Boston traveled to Portland Sunday night having won the past six meetings between the two teams. The Trail Blazers came into the game with many injured players, their youngsters hanging tough with the seasoned Celtics to snatch a big 114-108 home win. Jaylen Brown had 37 points for Boston in a historic record-setting game for Boston.
Boston rolled with what is now considered their regular starting five of Brown, Payton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, Derrick White and Neemias Queta. Chris Boucher was still out for personal reasons and for Portland, they started Shaedon Sharpe, Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan, Toumani Camara and Kris Murray.
Jaylen Brown scored the game’s first four points in the opening minute of action. Payton Pritchard returned home to Portland and nailed his first corner triple attempt on a stepback over Sharpe. Boston raced out to an early 9-1, before Portland’s acting head coach and former Spur, Tiago Splitter, called the game’s first timeout.
Shaedon Sharpe scored the Blazers first field goal as he drove and skied for a layup bumping off Neemias Queta’s chest and banking it home. Jordan Walsh drained a three-pointer over 7-foot, 2-inch big man Clingan in front of the Boston bench.
Portland had four early turnovers as Boston was looking to get out in transition and get some easy buckets. Jordan Walsh went to the bench with 3 first quarter fouls as Hugo Gonzalez checked into the game. Clingan hit a straight on three-pointer from the top of the key to make it 16-13, Boston up by 3 with 6 minutes remaining in the first.
Former Blazer Anfernee Simons checked into the game and immediately hit his first triple attempt in his return to Rip City. Jaylen Brown continued to feel good early, he had 13 first quarter points on a super-efficient 6-9 from the field on a mix of mid-range jumpers and contested paint scores.
Donovan Clingan was feasting inside for Portland in the first quarter, the sophomore Center had 11 points and 9 rebounds in the first quarter, before being substituted for crowd favorite, Rookie Yang Hansen. Caleb Love came off the bench and provided a spark for the home team scoring 5 quick points, the Blazers took a 31-30 lead after one quarter.
Baylor Scheierman started the quarter in his first minutes of the game and got his hands on a dribble hand off between Hansen and Avdija before being fouled at mid court and falling to the ground. Portland was not taking care of the ball at all, they had 10 turnovers at the 9-minute mark of the second quarter. However, Boston was not capitalizing and could not get any consistent scoring from anyone outside of Jaylen Brown who was on the C’s bench.
Portland went on 10-4 run to start the second quarter before Jaylen Brown returned to action. “Portland” P drilled a three-pointer from the 45 and Hugo Gonzalez stole an errand pass a half court and jammed home a one-handed dunk to cut it back to 2 points, 39-41.
Portland and Boston traded buckets as Avdija and Brown went back-to-back on four consecutive plays. Pritchard’s second three-pointer off a Jaylen Brown assist gave the Celtics a 51-45 lead. Brown exploded for the Celtics to end the half, with 27 points, on 11-16 shooting and scoring 10 of the last 12 points. Boston took an 8-point lead into halftime, 63-55.
Portland reeled off 7 points to Boston’s 2 to start the second half. Jaylen Brown drove and scored his 29th point of the game, moving into twelfth all time on the Celtics scoring list with 12,289 points. The Blazers took the lead at the seven-minute mark, as Deni Avdija hit a step back jumper over Derrick White.
It was an historic night for Jaylen Brown who tied Larry Bird’s franchise record for consecutive 30-point games with nine straight. Portland outscored the Celtics 25-14 in the first 10 minutes of the third quarter, Avdija leading the way for the home team. Boston bounced back on the scoreboard as Simons scored 6 straight points, the home team took a 1-point lead into the third quarter break at the Moda Center, 86-85.
White was shooting the ball extremely poorly on the night, going just 2 for 12, before he finally hit his third shot on a push attempt over Clingan. Boston was shooting just 23 percent from three midway through the fourth quarter. Both teams traded empty possessions before Jaylen Brown sticked his 34th point of the game.
Sam Hauser was whistled for a foul on Caleb Love, but the Celtics coaches challenged the play and it was ruled successful and overturned at 95-92, Portland. Hauser hit a much needed three-pointer, his first of the night off a sweet Hugo Gonzalez dime. The Spanish rook splashed a huge three-pointer from in front of the Portland bench to tie the game at 98 apiece with 5 minutes to go.
Derrick White had a great chase down block on Sharpe and Jaylen Brown came down the end and drove hard connecting with Deni Avdija’s chin. Brown was whistled for a flagrant foul 1, and Avdija missed both free throws. The Celtics managed to escape the flagrant and the resulting possession with no points conceded.
Brown drove and dished to Queta who dunked it home to make it a one-point game. Sharpe connected on his 25th point of the night with a triple, JB wasn’t done, hitting his own triple and 37th point of the game. Boston was down 1 with a minute to go and was stripped in a double team, Sharpe ran the break was fouled and hit just 1 of 2 shots. Brown then turned the ball over at half court.
Derrick White hit a massive three to get it back to one point once more, Donovan Clingan grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled, the Blazers in the driving seat, 112-108 with 22 seconds to go. Boston unraveled down the stretch to hand Portland the win.
Boston next face the Jazz in Utah on December 30th at 9 pm EST.
