The Celtics rode a dominant second half to their 60th victory of the season Friday night, blowing out the Charlotte Hornets 130-94 at TD Garden.
Derrick White led all Celtics starters with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go along with seven assists, three rebounds and four blocks. Jayson Tatum finished with 16 points, eight assists and eight rebounds.
Al Horford notched his sixth double-double since the start of February (13 points, 11 rebounds), and Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser combined for 42 points off the bench, teaming up to go 16-for-23 from the field and 10-for-14 from 3-point range.
Boston, which is locked into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, will host Charlotte again Sunday afternoon to close out the regular season.
“I think we’re playing the right way and kind of hitting our stride at the right time,” White said. “We’ve all been here before and understand what the playoffs take, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ve just got to be mentally prepared for whatever it takes.”
Jaylen Brown missed his second straight game with a lingering knee injury, but the Celtics had the rest of their regulars available for likely was their final tune-up before the postseason. The Hornets, who own the NBA’s third-worst record, were missing several of their top players, including leading scorers LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges. (Ball and Miller are out for the season, and Bridges sat out with a hip injury.)
Despite that talent disparity, the game was tied at 25-25 after one quarter, mainly because Boston shot 38.5% and 28.6% from three in the opening frame. White was Boston’s most impactful player in the first, tallying nine points, two blocks and two steals. He played the role of Tatum in that sense – a fitting development after the two chose to swap in-game wardrobe styles, with White sporting Tatum’s signature arm band and one-legged tights.
“Since we probably won’t play next game, (White) said at shootaround this morning (that) we should do a headband game,” Tatum explained. “Somebody, one of the trainers, may have mentioned if D-White, like, dressed like me during the game. So it was kind of like their idea, and I just agreed to it and ran with it.”
In a departure from his usual rotation, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla kept his starters on the floor for 10 straight minutes to open the game, with Tatum and Jrue Holiday both playing the entire quarter.
The Celtics fell into a seven-point hole early in the second but recovered to take a 54-53 lead into halftime. Horford went wire-to-wire in the quarter, hitting three 3-pointers and grabbing a steal to add to his first-quarter block. Pritchard added eight points and two threes in the second, and Kristaps Porzingis, after missing nine of his first 10 field-goal attempts, canned a triple off a feed from Tatum to put Boston ahead late in the half.
That proved to be Porzingis’ final field goal of the night. The big man did not emerge from the locker room after halftime, with Luke Kornet replacing him in the starting lineup. The Celtics did not announce any injury for Porzingis, suggesting he was removed for rest purposes.
“He’s good,” Mazzulla said. “Perfectly fine.”
The Celtics finally asserted themselves after the break, scoring on six of their first seven second-half possessions to open up a double-digit lead. Four different Boston players scored during that flurry, including two threes by Tatum, who picked up what he called a “bull—-” technical foul late in the first half for arguing with officials. Hauser attempted three 3-pointers in the quarter and made all of them, continuing his strong second half of the season.
White, Tatum and Pritchard – all of whom recently broke Isaiah Thomas’ single-season franchise record for 3-point makes – became the first trio of NBA teammates to all top 250 made threes in the same season.
As a team, the Celtics went 6-for-8 from deep in the third quarter – during which they outscored the Hornets by 15 points – and led 91-75 entering the fourth.
The third was another heavy-usage quarter for Boston’s starters, with Tatum, White and Holiday all playing all 12 minutes. Mazzulla shut down his top dogs after that, opening the fourth with a lineup of Pritchard, Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, Torrey Craig and Neemias Queta. That group stretched the Celtics’ lead to 122-90 before Jordan Walsh, JD Davison and Drew Peterson checked in for mop-up duty.
Craig, who, at 34, is by far the oldest of the Celtics’ deep reserves, had five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a transition dunk. Mazzulla appreciated his effort and energy.
“He doesn’t care; he just wants to play,” the Celtics coach said. “And I appreciate watching a guy who, regardless of the score, just plays at the level that he plays at and constantly works. He’s been doing it a long time, and for him to be out there the whole fourth quarter, I thought he set the tone with starting the quarter off with a turnover. To me, that means just as much to me as what any of the other guys do – just his professionalism and his competitiveness.”
Craig’s dunk also earned him an in-game high-five from his young son, Braylon, who watched from the Celtics bench alongside Tatum’s son, Deuce.
Davison, the 6-foot-1 guard who earned MVP honors in the G League this season, drew a late cheer from the departing crowd when he elevated for an emphatic dunk.
The second-half scoreline: Celtics 76, Hornets 41.
As the game concluded, the Celtics gained some clarity about their first-round playoff matchup. The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Philadelphia 76ers to clinch the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, setting up a meeting with the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic in the NBA Play-In Tournament. The winner of that game, which is set for Tuesday in Orlando, will advance to face Boston, with the loser playing the winner of the 9-vs.-10 game for the right to take on the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Hawks were the only road team to take multiple games at TD Garden this season, winning 117-116 on Nov. 12 and 119-115 in overtime on Jan. 18. The Celtics blew them out in Atlanta 123-93 on Nov. 4. The Magic also went 2-1 against Boston this season, though one of those victories came against the Celtics’ backups on Wednesday.
“With one game left in the season, I can say that everybody has felt valued, everybody has played a part in our success this season, everybody understands the common goal that we share,” Tatum said. “We know who we are. We know who we are individually. We know what we bring to this team to make it what it is. And we have so much fun doing what we do. You realize when you’re on special teams and you’re with special guys, you just try to cherish those moments. The season goes by fast, but it’s been fun so far.”
The real fun? That begins next weekend when the postseason tips off and the Celtics look to complete their quest to become the NBA’s first repeat champion since 2018.
“That’s really when the season starts, and that’s what we all love to play in,” White said. “It’s going to be fun.”
Originally Published: April 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM EDT