Birthday Boy, Tatum Leads Celtics to Statement Victory over Grizzlies
Thursday, March 4th 7:30 pm EST
Ja Morant and the red-hot Grizzlies came into Boston on Thursday night as one of the league’s best stories, but the Celtics put a bookmark in that story in a big way. Memphis has been a pleasant surprise all season, entering the night at 43-20, 3rd place in the West and just half a game behind the Warriors for 2nd. The depth and chemistry of this team have been incredible to watch, but the key to their success has undoubtedly been third year superstar, Ja Morant. Morant has lifted his game to a point where he is in the MVP conversation and his nightly highlight reel has been must-watch night in and night out. There aren’t many players in the league as popular as Ja right now, and he’s certainly putting yet another dent into any narrative about stars not being able to shine without a big market, and he’s got Memphis dreaming of contending for a title. But on this night, the Celtics rose to the challenge and looked like the title contenders from start to finish, winning 120-107 inside the Garden.
If there has been any knock on the Celtics during their recent run of success it’s been that their wins have mostly come against bad teams, or teams missing key players. So it was nice to see the Celts add a feather to their cap with a convincing win against one of the NBA’s best teams. Memphis came into Boston on two full days of rest, and coming off back to back wins that each saw Ja set a new career high in points. Last time out against the Spurs he set the Grizzlies franchise record for points with 52. The Celtics came into this one without one of their stars, as Jaylen Brown missed the game after spraining his ankle Tuesday night. Luckily it appears the injury isn’t too serious however, and Ime Udoka said there is hope that he will be able to play Sunday vs. the Nets.
In Tuesday’s big second half comeback win against the Hawks, Udoka inserted Aaron Nesmith into the second half starting lineup for the injured Brown. That seemed to work wonders, providing energy with the starters, while also keeping the bench rotations in tact. Udoka decided he liked the results enough to keep that starting lineup in place for Thursday. However, it was short lived, and for the second straight game the Celtics lost their starting shooting guard to a sprained ankle early in the 1st quarter. Nesmith was quickly ruled out and will likely miss some time. This left the already-thin Celtics with limited options and Udoka decided to go with an unconventional - but ultimately successful - triple big lineup with Tatum at 2, and Grant Williams, Al Horford, and Rob Williams alongside Marcus Smart. Boston was able to smother Memphis in the first half with size, strength, and physicality. They repeatedly bullied the Grizzlies into tough shots, holding them to 45 points and Morant to only 8. Unfortunately, the Celtics were very sloppy with the ball and let the Grizzlies get out in transition and stay in the game with fast breaks, especially at the end of the second quarter. Despite outplaying the Grizzlies for almost the entire half, the Celtics only held a two point lead, 47-45.
The first half didn’t provide the fireworks that many had been anticipating (other than an absurd left handed alley oop throwdown by Morant), but that all changed in the second half, as both offenses, and both superstars came to life. For the second straight game, the Celtics came out of the locker room looking like a team possessed, starting with a 10-2 run to push the lead to double digits and they would never look back. Ja Morant came alive, scoring 16 in the 3rd quarter and single handedly keeping the Grizzlies from getting run out of the building while the Celtics caught fire on offense.
The Grizzlies wouldn’t quit, and made a push in the 4th quarter, crawling back to within 7, but the 4th belonged to the birthday boy, Jayson Tatum. On his 24th birthday, the young stud played one of the best 4th quarters of his career. He scored 21 points in the grame, showcasing almost every trick in his bag, countering every punch from the Griz, and ultimately providing the kill shot to cap off one of the best wins of the season. For a stretch in the fourth it seemed like Tatum and Morant were going back and forth one-upping each other, locked in a sort of mano a mano. It was truly special to watch and felt like we were watching the first of many battles between two of the league’s brightest stars. After his slow start, Morant still finished with 38, despite being pretty well defended by the Celts. It’s a testament to how unstoppable he has become lately. But the glory belonged to Tatum who carried the Celtics to the finish line with 37/6/5. He was constantly double teamed all night long and it didn’t matter, as he made the right play almost every time.
Other than Tatum’s heroics, it was a great team effort by the home squad. Al Horford had one of his best games in years, looking full of energy and playing inspired basketball on both ends, finishing with 21/15/5 and 2 blocks. Marcus Smart continued his ascension as a point guard, notching a career high 12 assists to go along with 18 points and his normally stellar defense. Rob Williams had 10 points, 12 boards, 3 blocks, and 3 steals and Grant Williams buried all 3 of his 3 point attempts (he’s still second in the NBA in three point shooting %). Derrick White was solid off the bench, adding 12 points and finally hit a couple of 3s, but he left the game late and didn’t return with what was deemed a “stinger” on his elbow. He should be good to go for Sunday.
It’s almost hard to believe this is the same Celtics team we watched collapse over and over again down the stretch of close games for the first half of the season, but here we are, looking cool, calm, and collected, putting up 37 points in the 4th and comfortably toppling one of the league’s best team without Jaylen Brown. Ime Udoka obviously deserves a ton of credit for the job he has done with this team in his first year, and he received some as he was named the Eastern Conference coach of the month for February on Thursday prior to the game.
With the win, the Celts have now won 4 out of 5 since the break and 13 out of 15 overall and continue to surge up the East standings. They’ve officially moved into the 5 seed, passing the idle Cavaliers by percentage points, and move to within a meager 2 games of the 2 seed. This was supposed to be a tough week for the Celtics, but so far they’ve been up to the task, winning convincingly and impressively over two of the league’s best offenses. Next up, could be the toughest challenge yet, as the Celtics welcome the Brooklyn Nets to town on Sunday. Kevin Durant made his return to action on Thursday night (in a loss to the Heat), and the Celts will likely see the KD/Kyrie duo for the first time in a long time. So far the Celtics have been able to pass the tests, now it’s time to see how they stack up against the Eastern Conference favorites.
Ben Handler