Near-perfect night
About the only thing that ruined the Boston Celtics’ evening was a fourth quarter where they failed to break an NBA record.
Otherwise, everything went according to plan.
They raised a league-record 18th banner, got their rings and then dominated the new-look New York Knicks.
“I’m really proud of the way we played. Tonight was emotional—a celebration of what we accomplished last year,” said Jayson Tatum after Boston’s 132-109 rout of New York on Tuesday.
“For a lot of us, that was our first experience getting a ring and raising the banner. So tonight was special. To kind of have to reset and go try to win a basketball game against a really good team … The way that we just came out and responded and played the right way,” he added.
A devastating 43-point first quarter put Boston in complete control during the first half, with Tatum producing an electric shooting performance to pour in 18 points from three-point range over the two quarters.
Tatum had brought the house down in a pregame address to a packed TD Garden, signaling the Celtics’ determination to win back-to-back championships.
Boston powered to last season’s NBA championship after winning 64 games in the regular season before dropping just three games in the playoffs, sealing victory with a 4-1 rout of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.
It wasn’t quite the perfect evening though.
The Celtics tied a league record with 29 triples (Milwaukee held the record solo since 2020) and then had 13 shots at breaking it.
They missed everything.
Boston guard Derrick White blamed himself for jinxing the squad.
“When we were tied, I was like, ‘We’re one away from the record,’” White said. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s kind of like a no-hitter, huh? I blame myself.”
“It was almost like we got jinxed or something,” said Jaylen Brown, who scored 23 points built around a 5-of-9 clip from beyond the arc but airballed his shot at giving the Celtics the record.
“When we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in,” Brown said. “The crowd got into it, and we started hunting them, we couldn’t even hit the bright side of the barn.”
The Celtics made 10 of 17 three-pointers in the first quarter, added seven in the second and had nine in the third. Boston had three more about three minutes into the fourth quarter, including an Al Horford triple that gave his team a 33-point edge.
They missed every three-pointer after that.
’Bron and Bronny
History was made on the opposite coast, although this one had to do with longevity than basketball stats.
LeBron and Bronny James became the first father and son to play alongside each other in a regular season game as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-103.
The duo, who played together briefly in a preseason game earlier this month, took to the court late in the second quarter at the Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers leading 51-35.
An enormous roar went up from the home crowd as the James duo approached the scorers table to check into the game after the Lakers had surged into a double-digit lead.
As James and his son prepared to enter the court, James Sr. could be heard telling Bronny: “You ready? You see the intensity, right? Just play carefree, though.”
In a perfectly scripted moment that was pure Hollywood, the James’ double-act was watched at courtside by Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., who made baseball history playing for the Seattle Mariners as father and son in 1990-1991.
“That moment—us checking in together—is something I’ll never forget, no matter how old I get, how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever. I will never forget that moment,” said LeBron, who had started on Tuesday by celebrating the 10th birthday of his daughter Zhuri Nova.
“Everything was just great today, everything—from the moment I woke up,” he added. “Obviously this is the first time in this beautiful history of the NBA that a father and son have been on the same floor, let alone on the same team. It was pretty cool.”
Bronny’s debut for the Lakers was subdued. The 20-year-old spent 2:41 on court, taking two unsuccessful shots from the field before being replaced.
“I try not to focus on everything that’s going on around me. I was trying to focus on trying not to mess up. But I totally did feel the energy,” Bronny said. —REPORTS FROM AFP AND AP
