missed his second straight game<\/a> 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\u2019s 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.)<\/p>\nDespite 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\u2019s most impactful player in the first, tallying nine points, two blocks and two steals. He played the role of Tatum in that sense \u2013 a fitting development after the two chose to swap in-game wardrobe styles, with White sporting Tatum\u2019s signature arm band and one-legged tights.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we probably won\u2019t play next game, (White) said at shootaround this morning (that) we should do a headband game,\u201d Tatum explained. \u201cSomebody, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That proved to be Porzingis\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s good,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cPerfectly fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cbull\u2014-\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
White, Tatum and Pritchard \u2013 all of whom recently broke Isaiah Thomas\u2019 single-season franchise record for 3-point makes \u2013 became the first trio of NBA teammates to all top 250 made threes in the same season.<\/p>\n
As a team, the Celtics went 6-for-8 from deep in the third quarter \u2013 during which they outscored the Hornets by 15 points \u2013 and led 91-75 entering the fourth.<\/p>\n
The third was another heavy-usage quarter for Boston\u2019s 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\u2019 lead to 122-90 before Jordan Walsh, JD Davison and Drew Peterson checked in for mop-up duty.<\/p>\n
Craig, who, at 34, is by far the oldest of the Celtics\u2019 deep reserves, had five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a transition dunk. Mazzulla appreciated his effort and energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t care; he just wants to play,\u201d the Celtics coach said. \u201cAnd I appreciate watching a guy who, regardless of the score, just plays at the level that he plays at and constantly works. He\u2019s 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 \u2013 just his professionalism and his competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig\u2019s dunk also earned him an in-game high-five from his young son, Braylon, who watched from the Celtics bench alongside Tatum\u2019s son, Deuce.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The second-half scoreline: Celtics 76, Hornets 41.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 backups<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\u201cWith 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,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cWe 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\u2019re on special teams and you\u2019re with special guys, you just try to cherish those moments. The season goes by fast, but it\u2019s been fun so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The real fun? That begins next weekend when the postseason tips off and the Celtics look to complete their quest to become the NBA\u2019s first repeat champion since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really when the season starts, and that\u2019s what we all love to play in,\u201d White said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: April 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Celtics rode a dominant second half to their 60th victory of the season Friday night, blowing out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,75,46,684,473,3878,685,2740,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-174371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-celtics","11":"tag-charlotte","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-charlottehornets","14":"tag-hornets","15":"tag-massachusetts","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114862495135566481","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}