Jayson Tatum was back from a night of rest and picked up right where the Celtics needed him, pouring in 34 points as Boston rolled past the Charlotte Hornets 119-80 on Friday night.
Boston never let the game breathe. Derrick White added 18 points, Payton Pritchard chipped in 12 off the bench, and the Celtics set the tone immediately with a 40-point first quarter that left Charlotte chasing from the start.
Tatum had 24 points by halftime and did it efficiently, going 8-for-14 from the floor while knocking down five 3-pointers. He finished by going 11-for-11 at the foul line, another clean night in a game that was out of reach long before the final buzzer.
The Hornets, meanwhile, kept sliding. The loss was their sixth straight, and it dropped them to 2-4 at home. Charlotte shot just 29.3% overall and connected on only 11 of 50 attempts from deep.
Naz Reid led the Hornets with 14 points, while reserves Tidjane Salaun and Sion James finished with 13 and 11, respectively. Brandon Miller had another rough outing, scoring eight points on 3-for-10 shooting and missing all three of his 3-point tries. He left at halftime because of right groin soreness.
Boston’s start was ruthless. The Celtics raced out to a 21-7 advantage behind four 3-pointers in that opening burst, then stretched the margin to 42-20 just a minute into the second quarter while Charlotte was 2-for-16 from 3-point range. By then, Boston already had nine made 3s before the Hornets had even reached nine total field goals.
The lead kept ballooning from there, growing to 62-31 before the Celtics took a 70-39 edge into halftime. Charlotte shot 27.7% in the first half and managed just 57 points through three quarters, a line that made the game feel a lot like its 128-81 home opener loss to the Atlanta Hawks last month.
Charlotte was also shorthanded inside. With center Moussa Diabate out because of a quadriceps ailment, Ryan Kalkbrenner moved into the starting five.
The Hornets made another lineup tweak by starting Grayson Allen in place of Sion James, but Allen finished scoreless in 22 minutes. Kalkbrenner scored four points in 21 minutes.
In Other News...
Hornets Fans Have Every Reason To Panic About This Start
The early stretch has been rough enough in Charlotte to make even patient observers uneasy. The Hornets have stumbled through a poor start marked by heavy losses, a low offensive rating and an offense that has struggled to find any real rhythm, especially at point guard. Injuries have only made the picture murkier, leaving the team short on answers while it waits for healthier bodies and a few new contributors to settle in.
For now, the concern is less about one bad night than the shape of the whole opening month. The Hornets have been getting buried on the scoreboard and have not shown much consistency on either end, which is a dangerous place to be this early. There is still time for the return of injured players and some internal improvement to change the mood, but right now the start has given fans every reason to worry about how deep this slide could go. [Read more 🡒]
Tatums Big Night May Have Clarified A Celtics Lineup Call
Bostons visit to Charlotte turned into a one-sided NBA Cup night almost immediately, with Jayson Tatum setting the tone in a game the Celtics controlled from the opening minutes. Boston jumped out to an 18-4 run and never let the Hornets find much rhythm, rolling to a 119-80 win behind Tatums all-around impact and a defense that kept the margin comfortable for most of the night.
For Charlotte, the game also came with another concern when Brandon Miller left in the second quarter with groin soreness and did not return. The Hornets were already chasing a game that had slipped away early, and Millers exit only deepened the challenge as they tried to regroup against a Celtics team that looked settled in every phase. [Read more 🡒]
Charles Lee Sounds Alarm On A Hornets Problem Fans Know Too Well
Soft-tissue injuries have become one of the NBAs nagging problems, and Charles Lee is among the coaches wondering whether the leagues calendar is part of the issue. The Hornets coach said he is concerned about how often those injuries are showing up and questioned whether players are giving their bodies enough time to recover once the season ends.
Lee noted that the offseason has changed, with players now often jumping into training right after the final buzzer instead of waiting much longer before ramping back up. For Charlotte, it is a familiar balancing act: keep players developing, but also make sure the work does not come at the expense of health, something the Hornets and plenty of other teams may need to examine more closely. [Read more 🡒]