The Boston Celtics earned their first win of the 2021-22 season with a 107-97 road win against the Houston Rockets.
The Cs started slow but managed to turn it around during the second half as they cruised to a double-digit victory.
Sunday night’s performance was far from perfect, but it was a significant improvement from the poor showing against the Toronto Raptors two nights prior.
The biggest difference was Boston’s ability to clean the defensive glass and limit their turnovers this time around. They were able to do both of those things well and rode a strong third-quarter performance to secure Ime Udoka’s first win as an NBA head coach.
Here are 3 takeaways from Sunday’s road W:
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 1) Jayson Tatum finds his groove
Jayson Tatum‘s first two games of this season were underwhelming to say the least. In them, he averaged just 19 points on 34/21/67 shooting splits.
The 23-year-old was able to turn it around on Sunday and play the way he is typically accustomed to. Tatum scored 31 points against the Rockets and went deep in his bag to put up numbers in a variety of ways.
The 2x All-Star only finished the contest with two assists but he managed to showcase his improved passing and court vision with a dime to Al Horford.
The Boston Celtics are a significantly better team when Tatum plays well, and it’s as simple as that. This team will go as far as he and Jaylen Brown take them and a performance like this is the perfect way to break out of an early-season slump.
Jayson Tatum is too good of a player to be held down for long and hopefully he can build off of this performance and remain consistent for the majority of the season.