The Boston Celtics treated the TD Garden crowd to a near-perfect game of basketball vs. the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.
It took only a couple of minutes for the Celtics to assert their dominance. They simply refused to miss shots early on, going 10-for-10 to start the game and 6-for-6 from 3-point range. Boston finished the first half with a whopping 68 points and didn't slow down as it went on to earn another blowout win, 125-97.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown paced the C's in their offensive onslaught with 26 points apiece. Donovan Mitchell was the lone bright spot for Utah as he finished with a game-high 37 points.
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Here are three instant takeaways from the Celtics' fifth-straight victory, which brings them to 46-28 on the season and only 1.5 games behind the top-seeded Miami Heat. They'll hope to stay hot when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night. Eight games remain in the regular season.
Celtics give Jazz a taste of their own medicine
When these two teams faced off back on Dec. 3, the Celtics were in a much different place. They were struggling to stay above .500 and the elite defense had yet to blossom into what it's become.
Boston lost that game in a thriller, 137-130. Utah hit nine 3-pointers in the first quarter and 27 in all, marking the most 3s in a game against the Celtics in NBA history.
The C's finally got their revenge with a remarkable offensive performance Wednesday night. They shot 12-for-19 from beyond the arc and 62.5% from the field in the first half.
Boston finished 59.7% from the floor and 58.1% (18-31) from 3, topping Utah's marks of 55.6% and 52.9% from that Dec. 3 matchup.
Tatum and Brown (26 points each, combined 19-32 FG and 8-14 3PM) weren't the only sharpshooters in Wednesday's contest. Payton Pritchard remains the hottest 3-point shooter in the league. Over his last four games, the second-year guard is 20-for-28 (71.4%) from long range.
Pritchard finished with 11 points in 18 minutes.
Marcus Smart looks like an elite point guard
Boston Celtics
Marcus Smart was one of the biggest reasons the Celtics were able to get off to such a torrid start. He set the tone with a whopping nine assists in the first quarter, tying Rajon Rondo for the most in a quarter in C's history. It also ties him for the most by any player in any quarter in the NBA this season.
Smart ended up with 13 assists on the night to top his previous career-high of 12, which he achieved three times. It took him only three quarters Wednesday night to achieve the feat.
Boston is 23-4 since Smart returned as the starting point guard on Jan. 23. His facilitating has turned the Celtics from a one-dimensional team to a group no NBA defense wants to deal with.
Smart helped the Celtics finish with more assists (37 on 50 FGs) than Jazz field goals (35). He's averaging 8.0 assists per game so far in March.
Robert Williams > Rudy Gobert
A side story in Wednesday night's matchup was the Defensive Player of the Year battle between the big men, Robert Williams and Rudy Gobert. Gobert (+180) currently is favored over Williams (+1400) for the award, but the C's center was the more impressive of the two in this one.
Williams made his DPOY case with four emphatic blocks, including this beauty on Jordan Clarkson.
The 24-year-old also notched 12 points and 10 rebounds for yet another double-double, as well as two steals. Gobert finished with a stat line of 14 points, 11 boards, one steal and zero blocks. Williams was a +20 to Gobert's -10.