Porzingis and Tatum lead Celtics in 121-99 blowout over Jazz

Coming off of a win against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, the Celtics started a six-game road trip against the Utah Jazz. With the Jazz having most of their players out with injury, the Celtics avoided the trap game and beat Utah 121-99.

Kristaps Porzingis led the way for the Celtics with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists on 9-15 shooting from the field and 3-5 from three. Jayson Tatum had a great game as well with 26 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals on 11-25 shooting. Although the Jazz made it a 2-point game at one point, the Celtics took care of business with 13-0 run late in the third quarter as the difference maker.

Boston’s defense forced Utah into 17 turnovers with 13 steals on the night. The Celtics scored 26 points off of the Jazz’s turnovers and had 33 second chance points. Boston’s bench was also a big factor in this game. With Jaylen Brown ruled out, the bench scored 44 points led by 18 points from Payton Pritchard.

After Kristaps Porzingis hit a 30-foot three for the Celtics’ first points of the game, Boston rattled off a 14-2 run with threes from Jayson Tatum and Derrick White that forced Jazz coach Will Hardy to call an early timeout.

The Celtics scoring run opened up to 22-7 out of the Jazz timeout as their offense was clicking on all cylinders. Porzingis was a driving force during the run as he continued his trend of starting games hot, finishing the first quarter with 10 points on 3-6 shooting.

However, the first quarter belonged to Jayson Tatum as everything was falling for him early on including this play where he bicycle-kicked the ball to himself for a layup.

Tatum finished the quarter with 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals on 6-9 shooting as the Celtics took a 35-21 lead at the end of the first. Boston’s offense was hot in the first quarter as they shot 46% from the field and 41% from three. The Celtics defense also forced the Jazz into 5 turnovers as Boston’s defense was everywhere.

Utah started the second quarter on an 11-4 with Tatum on the bench, with Johnny Juzang started to give the Jazz some life. The Celtics offense had a slow to start the quarter, but Porzingis kept them afloat. Boston was able to respond with an 11-2 run of their own to keep the lead at double digits.

Tatum returned midway through the quarter and continued to bully Utah’s smaller defenders under the basket. The Jazz never went away however as Collin Sexton started to chip away at the Celtics lead. Porzingis answered with a put back layup at the end of the quarter as Boston took a 60-51 lead at halftime.

Kristaps Porzingis led the way for the Celtics in the first half with 21 points and 7 rebounds on 6-11 shooting as he continued his great play coming back from his illness. Tatum was right alongside him with 17 points on 7-13 shooting while Sexton led the Jazz with 16 points. Boston had a huge advantage in the turnover battle in the first half as they forced Utah into 9 of them while scoring 13 points off those turnovers.

Porzingis opened up the second half right where he left off with a nice fake handoff to get around Walker Kessler for a wide open dunk.

Collin Sexton quickly responded with two three pointers as his hot shooting night continued and the Jazz cut the Celtics lead to 5. Boston responded with baskets of their own, but Sexton continued to torment the Celtics as he hit a third three to cut the deficit to 4 points and force Joe Mazzulla to call a timeout. Porzingis made a layup out of the timeout but a Keyonte George three cut the Celtics lead to 2 with six and half minutes to go in the quarter.

Then Boston started to find a groove again as Jayson Tatum hit a three and Derrick White forced a steal that led to a Luke Kornet layup that forced Utah to call a timeout. The Celtics continued to roll as they opened up their scoring run to 13-0 and pushed the lead back up to 15 points. Boston continued to handle business as they took an 89-75 lead into the fourth quarter. The Celtics defense continued to impress as they forced 10 steals through three quarters.

Payton Pritchard opened the fourth quarter with his 7th straight point for the Celtics while Kristaps Porzingis and Collin Sexton got into a shoving match that resulted in double technical fouls. The Jazz started to make another go at a comeback, but Jrue Holiday had an incredible sequence where he got a steal on one end and a layup on the other.

It became the Payton Pritchard Show after this as he scored 8 straight points for the Celtics highlighted by an incredible and-1 three from the logo.

After going down with an injury earlier in the game, Keyonte George started to hit a couple crazy shots in an effort to get the Jazz back into it the game. That was until Jayson Tatum checked back into the game for the final five minutes. He hit a layup and a fadeaway on back-to-back possessions and found Luke Kornet for another basket that pushed the Celtics lead to 20 points and essentially iced the game.

The next game is on Sunday, March 23rd at 6 pm on NBC Sports Boston as the Celtics continue their road trip with a matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers.