Tatum and Payton Pritchard each hit four 3-pointers before the break, sparking the Boston Celtics on a 46-21 run to close out the first half.
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Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum each scored 30 points and the sizzling Boston Celtics stymied reigning MVP Nikola Jokic on their way to routing the Denver Nuggets 124-104 Sunday night. The Celtics shot 57.3% from the floor and finished 19 of 40 from beyond the arc. They also hit all 11 of their free throws. Jokic missed 14 shots in the first half and finished a wildly uncharacteristic 8 for 23 from the floor for 23 points
”Physicality,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. ”He was comfortable early. He had 12 in the first quarter, four in the second and seven the rest of the way. He was too comfortable early, gave him too much air space. It’s mixing up looks, keep him off balance, switching matchups and giving him different bodies.”
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Jokic, who’s having an even better season statistically that he did a year ago, said this loss was on him, not any of his teammates.
”Overall, they had a really good defensive game and I had a really bad offensive game,” said Jokic.
For once, it was Tatum getting serenaded with ”MVP” chants instead of Jokic at Ball Arena.
”It’s a great feeling,” Tatum said. ”You expect that, get that at home, but when you travel and you see all the Celtics jerseys and T-shirts and hoodies and hear them chanting for you on the road, that’s an incredible feeling.”
Tatum and Payton Pritchard each hit four 3-pointers before the break, sparking the Celtics on a 46-21 run to close out the first half. Boston scored its last 15 points of the second quarter on 3-pointers, and Tatum’s half-court heave at the buzzer rimmed out.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone was so disgusted with his team’s effort in its fourth loss in six games that he benched his starters to start the second half.
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”To me, it appeared we just kind of gave in and quit. And I didn’t want to reward that behavior,” Malone said. ”I thought the bench unit was at least going out there and competing and fighting.”
More than anything, Malone said it was alarming to see his starters play that way here in the middle of March with the Nuggets jockeying for playoff positioning. And he couldn’t point to one thing the Celtics did poorly, either.
The Celtics outshot Denver 64.3% to 30.6% in the first half and pushed their lead to 90-62 late in the third quarter in cruising to their third straight victory. The Nuggets’ worst loss this season was by 29 points on Nov. 21 when they were run off the court in Phoenix, 126-97.
