Shaking off their first loss of the season, the Boston Celtics got right back on track and defeated the Charlotte Hornets, 124-109, at Spectrum Center on Friday night.
Boston paid a few old friends a visit on the road, doing so without Al Horford (load management) which opened the door for Neemias Queta minutes off the bench. It wasn’t easy, especially in the second quarter once the Hornets found their hot hand, but the Celtics overcame a valiant effort from the second-to-worst team in the Eastern Conference last season to bounce back in the first of two in the Buzz City.
Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s win over Charlotte:
STUDS
Jayson Tatum
The scoring leader department was filled by Tatum, who for the fourth time this season, recorded a double-double by scoring a game-leading 32 points and grabbing 11 rebounds — to go along with three assists, three steals and a block. Tatum shot 9-of-19 from the field, including 3-of-9 from 3-point territory with one costly blemish: Tatum committed a game-high five turnovers. But… Tatum helped make up by assisting Boston’s free-throw advantage (29 makes) over Charlotte (six makes) by going 13-for-15 from the charity stripe.
LaMelo Ball
When hot, Ball is one of the most dangerous, crafty, hard-to-defend guards in the league. Charlotte benefitted from Ball’s finding his touch at timely spurts throughout the night as the 23-year-old finished with a Hornets-leading 31 points on 12-of-25 shooting from the field with four assists and a steal.
Neemias Queta
It’s not easy filling the frontcourt void left by the absences of Kristaps Porzingis and Horford, but Queta provided the Celtics with a productive 23 minutes on the floor. The 25-year-old shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor, scoring 12 points with six rebounds and one assist off the bench.
DUDS
Boston’s second-quarter defense
Offense wasn’t an issue for the Celtics, but on the other end, the Hornets were buzzing right behind them. Boston’s defense surrendered 42 points to Charlotte in the second quarter, including nine 3-pointers as ex-Celtics top assistant and current Hornets head coach Charles Lee ripped a page right out of Joe Mazzulla’s playbook.
Charlotte (44.8%) out-shot Boston (36%) from beyond the arc in the first half, although the Celtics carried the 71-67 halftime advantage.
Payton Pritchard
For the past four games, Pritchard had been the red-hot hand coming off the bench for Boston and filling the void that — for three games — was the absence of outside sharpshooter Sam Hauser. But in Charlotte, Pritchard cooled off and didn’t provide the Celtics with any production from beyond the arc, shooting 0-for-5 from three and finishing with four points on 1-of-6 shooting overall in 28 minutes.
Grant Williams
Another familiar face, Williams played 30 minutes off the bench and made little to no difference on the floor. Williams scored six points on 2-of-6 shooting, all from three, with seven rebounds and three assists, finishing a minus-7. It’s also worth mentioning that Williams considered, but refused to invite his old Celtics teammates over to his Charlotte residence on Thursday night, and instead elbow-checked Tatum in the fourth quarter.
“We talked last night just because I was gonna invite them over to my house but I told them I said I had a date night with my girl so let’s just say that trumps them,” Williams told reporters pregame, per CLNS Media. “… We might hang out tonight just because we have a back-to-back so it’s a unique situation.”
Williams got ejected and it’s hard to imagine Tatum — or anyone else from the Celtics — will be eager to attend a housewarming party in Charlotte anytime soon.
