play the game the right way.
“I think what stood out was just his growth as a player and understanding the most important thing is defense,” Mazzulla said when discussing Walsh’s selfless play. “I loved his defensive positioning, his defensive physicality, and his instincts. I think that’s gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year.”
Walsh, Boston’s lone draft selection in the 2023 NBA Draft, has built a reputation of being a terrific defender, and that has translated to his time in Maine. Notably, he is also shooting 36.0% from distance in his 16 games in Maine, significantly improving from 27.8% in his lone year in college.
“At the end of the day, you always have to play the right way,” Walsh said postgame. “You’ve always gotta feed your dawgs, I guess you could say. Just knowing that they trust me in that position, to make the right play is the most important thing.”
Marcus Smart returns
“It was just really cool to see. I’m happy for him,” Tatum said on the reception Smart received from fans. “I’m surprised he didn’t cry because that was special.”
Given the charged emotions in the arena on Sunday night, it’s remarkable that Smart didn’t succumb to tears.
The man known by man as the “Heart and soul” of the Celtics made his return to TD Garden for the first time since he was traded last June and was showered with love from fans and former teammates all night.
Smart, who spent nine seasons with the Celtics, received a roaring standing ovation when he emerged from the visitors’ tunnel pregame. Those chants and cheers bellowed throughout TD Garden the entire night.
The former sixth overall pick received a tribute video early in the first quarter, prompting a frenzy of “We love Marcus chants” from the crowd.
Smart, who often provided friendship and a listening ear to kids around the Boston community, was later honored with the “Hero Among Us” award, recognizing his outstanding work within the community throughout his time in Boston.
Smart, one of the most beloved players in recent history, felt love all evening on Sunday, and each cheer was well-earned. Before leaving the court through a tunnel formed by the Celtics’ cheerleaders, Smart took a few more moments to salute the crowd.
“Marcus Smart, he was the fan-favorite,” Tatum said postgame. “Everybody knew that. The way he played, he wore his heart on his sleeve, and every night, he gave it his all. We have some very smart fans, and they saw that. They appreciated that.”
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