New year, old Celtics.
Boston headed into Sacramento with a 5-1 record since the NBA Cup gap in the schedule. However, there have been a few areas to clean up. Over the last four games, Boston had lost
four consecutive first quarters by a total of 28 points and before tightening the screws against the Jazz, been a little loose with the ball with uncharacteristically high turnovers. Teams have also had unexpected hot shooting nights vs. the Celtics. Indiana threw up back-to-back 8-of-12 and 7-of-12 first quarters and the Jazz were 11-of-26 on Tuesday night.
Despite Boston losing the opening frame 29-28 and giving up 12-of-26 from behind the arc heading into the fourth tied 88-88, the Celtics closed out the Kings 120-106 to move to 21-12 on the year.
After his nine-game run of 30+ points ended in Utah, Jaylen Brown nearly started another streak, but fouled out with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists. Seven Celtics finished with double figures, including Derrick White’s 16 points and 7 assists and Payton Pritchard’s 16 and 6.
DeMar DeRozan had 25 and former Celtic Dennis Schroeder finished with 18 points and seven assists.
As noted by NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, January is a soft spot of the Celtics’ schedule with the team completing a stretch of seven games against teams under .500 and they’ll wrap up the month and enter February on an eight-game streak against similar opponents including these Kings at TD Garden on the 30th. In a revenge game, Neemias Queta scored 13 with three blocks.
With the NBA trade deadline on February 5th, the next four weeks could really solidify not just Boston’s identity, but their playoff seeding in the Eastern Conference. They’ll wrap up this west coast trip on Saturday against the Clippers before heading back to Boston for a four-game homestand against Chicago, Denver, Toronto, and San Antonio.
