Boston Celtics @ Charlotte Hornets
Monday, April 1, 2024 at 7:00 PM ET
Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC | Game ID: 22301087
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
CHA 32 21 26 25 104BOS 30 29 36 23 118
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Jayson Tatum, Sam Hauser each score 25 as Celtics beat Hornets 118-104 for 11th win in 13 games
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- — Jayson Tatum had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Sam Hauser poured in 25 points on seven 3s and the Boston Celtics avenged an early season loss to the Charlotte Hornets with a 118-104 victory on Monday night.
Kristaps Porzingis added 20 points and Derrick White had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics, who’ve won 11 of their last 13 games.
Hauser finished 7 of 11 from beyond the arc and the Celtics made 19 3s against the Hornets to avenge a 121-118 overtime loss on Nov. 20 in Charlotte when Miles Bridges hit a game-winning 3 with 6.6 seconds left.
Boston (59-16), which has already clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, is now 27-0 this season when it makes at least 18 3s in a game.
Hauser was quick to attribute his hot shooting — many of which were open looks — to Tatum.
“I feel like we are always making the right pass and making the extra reads,” said Hauser, who was 7 of 11 from beyond the arc. “JT (Tatum) draws a lot of traps and and extra help and he's able to make the right plays out of that.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla credited Hauser for playing confident, while adding his production is a byproduct of what the Celtics do offensively.
“I think just layers of our offense is what unleashes him," Mazzulla said. "The guys understand that he’s a weapon in different ways, and so when we get to the second and third layer of our offense, especially when teams are guarding us a certain way, it really unleashes guys like Sam. And his teammates continuing to trust him and find him within the layers of our offense.”
Bridges paced the Hornets with 26 points and 11 rebounds, while Grant Williams added 23 points and Brandon Miller 19 points.
Charlotte hung tough for awhile against Boston.
But the Celtics blew the game open in the third quarter, exerting its size advantage as Porzingis scored 11 points to help open a 16-point lead. Porzingis feasted on a Hornets team playing without 7-foot centers Nick Richards and Mark Williams due to injuries.
Hauser then added two dagger 3s in the fourth quarter, stretching the lead to 19. He had five 3s in the second half.
The Celtics dominated the smaller Hornets on the glass 51-40, and grabbed three offensive rebounds on one fourth quarter possession before White scored on a driving layup to put Boston up 111-96 with 5:37 left in the game. The look of exasperation could be seen on the Hornets faces, after being unable to corral a rebound.
Hornets coach Steve Clifford said his team struggled to get its defense set at different times during the game.
“The fastbreak points are totally misleading,” Clifford said. "They only had seven, but they had us on our heels for so many possessions because we just didn’t get ahead of the ball and get our defense set. To me, watching them play, you have to do that. They’re maybe 10th in fastbreak points, but they get the ball up the floor and into things quickly, and those were our worst possessions tonight.”
CHA KarmaHide StintsShow StintsHide PMShow PMHide KarmaShow KarmaHide ScoresShow Scores
Who
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
BOSAH A. Horford
DW D. White
JH J. Holiday
JT J. Tatum
KP K. Porziņģis
LK L. Kornet
OB O. Brissett
PP P. Pritchard
PO Porzingis
SH S. Hauser
XT X. Tillman
CHAAP A. Pokusevski
BM B. Miller
DB D. Bertans
GW G. Williams
JT J. Thor
MB M. Bolden
MB M. Bridges
MI Micic
NS N. Smith Jr.
TM T. Mann
VM V. Micić
BOS/CHA the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur