– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — If there was one indicator to point at regarding the Boston Celtics’ readiness for another championship run, the return of a healthy Jayson Tatum is the obvious starting point. With the star out for Friday’s contest, another good sign emerged for Boston on the penultimate game before the start of the NBA’s second season: three-pointers, and whole heap of them raining down on an opponent powerless to stop it.
Sam Hauser knocked down eight three-pointers on his way to 24 points — and on Boston’s way to tying a franchise and NBA-record with 29 three-pointers made — as the Celtics clinched the Atlantic Division with a dominant 144-118 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans inside TD Garden on Friday. Jaylen Brown, who sat out Thursday’s defeat in New York, scored 23 points in 29 minutes in his return to the lineup. Payton Pritchard finished with 21 points and 10 assists.
Boston will be the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference when the NBA Playoffs start next week.
This is the second time the Celtics banged home 29 threes, with the other occasion coming in their first regular-season game after clinching the franchise’s 18th world championship, on October 22, 2024, against the New York Knicks. The Memphis Grizzlies (April 6 vs. Cleveland) and Milwaukee Bucks (Dec. 29, 2020 at Miami) also share the record.
“I mean, obviously you have to make shots. I think just good execution,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Sam got hot, but I like the shots that we got, and we’re able to make them. And obviously, once you see a few go in you continue to do that. So, hopefully we didn’t use them all up in one game.”
Boston led by as much as 41 points in a game that Tatum, as well as a number of Pelicans’ starters, sat out. Eight Celtics players hit at least two three-pointers, with Boston making almost half of their three-point attempts in a game where they made 54.2 percent (52-of-96) from the field overall.
Rookie Jeremiah Fears led all scorers with 36 points for New Orleans, with fellow first-year player Derik Queen adding 25 points and 11 rebounds.
*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 31 pictures in total.
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