Boston Celtics
“I knew I was going to get a nice ovation,” Kristaps Porzingis said. “I had a great time here, a great couple of years. I know the fans have appreciated me and it was good to be back here, honestly.”
Jaylen Brown celebrates after hitting a 3-pointer against the Warriors in the Celtics’ win. AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were far too much for the Warriors to deal with on Wednesday, as the Celtics kept Golden State at arm’s length for a 120-99 victory.
Here are the takeaways:
The Jays appear to be back
The Celtics have given fans plenty of reason to dream all year, but Wednesday’s game was enticing.
For one thing, there was Jayson Tatum — freshly back from his injury and already looking like a star. He isn’t entirely himself, but he’s shifty, and he’s incredibly skilled. He’s defending and rebounding at a high level. He’s collapsing the defense and kicking to 3-point shooters when multiple defenders swarm him. He’s swooping around defenders and finishing at the rim with his absurdly long arms. He doesn’t need his full explosiveness to be one of the best players in the NBA, capable of putting up 24 efficient points on 7-for-15 shooting to go with 10 rebounds.
“He looks good, honestly,” Tatum’s former teammate Kristaps Porzingis said. “Shot was falling already. He looked like he’s not rusty at all. He just looked a little heavy. I told him you need to lose a couple pounds and he’ll be flying again.”
For another thing, there was Jaylen Brown, for whom well-deserved MVP chants stormed down when he stepped to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Brown is unlikely to win the award, but you can see why Celtics fans think the conversation is warranted when he scores 19 points in the first quarter, beating the overmatched Warriors over the head with his otherworldly bag of offensive tricks.
“You don’t take for granted being able to coach some of the best players in the game today, but some of the best players of all time,” Joe Mazzulla said. “So gratitude on my part, just being able to watch that.
“For Jaylen, I think the responsibility and the ownership of taking on being a Celtic, and going after greatness is extremely important and something that he takes very seriously.”
Brown finished with 32 points on 11-for-20 shooting with six rebounds and five assists. He passed Jo Jo White and Dave Cowens on the Celtics’ list of all-time scorers on Wednesday. Tatum and Brown are now ninth and 10th on that list respectively.
“I’m very grateful,” Brown said. “A lot of legends on that list who made big contributions to the Celtics, but also to the game of basketball. So I’m very humbled and very grateful to be in the position I’m in.”
So how excited should fans be? The Celtics still have 13 games left, which gives Tatum plenty of runway to ramp up, and Brown plenty of time to rest before games start to really matter. They are beating teams that they should beat — like the Warriors sans Steph Curry — with ease. They grinded out a big win against the Suns earlier this week. They looked highly competitive in short-handed contests against the Thunder and Spurs last week.
This Celtics team has given fans every reason to believe, especially given that in March, we can write things like, “Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum led the Celtics to a comfortable win” when it wasn’t clear in November whether that sentence would materialize this season.
Jaylen Brown is leading in … his own way
Prior to the game, Mazzulla said he has seen Brown taking on a greater role as a leader this season — speaking up more in film sessions and practices, and interacting with players in unique ways.
When he was asked about it postgame, Brown said he has been using astrology to improve his communication with his teammates.
“Neemi, he’s Year of the Rabbit,” Brown said, referencing the Chinese Zodiac. “So his communication is different from [Derrick] White. D-White is Year of the Dog, so his communication style is different.
“Hugo is also a dog. Payton is a tiger. JT is a tiger. Ron is a dragon. Joe’s a dragon. Nikola, he’s new to our team, he’s Year of the Horse. It’s Year of the Horse right now.”
Brown added that he also takes numerology into account, referencing the study of how numbers relate to letters in words or names.
“Numerology is a lot more telling, I think, than anything else, because numbers don’t lie,” Brown said. “We’ve got a bunch of analytics guys here, which frustrates me at times, but numerology definitely is very telling.”
Kristaps Porzingis returned to TD Garden
After being dealt to the Hawks as part of a salary dump, Porzingis was eventually traded again to the Warriors, with whom he has played in five of the last seven games.
Porzingis made two 3-pointers on Wednesday, but he was largely a non-factor on the floor.
He did, however, receive a very nice tribute video, which highlighted a number of his most memorable moments, including the time he split his forehead open and came out with a giant bandage on his head as well as some of his highlights from the Celtics’ run to the title in 2024.
“I knew I was going to get a nice ovation,” Porzingis said. “I had a great time here, a great couple of years. I know the fans have appreciated me and it was good to be back here, honestly.”
Porzingis was also well-received by his old teammates — he and Jaylen shadow boxed postgame, and he embraced everyone he played with on the championship team.
“I miss the big fella,” Tatum said. “Happy to see him healthy, happy to see him out there playing. It was cool to see the reception that he got tonight and his tribute video. It wasn’t that long ago, but those were some good times, and we had some good moments.
“He’ll forever be a Celtic and be remembered for those two years, and obviously being a big piece of why we won a championship. So it was cool.”
Porzingis, meanwhile, has high expectations of his old teammates.
“Honestly they already have this DNA, championship, so they have to go for it,” he said. “I don’t think they need to put any limit, with those two guys leading them. They have all the possibilities again.
“Of course, maybe it’s not the same team, but still they have a strong team and they’re in a situation now where nobody really expects them, maybe, to do all that. So it’s even better for them.”
Payton Pritchard is … pretty skilled
We probably don’t talk enough about how purely skilled Pritchard is, but it’s pretty absurd that there’s a player who — listed generously at 6-foot-1 — can burrow a 7-foot opponent back into the paint, then rise and shoot short jumpers (not easy shots!) over him, especially when that same player can then casually bury a 30-foot 3-pointer just moments later.
Pritchard finished with 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting and seven assists.
Robert Parish thinks the 1986 Celtics would beat the 2026 Celtics
The Hall-of-Fame center returned to TD Garden as part of a promotional tour for “The Chief,” his new memoir.
Parish — who said he is “not as anti-people as I used to be” in a conversation with reporters — is impressed with this iteration of the Celtics, although he said he has not met Mazzulla.
“Those guys seem to stay ready, one through 13,” Parish said. “Everybody comes in and contributes and there’s no drop off when the bench comes into the game. And I like and respect that.”
Parish, however, believes the 1986 Celtics would win for one reason: Bill Walton.
“The NBA did not have an answer for Bill Walton,” Parish said. “That’s why we were successful (with) that ‘86 team, and that’s why we are considered one of the all-time best teams. Bill Walton made the difference. No doubt. Hands down. Because today’s Celtics, they could do nothing with William. Not a thing.”
Charles Bassey made his debut
Bassey impressed with the Celtics during Summer League, and while his signing on Sunday presumably had more to do with the fact that the Celtics needed to employ at least 14 players as of March 15th than because they have big plans for him, Bassey did make his debut against the Warriors in the closing minutes, and he scored his first two points on a goaltend.
Bassey also grabbed a rebound in his 2:14 of action.
What’s next
The Celtics will travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies on Friday before returning home to host the Timberwolves on Saturday.
They will get another crack at the Thunder on Wednesday at TD Garden.
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