Depleted Celtics take care of Pelicans 113-100

In tonight’s throwback to last year, the “Hospital Celtics” were back in action, this time against Anthony Davis and the Pelicans that were looking for revenge. Davis was amazing, dropping 41 points and feasted from all over the mid-post in a way that made opponents helpless, but the Celtics fought and quickly established their dominance on their way to their 6th win in a row.

The game started off as an up and down affair with the Pelicans pushing the pace in their usual fashion while the Celtics countered with their own quick pace led with their strong ball movement and strategic targeting on switches.

Tatum and Morris got off to a quick start scoring 17 of the teams first 21 points. The highlight of the quarter was Robert “Timelord” Williams lll getting a huge block on Anthony Davis. With the team having a relative back and forth start, the Celtics were able to push the lead up to 7 behind a mini 5-0 run from Jaylen Brown.

The theme of the second quarter was getting to the basket. Jaylen Brown, though inefficient, was hyper-aggressive with his assaults to the rim and it led to a quick four free throws in the first half. Also, Jayson Tatum is very, very good.

Celtics were able to push the lead to 9 halfway through the second (47-38), behind a 15 first half points for Tatum. The Celtics were able to maintain a 59-53 lead heading into the half behind the Pelicans inability to control penetration to the rim while on the other hand relying on Davis and Randle who combined for 29 first half points.

First Half stats

Second Half

The second half started off with three straight 3’s in a row for Morris to push the Celtics lead to 13. There was a little Game 7 ECF PTSD at about the halfway point of the third where the Celtics took and missed 4 three-pointers in a row. The good news? They were all in one possession, highlighting the teams rebounding advantage (team had 12-3 offensive board advantage at this point).

After a bit of a lull where the pace slowed down considerably, the Celtics struck again behind a 7-0 run from Semi Ojeleye who has looked considerably more comfortable shooting the basketball.

The Celtics pushed the lead up to 16 with about 7:30 left in the fourth behind a couple of Morris three’s to slow down Anthony Davis who starting to have his way. After a couple of trips of getting a clinic from Davis, Williams finally got another block on him on what’s an extremely hard to time fadeaway jumper.

Back to Back three’s by Brown pushed lead up to 22 before the Pelicans tried to make another run and get it down to 15, but the Celtics never got closer and by the 3 minute mark the Pelicans waived the white flag taking Davis out of the game.

The Celtics next game will be Wednesday night against the Wizards, we’ll keep you updated on the injury developments as they become available.