117-106 to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> \u2014 improved to 30-18 with the win.<\/p>\nThe 12-38 Kings were playing without three of their top players (Domantas Sabonis, Keegan Murray and Russell Westbrook) on the second night of a back-to-back. They have lost eight straight and 15 of their last 19.<\/p>\n
Boston will host another scuffling opponent Sunday afternoon when the 18-28 Milwaukee Bucks visit Causeway Street without their injured superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
The Celtics sprinted out to an 11-1 lead, prompting Kings head coach Doug Christie to call his first timeout less than two minutes after tipoff. Queta, who returned after missing Wednesday\u2019s game, opened the scoring with back-to-back lob finishes, then fed Pritchard for a driving layup.<\/p>\n
Queta scored or assisted on five of Boston\u2019s first seven made baskets during an impressive opening shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great player on both ends of the floor,\u201d Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said.<\/p>\n
The first quarter was an offensive bonanza for the Celtics. They outscored the Kings 40-25 by going 5-for-10 from 3-point range \u2014 with makes by five different players \u2014 11-for-12 in the paint and 7-for-7 inside the restricted area. Pritchard scored 11 in the period on 5-of-5 shooting, and White capped it with a buzzer-beating floater.<\/p>\n
Sacramento responded with a 10-2 run to open the second quarter, and the Celtics\u2019 perimeter shooting efficiency dipped for a spell. But they made up for it with strong offensive rebounding, particularly by backup big man Luka Garza. Garza grabbed three offensive boards and scored off all three as part of a nine-point first half. Hugo Gonzalez also corralled a loose ball to set up a second-chance 3-pointer by Pritchard.<\/p>\n
It was one of four threes Pritchard hit during a sensational first half. The Celtics guard also picked the Kings apart inside, going 9-for-11 from the field to enter halftime with 22 points and eight assists. His banked-in 11-footer made it 72-46 at the break, closing out a 25-6 Celtics run.<\/p>\n
Team-wide, Boston shot a remarkable 85% on 2-pointers before halftime (17-for-20) and did not miss any of its attempts at the rim (11-for-11). At the other end, their defense held the Kings to just one make inside the restricted area and 33.3% shooting from 2-point range. Sacramento was even shakier from three, going 5-for-17 (29.4%) before half.<\/p>\n
Scheierman helped Boston pad its lead in the third quarter with two 3-pointers sandwiched around a series of hustle plays. The gritty wing threw a rebound off a Kings player to give the Celtics possession, picked off a Dennis Schroder pass and gathered an offensive rebound after his own missed three. His fourth trey of the game put Boston up 80-52 midway through the third.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s developed into a utility guy for us defensively where he can defend different matchups,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cHe\u2019s made some plays. He draws some illegal screens for us. He can make defensive plays, but he knows how to play versus cross-matches at the other end. He\u2019s been making some shots, and he offensive rebounds. So I\u2019m pleased with here he\u2019s grown defensively for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boston scored just 17 points in the third quarter and 23 in the fourth, but their lead never dropped below 16 during a largely uneventful second half.<\/p>\n
Other observations:<\/p>\n
\u2014 With the Celtics up big in the final minutes, Mazzulla gave Chris Boucher his first playing time since before Thanksgiving. The reserve big man has been out of the rotation since Nov. 23, remaining on the bench even in blowouts until Friday\u2019s cameo.<\/p>\n
Despite his team\u2019s comfortable lead, Boucher closed the game with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. That shot visibly annoyed Westbrook, who was in street clothes on Sacramento\u2019s bench. The two veterans had words after the final horn, but their conversation appeared to end amicably.<\/p>\n
Wing Josh Minott, who\u2019s appeared in just three games since late December, also subbed in late.<\/p>\n
\u2014 A handful of Patriots players were in attendance ahead of their trip to Santa Clara, Calif., for Super Bowl LX. All received rousing ovations, with the loudest reserved for Pro Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez, whose AFC Championship interception was shown on the Jumbotron. Former New England safety Patrick Chung also watched the game from courtside seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off one of their most lopsided defeats of the season, the Celtics capitalized on an ideal get-right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,75,46,8288,71733,8289,8287,78,2675,4056,6,986,477,4055],"class_list":["post-572136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento-kings","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-highlights","tag-celtics-kings","tag-celtics-recap","tag-celtics-score","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-joe-mazzulla","tag-kings","tag-nba","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sacramentokings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115987639545353764","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572136","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=572136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}