Jayson Tatum didn’t just lead the Celtics past Charlotte. He turned the game into a rout before the Hornets could even settle in.
Boston opened with a 9-0 burst that stretched to 18-4, and from there the Celtics never gave the Hornets a real foothold in a 119-80 win. Charlotte never led, Boston never blinked, and the Celtics moved to 2-0 in the NBA Cup. The margin was so lopsided that the Hornets didn’t get past Boston’s 70 first-half points until the 2:49 mark of the fourth quarter.
Tatum was the center of everything. He finished with 34 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, then sat out the fourth quarter after making life miserable for Charlotte all night.
He shot 9-for-16 from the field, 5-for-8 from deep and hit all 11 of his free throws. It was one of those games where he looked completely in control from start to finish.
The three-point numbers told part of the story, too. Tatum, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard had all been shooting 31% or worse from beyond the arc this season, and this game gave all three a needed boost. Tatum’s percentage jumped 6 points, White’s rose 4.7, and Pritchard’s climbed 4.4.
Boston also got a better night from Mitchell Robinson, who chipped in with three offensive rebounds, three lobs and a positive impact. And Neemias Queta kept making a case with his energy and timing. He was always active, always moving to the next screen, and his presence seemed to fit exactly what Joe Mazzulla wants.
That showed up in the way Boston played through Tatum, too. He wasn’t just scoring; he was seeing the floor with ease.
One sequence stood out as the kind of playmaking that makes the Celtics so hard to defend, with Tatum acting like a quarterback and finding Jordan Walsh for an and-1 dunk off the assist. The nine assists came without force.
He kept making the right read after the right read.
Charlotte had its own issues, and one of them left the game early. Brandon Miller exited in the second quarter with groin soreness and did not return, which explained why he played only 13:46. He had started slowly again before leaving, finishing 3-for-10 and 0-for-3 from three.
Even with the score getting out of hand, Boston had a brief stretch in the third quarter that looked like it could turn messy. The Celtics weren’t quite as sharp as they had been in the first half, and Charlotte picked up a few easy chances.
But the Hornets were ice-cold, and Boston kept turning misses into runouts. The game never really changed shape.
There were also a lot of airballs, more than anyone would want to see in one night. Not quite double digits, but close enough that it stood out.
Boston’s pregame concerns mostly played out in its favor, though not always in the way expected. The Hornets’ turnover issues didn’t drive the blowout; instead, Charlotte simply couldn’t make shots, and the Celtics cashed in on the misses. Boston scored only nine points off turnovers in the first half, but according to Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics ran off about 40% of live rebounds, which ranks in the 80th percentile in the NBA.
The Celtics also handled the lead far better than they had in other games. There was no real collapse, no late-game wobble, and no extended stretch where Charlotte could make things uncomfortable. Boston kept building, kept pressuring, and kept the Hornets from finding any rhythm.
As for the matchup on Brandon Miller, Boston did enough to keep him from getting comfortable before he left. He was kept away from his preferred spots for much of the night, and while the Celtics lost him a couple of times around the rim, they mostly forced him into a tough opening before his night ended.
The result was the kind of blowout that never felt in doubt once Boston got rolling. Tatum put on the show, the Celtics kept piling on, and the final score matched the tone of the night: 119-80, all Boston.
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 🡒]
Hornets Hit Another Low As Brandon Miller Concern Grows
Bostons visit only deepened a rough stretch for Charlotte, which was overwhelmed from the start in a 119-80 loss as Jayson Tatum poured in 34 points and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard added steady support. The Hornets never found much rhythm offensively, and the margin kept widening as the game wore on, leaving another flat night for a team searching for answers.
The bigger concern for Charlotte came with Brandon Miller, who exited at halftime because of right groin soreness. For a team already trying to steady itself after another lopsided defeat, any issue involving one of its most important young players adds a layer of unease, especially with the offense already struggling to generate much of anything. [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 🡒]