Jayson Tatum scored 34 points with nine assists and eight rebounds in just 29 minutes as the Boston Celtics demolished the Charlotte Hornets 119-80 on Friday night in Charlotte. The win was Boston’s seventh in its last eight games and moved the Celtics to 2-0 in NBA Cup group play, as the Associated Press recap on theScore reported.
There was no slow build and no late drama. Boston scored 40 points in the first quarter, led by 31 at halftime, and spent the second half protecting a margin that mattered for NBA Cup tiebreakers while its starters watched the closing minutes from the bench.
Join The iimiTV Letter
Enter your email and we will send you a confirmation link. Click it and your first edition lands on Friday.
Over inside one quarter
Tatum erupted for 18 points in the first quarter on three 3-pointers, and Derrick White added 10 points in the period as the Celtics bolted to a 40-20 lead, making 9 of 17 shots from beyond the arc in the opening 12 minutes, according to the AP game recap. The quarter lines never recovered for the home team: Boston won every period on the way to the 119-80 final, with the linescore reading 40, 30, 26 and 23 for the Celtics against 20, 19, 18 and 23 for Charlotte.
Charlotte could not do anything right in response. The Hornets shot 28 percent from the field in the first half while turning the ball over eight times, and by halftime Boston had made 17 of its 31 three point attempts to build the 31 point lead. Tatum stayed in until the final minute of the third quarter with Boston up 42, because point differential is a real currency in NBA Cup group play, and he drew loud MVP chants from a crowd that had plenty of Celtics fans in it before a basket was waved off on a floor foul ruling late in his night.
Depth, shooting and a star still climbing back
White finished with 18 points as Boston’s second scorer, and the team numbers explain the rout as much as Tatum’s line does. The Celtics made 24 of 44 three point shots, 55 percent from deep, and piled up 33 assists, ball movement that Charlotte never found an answer for at any point in the game, as NBC Sports Boston’s recap documented. Tatum’s own efficiency was just as clean: 9 of 16 from the field, 5 of 8 from three point range, a perfect 11 of 11 at the free throw line, and a plus-36 mark in his 29 minutes.
The context behind the performance matters. Tatum returned from a torn Achilles tendon on March 6 of last season, and nights like this are the marker of how far the comeback has travelled. Asked after the game whether this is the best he has ever felt, he was not ready to say so.
“Hell no… We’re gonna get there, though.”
That answer, reported by NBC Sports Boston, is the scariest part of the night for the rest of the Eastern Conference. Boston is 7-2, second in the East, and its best player is producing 34, 9 and 8 in 29 minutes while insisting his peak is still ahead of him. Head coach Joe Mazzulla, caught in a lighter moment after calling a timeout, offered his own one line summary of the evening’s mood.
“I’m just trying to channel my anger into love.”
A night to forget for Charlotte
Almost nothing went right for the Hornets. Naz Reid led Charlotte with 14 points, and the Hornets have now lost six straight games to fall to 3-7 overall and 0-2 in NBA Cup play. Brandon Miller scored eight points on 3 of 10 shooting before leaving the game in the second quarter with right groin soreness and not returning, under relentless Boston pressure that clearly frustrated him in the first half.
Charlotte was also missing two starters before the game began. Kon Knueppel, last season’s rookie of the year runner up, was out after reinjuring his hamstring on Wednesday night at Brooklyn in what was his first game of the season, and coach Charles Lee offered no timetable for his return. Moussa Diabate was also unavailable. Reid’s place in the story goes back further: Charlotte’s biggest offseason acquisition was benched by Lee in the second half of a game against Detroit for not meeting team standards, and the losing streak has run alongside that decision ever since.
What the rout means
NBA Cup margins are not cosmetic. Boston padded its point differential while Tatum was still on the floor in the third quarter, led by as many as 46 points, and finished with a 39 point win that strengthens its position as the lone 2-0 team in East Group C, a group that also includes Atlanta and Washington. Seven wins in eight games have the Celtics looking like the conference’s form team in the season’s third week.
The schedule keeps moving. Boston travels to Milwaukee on Sunday night, while Charlotte hosts Cleveland on Monday night, and the Hornets will carry a six game losing streak and a growing injury list into that one. For one Friday night in Charlotte, though, the story was simple: the Celtics shot the lights out early, their star ran the game in under 30 minutes, and the home team never once made it a contest.
