– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — Unfortunately for Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, he was not able to play in Friday’s game, one which coincided with his bobblehead giveaway night. But it was no matter, as the rest of his Celtics teammates turned heads with their dynamic offensive display in the first half on the team’s way to bouncing back into the win column.
Payton Pritchard scored 29 points while Neemias Queta had 10 points and 15 rebounds as the Celtics scored 40 points in the first quarter and never looked back in a 112-93 victory over the Sacramento Kings inside TD Garden. Baylor Scheierman, who started in place of Brown, had 16 points as he and Pritchard combined to hit nine three-pointers.
Brown missed tonight’s game with hamstring tightness and a knee contusion, but like many of Boston’s games the past couple of seasons without at least one of their key cogs available, the Celtics barely missed a beat; the Celtics shot a scorching 71 percent (17-of-24) from the field in the first quarter while holding the Kings to 6-of-30 as Boston, who lost on Wednesday night at home to Atlanta, led from wire-to-wire tonight.
Pritchard scored 22 of his points in the first half, and in doing so became the fourth person in the play-by-play era to tally at least 22 points, eight assists and shoot at least 80 percent from the field in a first half, joining Luka Doncic, Domantas Sabonis and Damian Lillard.
“I feel like I just did a good job of making the right reads, getting to my spots, reading the driving lanes,” Pritchard said. “I thought I made good passing reads. Almost like a QB, you know, you always just try to make the right read, take what the defense gives you. So I thought I did that at a high level tonight in the first half.”
The shorthanded Kings were without Sabonis (knee), Keegan Murray (left ankle sprain) and Russell Westbrook (right foot soreness), while Malik Monk returned to Sacramento’s lineup after missing Thursday’s game against Philadelphia. Zach LaVine led the Kings with 17 points while rookie Nique Clifford poured in 15 off the bench. Maxime Raynaud had 14 points and 14 rebounds, making six of his seven shots from the floor.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 27 pictures in total.
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