Boston Celtics go up big, hold on to beat Blazers: Five reasons why they won

The Celtics built a big early lead
Portland couldn't shoot straight
The Blazers didn’t have Deni Avdija.
Amari Williams gave Boston good minutes
They capitalized on Blazers turnovers
REASONS THEY ALMOST LOST
OTHER NOTES

BOSTON — The Celtics and Blazers did their best impression of the conditions outside TD Garden Monday night, giving us a sloppy game with cold shooting. The Celtics stormed out to a big lead, gave most of it back over the course of the game, but held on in the end to win it 102-94.

Both teams started cold but Portland stayed cold the whole first quarter while Boston got going and built a 23 point lead. That got cut to 15 in a messy second quarter that featured a lot of fouls, a lot of turnovers, and a lot of missed shots by both teams. They briefly got it back up to 20, but the Blazers out-scored them 24-14 to finish the 3rd and go into the fourth down 10. They held onto the double-digit lead for most of the fourth, but a late Blazers run made things dicey until Derrick White hit a three to put the Blazers to bed.

Here are five reasons why the Celtics were able to hold on and beat Portland.

The Celtics built a big early lead

The Celtics won the first quarter by 21 and made it 23 early in the second. The Celtics shot 54% in the first, mostly via two-pointers, while the Blazers missed everything. Portland shot 4-21 (19%) overall and 1-12 from three (8.3%). Ten Blazers played in the first quarter and only four made shots.

Portland won the last three quarters 83-70.

“We were able to get out and kind of play our free-flowing play, and then in the second half, we put them at the free-throw line, and they had seven offensive rebounds, so the game just kind of slowed down,” Joe Mazzulla said. “It was kind of at their pace for the majority of the second half. But I thought our defense kept us in it. We were still able to defend, even though we were fouling, but we still competed. But it just kind of slowed the game down and mucked it up, and we were forced to execute in the half court”

Except for the very end of the game, the Celtics did a pretty good job responding all night and keeping the game at double-digits.

Portland couldn't shoot straight

It’s hard to recover from a 1-12 start. And while shooting 32% in the final three quarters is better than shooting 8% in the first, I’d hardly call that recovering. The Celtics and Blazers both hit nine three-pointers in periods two-through-four, but Boston took fewer (thus their 43% shooting over that time frame) and they were 4-13 in the first quarter.

Those three triples ended up mattering a lot in an eight-point win. Portland can easily argue that making a couple more three-pointers early on would have prevented the hole from getting as deep as it did.

The Blazers didn’t have Deni Avdija.

He’s going to be an All-Star this year, and he’s been one of the main reasons why the Blazers have won 23 games so far.

Portland is a tough team, and their defense will keep them in games like this. But not having Avdija to turn to in the clutch hurt them. Portland’s starters scored 54 points, losing to Boston’s starters 76-54. The bench was able to keep things close, but missing Avdija clearly hurt them.

Amari Williams gave Boston good minutes

The Celtics were without a sick Luka Garza, and Neemias Queta is playing through some kind of illness as well. That left an opening for Williams, and he took advantage of it.

“I thought Amari did a great job today. I thought he looked exceptional,” Jaylen Brown said. “He came out, he protected the rim. He was where he was supposed to be for the most part. Amari made it easy for us tonight. Any given night, depending on how the team is playing us, that communication has to be great."

One thing that I noted in my scouting report of Williams’ start in Chicago was how he was passive for most of his first half minutes. That flipped in the second half, and he carried that energy into this game. He was active, he was screening well, boxing out, and playing with a sense of purpose. It was a vast improvement over his last game, which really wasn’t all that bad.

They capitalized on Blazers turnovers

Portland turned it over 18 times for 19 Celtics points. The Celtics also turned the ball over a bunch (17 times for 15 points), but their ability to get Portland to cough it up prevented their own mistakes from being a difference in this game.

REASONS THEY ALMOST LOST

Derrick White kept turning the ball over: He had eight turnovers, breaking his career high of six. What’s funny is his teams are 5-2 when he has six or more turnovers. How’s that for a weird stat?
They missed a bunch of free throws: They shot 11-18 from the line (61.1%). Lucky for them, the Blazers were 20-30. This really is starting to look more and more like a missed opportunity for the Blazers.
Their clutch execution wasn’t great (again): The Celtics were out-scored 12-8 in the final five minutes, turning it over three times, and allowing three offensive rebounds. The Blazers shot 5-9 in that stretch while Boston was 2-10.
Jerami Grant shot 15 free throws: So he’s James Harden now?

OTHER NOTES

Jrue Holiday finished with 14 points on 5-11 shooting.
Robert Williams made an impact for Portland in limited time. He only scored six points, but he had a block and a steal and led the Blazers in plus/minus at +11. In fact, he and Holiday (+3) were the only positives on the Blazers.
Jaylen Brown had 20 points on 8-17 shooting, eight rebounds, five assists, four steals, and just one turnover.
Payton Pritchard showed out against his hometown team again, going for 23 points on 8-16 shooting (5-11 3pt), five rebounds, three assists, and a monster +23.
Derrick White broke out of his slump a little bit, going for 18 points on 7-15 shooting (2-4 3pt), and hitting the night-night shot with 24 seconds left.