Celtics Win 8th Straight…Kornet has Career Night

The Boston Celtics went into San Antonio Saturday night and took care of business for the 8th straight win, 5th in a row on the road, improving their road record to 31-7. The Celtics were led by Jayson Tatum who fell just 2 assits shy of a triple double, a big shooting night from Jrue Holiday, and a career performance from backup center Luke Kornet to push past the Spurs 121-111.  

The Celtics were able to take an early lead in the first quarter thanks in part to Holiday who knocked down 3 of his 5 three pointers in the first frame.  Tatum had 29 points leading all scorers while coming off an ankle injury, and Kornet had 16 rebounds, a career high and led all players on the floor. 

Takeaways

Tatum looks fine: Tatum missed he Celtics last game against the Phoenix Suns with an ankle injury he suffered earlier this week against the Kings. You wouldn’t know if by watching him,. Tatum showed no ill effects of the ankle injury playing 36 minutes dropping 29 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists.

Bench delivers again: Boston’s bench production has been a huge difference maker during the 2024-2025 season, and that production continued Saturday night. With Payton Prichard out (hip flexor tightness) and Al Horford out (big toe sprain), Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet stepped up and played big minutes to help the Celtics stay hot. Hauser played 24 minutes scoring 11 points and going 4-13 from the field (3-11 from 3 Point range). 

Luke Kornet had himself a career night for the Celtics. Kornet played 31 minutes for the Celtics and posted his 5th career double double and had a career high in rebounds. Kornet put up 15 points and 16 rebounds for the Celtics and was the difference maker for the Celtics down the stretch.

“He carried us through a tough stretch in the beginning of the season,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzula said. “and he continues to make big-time plays for us. We’re really grateful to have him.”

Celtics rookie Baylor Scheierman played a solid 18 minutes for the Celtics putting up 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists off the bench. 

Key Moment

The turning point in the game was when Kornet recorded a rebound and threw an outlet pass to Tatum for a layup that put the Celtics up 94-78 late in the 3rd quarter. The Celtics had allowed the Spurs to creep back to within 6 points earlier in the quarter.

 

Key Stat

The Celtics dominated the glass out-rebounding the Spurs 54-35. The Celtics also pulled down 7 offensive boards, 7 by Kornet resulting in 23 second chance points. 

Things I Liked

Luke Kornet’s physicality: No one will ever mistake Luke Kornet for a brute or an enforcer but his willingness to embrace physicality this season has played a big part in his and the Celtics recent success.

Kornet has been key off the bench during the Celtics 8 game streak and throughout the month of March where Boston boasts a league best 13-1 record. Kornet’s plus minus this month (+110) is second only to Derrick White. A lot of this has been due to his work on the offensive glass.

“Start caring less about yourself physically and start launching yourself into the trenches,” Kornet said. “I feel like I’m a left guard, basically, of basketball. So I try to take pride in that, protect my guys, enforce, those types of things.

“As I said before the game, los perros estan aqui,” Kornet said of his night after the game. “The dogs are here tonight, a little San Antonio flair.”    

Jrue Holiday’s shooting: Jrue Holiday’s hooting has been an area of slight concern all season, especially from behind the arc. So it was nice to see a night where the ball went down and that’s what happened on Saturday. Holiday dropped 21 points on 8-12 shooting, 5-7 from behind the stripe. It wasn’t just the shooting, Holiday was aggressive all night seeking out his offense on a night where Jaylen Brown struggled to get going and Kristaps Porzingis and White were cold from the field.

“I’m trying to be as aggressive as possible,” Holiday said. “Shots are falling. That always feels good.”

Whole lot of Helpers: Everytime the Celtics clear 30 assists in a game, good things happen. Well any team really but Boston is 12-0 this season when recording 30 assists or more in a game. They had 32 on Saturday.

Tatum looks healthy: Another great all around game from Tatum who has been playing some of his best basketball of his career lately. Tatum – who gave fans a fright when he went down in a lot of pain against Sacramento on Monday- only missed one game and if he was at all bothered by the ankle, you couldn’t notice. He played in control, made an impact with the ball in his hands as a distributor and off ball as a screener. JT is averaging 28.2 points, 8.2 rebound and 6.9 assists for the month of March.

Things I Didn’t Like

Jaylen Brown looked Hobbled: Jaylen Brown looked to be struggling to play through his right knee injury. The Celtics All-Star didn’t play poorly but was clearly not able to assert himself on the offensive end. He scored 14 points but only took 9 shots, making 6 of them. Some question why Brown is even putting himself out there with the Celtics pretty much locked into the 2 seed and just playing out the string.

“You trust him, you trust the sports science team, you trust the trainers,” Head coach Joe Mazzulla responded when asked about managing Brown’s health. “You trust him taking care of the body, and he’s doing everything can to be available — and he takes pride in that.”

There are questions whether Brown is trying to get to the 65 game benchmark necessary to be eligible for postseason awards. 

There are questions whether Brown is trying to get to the 65 game benchmark necessary to be eligible for postseason awards. To do so he would need to play in 6 of the Celtics 8 remaining games. But after watching him on Saturday night, maybe that’s not such a great idea.

Up Next

Celtics head to Memphis to finish up a 6 game road trip Sunday night at 730pm.