After their first loss of the season on Wednesday night against the Indiana Pacers, the Boston Celtics headed down to Spectrum Center on Friday for a match against the Charlotte Hornets. Charles Lee, who was the lead assistant in Boston last year, is now leading the Hornets, and he was hoping to spoil the Celtics’ road trip.
It was the first of a two-game series in Charlotte, and the Celtics took care of business. LaMelo Ball and Tre Mann did their best to lift Charlotte to victory, but the former gave up just as many points on defense as he scored on offense. The Celtics walked away with a 124-109 win.
Here are three studs and three duds from the Celtics’ win over the Hornets on Friday night.
BONUS: Tony Dobbins gets a stud point for his ability to hold guys back in this game. When Joe Mazzulla got a technical foul, Dobbins was there. When Jaylen Brown was angry after Grant Williams’ Flagrant 2 foul on Jayson Tatum, Dobbins held him back, too. Some great work from the Celtics assistant coach.
Stud - Derrick White (and Jrue Holiday)
As Tatum and Brown have gone through ups and downs in regard to their shot selection and shot-making this season, Derrick White has continued to be the Celtics’ most consistent scoring option.
He’s been incredible this season. White’s reliability showed up against the Hornets once again, as he was doing a little bit of everything for Boston in the scoring department.
Tatum and Brown played fairly well, but their scoring was streaky. White wasn’t perfect from an efficiency standpoint, but his buckets came during important pockets of the game, and he dished out five assists. He even got to the line midway through the fourth as the Celtics were reeling a bit.
And once again, his defensive impact was clear. A nice block on Williams in the fourth highlighted an all-around solid game for White. When the fourth quarter comes around, White should be the one starting most of the Celtics’ actions. He’s just that consistent.
Some missed shots at the end of the game tanked White's efficiency, but that's not a great indicator of just how impactful he was.
As for Jrue Holiday, he didn’t score a ton, but when he did, it was important. He nailed some big-time threes in this game, giving Boston a nice boost.
Dud - Payton Pritchard
For the first time this season, Payton Pritchard wasn’t a reliable three-point option. In fact, Pritchard was ice-cold from beyond the three-point arc against Charlotte on Friday night.
He still had some nice moments as a playmaker, but his shot just wasn’t falling. And during the third quarter, he got torched by Tre Mann for a string of possessions.
Boston definitely missed his deep-range production in this one.
Stud - Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta
Al Horford was out in this game. He’s been sitting out on one leg of back-to-backs since re-joining the Celtics in 2021. But Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta were there to step up on Friday.
The stats won’t tell the whole story for Kornet, but his impact on the glass was crucial. He was constantly battling with the Hornets down low, and even if he wasn’t the one to corral the offensive rebound, he was opening up opportunities for his teammates to crash the glass.
Neemias Queta wasn’t perfect in this game, particularly on the defensive glass, but the positives definitely outweighed the negatives.
For the second game in a row, Queta was a menace on the offensive glass, and his giant presence in the paint helped deter Charlotte on some big drives.
Also, Queta’s monster slam in the fourth quarter was incredible, especially considering the player he dunked on.
Dud - Defensive consistency
On some possessions, the Celtics looked completely locked in on defense. They were connected, they forced Charlotte to make tough passes, and they prevented open looks. But on other possessions, they were lost.
The Lee-led Hornets have clearly taken a page out of Boston’s playbook. They chucked up a ton of threes in this game, and the Celtics struggled to contain them at times.
There were simply too many defensive lapses on the side of the Celtics in this game. Their defense has been rocky so far this season, and this game wasn’t a big improvement.t
Stud - Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s deliberateness
Against the Pacers on Wednesday, Tatum and Brown combined to shoot 29 three-pointers. And they made six of them. It was a brutal performance from behind the arc, and Tatum admitted it.
“I settled way too much last game,” Tatum said at shootaround on Friday via Noa Dalzell of SB Nation. “Especially at the end of the first quarter, I shot five threes in the last minute and a half, and then the start of overtime, I shot like three. That’s 8 right there where I just settled.”
On Friday night, they adjusted.
Though the threes still weren’t falling at a high rate, both Tatum and Brown were far more deliberate with their actions. They took threes when they were there (and a few rough ones), but for the most part, they forced their way inside.
Tatum started the game by getting inside, and Brown ruthlessly attacked Ball every chance he got. The result was a much more well-balanced attack from the Celtics’ superstars.
Dud - Tatum and Brown’s third quarter
For whatever reason, the third quarter was a curse for Boston’s star duo on Friday night.
Brown’s third quarter was full of missed shots. He just couldn’t find any sort of rhythm scoring the ball, and the Hornets made a real push to get back in this game.
As for Tatum, he was just making some questionable decisions. Some of the threes he chucked up in the third were wholly unnecessary.
They played well the rest of the game, including a very deliberate attempt to get inside more, but the third was wonky.