April 20, 2026Updated April 21, 2026, 9:39 p.m. CT<\/p>\n
Luka Garza had the best game of his NBA career to end the regular season.<\/p>\n
Garza poured in a career-high 27 points to go along with 12 rebounds as the Boston Celtics<\/a> took down the Orlando Magic in the regular-season finale. It was a big confidence booster for Garza and Boston’s other reserve players with the playoffs beginning.<\/p>\n The Celtics<\/a> began their playoffs on Sunday when they hosted the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> in Game 1 at TD Garden. Boston dominated from the tip, winning 123-91. While big-name stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown showed up and showed out, the game also presented an opportunity for the former Hawkeye<\/a> big man to get some run. And he didn’t disappoint.<\/p>\n How did Luka Garza perform in Boston’s Game 1 victory?<\/p>\n Garza played 14 minutes off the bench in Game 1, the first NBA playoff game of his career. He scored seven points on 1 of 4 shooting from the field. All of his attempts were 3-pointers. He went 4 of 4 from the free-throw line and added two rebounds and an assist.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n On a team filled with superstars and high-end talent, Garza doesn’t need to take over games and score 20 points a night. As long as he performs his role and brings energy and hustle off the bench, he should continue to see playoff minutes.<\/p>\n Garza is looking to join an illustrious list of former Iowa basketball players who have won an NBA championship. That list includes B.J. Armstrong, Don Nelson and Ronnie Lester. He’ll have a great chance to do so with this Celtics team.<\/p>\n Contact\/Follow us\u00a0@HawkeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions.\u00a0Follow Zach on X:\u00a0@zach_hiney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 20, 2026Updated April 21, 2026, 9:39 p.m. CT Luka Garza had the best game of his NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[72400,7,6,11,83199,73480,72404,72457,72580,72495,74106,74104,72999,72444,72422,78230,72456,72405,72475,72526,72439,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-716458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-playoffs","12":"tag-sstssportscollegehawkeyesmens-basketball","13":"tag-sstsnmens-basketball","14":"tag-tagbasketball","15":"tag-tagbig-10-hub","16":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-mens-basketball","17":"tag-tagboston-celtics","18":"tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes","19":"tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes-mens-basketball","20":"tag-tagluka-garza","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnba","23":"tag-tagnba-playoffs","24":"tag-tagncaa-big-ten-conference","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagphiladelphia-76ers","27":"tag-tagsmg-timely","28":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716458","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=716458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}