CNN
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The Boston Celtics received their eleventh recreation in a row on Sunday, rolling to a surprising 52-point rout, 140-88, of the Golden State Warriors.
In a rematch between the 2 groups that contested the 2022 NBA Finals, the Celtics ran away with proceedings early on. All-Star wing Jaylen Brown scored 19 factors within the first quarter alone to propel Boston to 44-22 lead after the primary quarter.
The Celtics’ benefit had ballooned to 44 factors by the top of the primary half, Boston’s largest halftime lead in franchise historical past.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was naturally unimpressed with what he had seen and pulled the plug within the second half, not giving any minutes to the ‘Massive Three’ of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Inexperienced after the break.
It was a nightmare night for Curry – the two-time MVP scored solely 4 factors, taking pictures 2-of-13 from the sector and uncharacteristically lacking all 9 of his three-point makes an attempt as Golden State’s offense fully stagnated.
The Celtics pushed the lead previous the 50-point mark within the third quarter earlier than Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla additionally turned to his bench for the remainder of the sport.
The 52-point margin of victory was third-largest in Celtics’ historical past. Boston additionally turned the primary NBA workforce ever to win three video games by at the least 50 factors in a single season, per StatMuse, after demolishing the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets earlier within the season.
“It feels nice, however on the similar time, it’s at all times inside humility,” stated Brown, who completed with 29 factors, three rebounds and three assists.
“At any given level, that may be us and we don’t take the sport with no consideration. We didn’t come out and fiddle and that’s simply how we present our respect to the sport.
We deal with enterprise and deal with it, however we don’t do it arrogantly. We do it with humility. And it’s a variety of respect for the Golden State Warriors, however we really feel prefer it’s our time now.”
MVP candidate Jayson Tatum scored 27 factors for the Celtics on his twenty sixth birthday, with Payton Pritchard including 19 off the bench.
Sunday’s win was Boston’s eleventh in a row – the C’s have outscored their opponents by a mean of twenty-two.1 factors per recreation throughout this profitable streak, per the group.
The Warriors, in the meantime, had been held to a season-low 88 factors and fell to their worst loss of the present marketing campaign and third greatest in franchise historical past.
Regardless of the lopsided scoreline, Kerr was not apprehensive by the defeat and was eager for his squad to maneuver on.
“This can be a ‘flush it down the bathroom,’” Kerr stated postgame. “We had a fantastic highway journey, 3-1, we’ve had one million video games. Boston was superb, we weren’t beating them right this moment. We’ll head dwelling and prepare for Wednesday.”
Lester Quiñones, who had his two-way deal transformed to an ordinary NBA contract final month, led the Warriors in scoring with 17 factors off the bench.
Boston’s dominant offensive efficiency had four-time champion Curry reminiscing after the sport.
“They’re hitting 10 threes within the first quarter, that’s what we used to do groups,” Curry advised the media.
“They’re the very best workforce within the league proper now, they usually performed prefer it … that was laborious to look at from the opposite facet.”
The Dubs drop to 32-28 on the season and face one other Japanese powerhouse within the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday. The Celtics, homeowners of the very best report within the NBA at 48-12, go to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.