Digital Sports Desk

Online Destination for the Best in Boston Sports

Memphis Grizzlies

Morant Leads Grizzlies Over Cs

by

BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Ja Morant had 32 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to help the visiting Memphis Grizzlies defeat the Celtics 127-121 Saturday night and earn their first win at the TD Garden since 2013.

YouTube player

The victory ended Boston’s six-game winning streak against Memphis. The Grizzlies had lost 16 of their last 17 games against the Celtics, including the last 10 in Boston.

Boston led 103-99, but a 10-0 run handed Memphis a six-point lead with 7:19 to play. The Grizzlies maintained the lead after that.

Jaren Jackson Jr. added 27 points, nine rebounds and three steals for the Grizzlies, who went 15 of 33 on 3-point attempts. Jackson scored 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Jayson Tatum had 17 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists for the Celtics, who shot 18 of 60 from long range. Boston received 23 points from Jrue Holiday and 22 from both Payton Pritchard and Jaylen Brown.

Boston’s Sam Hauser left the game in the first half with right adductor tightness and did not return.

Marcus Smart, who spent his first nine NBA seasons with the Celtics before he was traded to Memphis in a three-team deal that brought Kristaps Porzingis to Boston, was 1 of 11 from the field and scored three points. He was given a standing ovation by the Boston crowd when he entered the game.

The loss ended Boston’s three-game winning streak and its seven-game home winning streak.

A 10-0 run gave Memphis an early 18-8 lead, and the Grizzlies led 31-27 going into the second quarter.

Memphis took a 12-point lead following a Morant basket with 29.8 seconds remaining in the first half and led 66-54 at halftime. The Celtics shot 36 percent from the field in the first two quarters and made only 9 of 31 from long range.

Pritchard’s 3-pointer capped a 13-3 run that sliced the Memphis lead to 88-86 with 1:37 left in the third quarter, but Boston trailed 94-89 entering the fourth.

–Field Level Media

Celtics Skip Past Grizzlies, 102-100; Tonight, It’s On to Charlotte

by

CHARLOTTE – The Boston Celtics have been among the best teams in the NBA for the first month of the season.

That’s not the case for the Charlotte Hornets, who need something good to happen.

The teams with opposite types of streaks will meet tonight in North Carolina where the Celtics will conclude a four-game road stretch.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 26 points to lift Boston to its sixth straight victory on Sunday with a 102-100 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Even that wasn’t totally satisfying for the Celtics, however.

“We got lucky enough to win that game,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “You can learn from losses. You can learn from wins. I didn’t think we deserved to win the game because a lot of the stuff that we did.”

With that in mind, Mazzulla will have a motivational angle to use for the game in Charlotte. He said the Grizzlies played harder than the Celtics in Sunday night’s game. It’s all part of the heightened expectations for the Celtics, who are led by Jayson Tatum’s averages of 26.9 points and 8.7 rebounds a game.

“Guys in the locker room set a high standard for themselves,” Mazzulla said.

The Hornets probably are in a totally different state of mind as they try to break a four-game losing streak. In home games, Charlotte has dropped six straight since winning the season opener.

Charlotte’s offense has been regularly sparked by guard LaMelo Ball, who has reached the 30-point mark in five of the last seven games. He’s averaging 24.4 points per game. With 25 or more points in each of those seven games, that’s the second-longest Hornets streak in that category in franchise history.

Rookie Brandon Miller is coming off a career-high 29 points against the New York Knicks on Saturday night. Yet Miller is receiving hard lessons on the pro level about the necessity for focused defensive intensity.

“I think we kind of struggled maintaining our man in transition,” Miller said. “I think that’s just an effort thing with us, something we’ve got to clean up going into the game against Boston. Our focus is just individual defense. I think if we shut down a few players, we will have a great outcome in any game.”

Miller’s offensive skills have translated well in the early part of his NBA career.

“He does it the right way. He works in practice,” Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said.

Clifford said the defense must be addressed across the roster with the team. The Hornets shot 49 percent from the field Saturday night against the Knicks, a rate that should be good enough to at least keep the team in tighter games.

The Hornets have lost by 14 or more points in three of the four games in their skid.

Ex-Celtics forward Gordon Hayward has scored a total of 12 points in 90 minutes across the last three games combined for the Hornets. He has shot 6-for-25 from the field in those games, missing all six of his 3-point attempts.

“That’s something we have to work on,” Clifford said of getting Hayward and P.J. Washington to pick up the pace offensively.

The Hornets were missing backup center Nick Richards, who was in the concussion protocol, on Saturday night.

–Field Level Media