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The Boston Celtics traveled to Denver to face the Nuggets Wednesday night. Boston had been surging up the power rankings with a blistering month of February and faced off against the fourth placed Nuggets. Boston played a decent enough first half, but they could not hang with Denver in the second and eventually losing by 19 points, 103-84. Jaylen Brown had 23 points and 11 boards. Derrick White chipped in 20 points and 3 blocks for the road team.
Jaylen Brown returned to the starting lineup alongside Baylor Scheierman, White, Neemias Queta, and Sam Hauser after a night off in Phoenix last night against the Suns. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Julian Strawther, Cam Johnson, and Christian Braun started for the home team. The Nuggets came into the game looking for a home win after losing to the Warriors on Sunday afternoon.
Murray scored the game’s first points on a back cut to the basket. Queta came right back down the other end for a loud tomahawk dunk to get the C’s on the board. Scheierman laced his first three-point attempt on a step-back trey over Murray.
Both teams traded buckets early in the quarter, and it was 10-10 at the 7-minute mark of the first. Vucevic entered the game alongside Queta as a double-big lineup; Hauser was first to the bench for Boston. Jaylen Brown was aggressive early and looked to attack the paint on consecutive trips down the floor. Brown led the C’s with 9 early points as Boston opened up a 16-13 lead with five minutes remaining in the first.
A Christian Braun triple saw another tied score as Ron Harper Jr. got some early minutes alongside Hugo Gonzalez, Brown, Pritchard, and Vooch. Jokic misfired on a three-pointer but backed it up inside with a twirling hook shot over Vucevic.
Boston’s ball movement was superb to start the game as the C’s swung the ball around the key to JB, who rattled home his twelfth point of the quarter on his first three-point make. Boston took a 24-21 lead at the end of the first quarter. Boston was just 3 of 11 from three in the first, shooting just 27 percent from beyond the arc. Queta had a decent quarter with 6 points in the first quarter.
Derrick White drained two consecutive times down the court for Boston to start the second quarter. The hometown White, was actively involved in all the plays with dimes and scores as Jaylen Brown got a seat on the bench to start the 2nd quarter. White rattled off 8 quick points to start the second quarter as Boston took an early 8-point lead, 36-28.
Denver had several offensive rebounds to get extra possessions, but the Nuggets cut the lead back to just 2 points. Jaylen Brown returned to action at the seven minute mark after a TV timeout. White laced his third triple of the quarter in front of his parents as the C’s kept the pressure on Denver.
Denver hit the lead at the 5 minute mark of the second, 40-39, Jokic was fouled on a deep two pointer but couldn’t convert either of his two free throw attempts. Jaylen Brown scored his first points of the second quarter with a mid range fade away with 2 minutes to go in the half. The pace of play had slowed right down to a crawl midway through the second quarter as both teams struggled to convert at either end.
Vucevic missed a straight on deep three-pointer, Derrick White slipped into the lane and grabbed the offensive board and converted an easy stick back for his fifteenth point of the game. White drained his fourth three of the game just before the half time break, Boston up by one point, 48-47, thanks to Derrick White’s hot 2nd quarter performance.
Brown came out pumped up at the start of the second half, immediately going to the low block and bodied up Strawther as he went through the defenders chest. Brown ran the court the next play and attacked the rim drawing another foul, this time on Cam Johnson. Scheierman converted his second triple from the deep wing as Boston took a quick four-point lead in the third quarter.
Denver got into early foul trouble to start the second half, both teams continued to struggle shooting the ball, Boston was 40 percent compare to Denver, at just 35 percent. Jokic was settling for three-pointers all night and the big man was 2-10 from deep at the six minute mark of the third. Boston went scoreless for 2 minutes, as they watched Jokic hit 5 straight points to take give the home team a 64-61 lead.
Brown had a brilliant chase down block on Simpson, JB ran the court and fed Vucevic for the alley oop tip in. Brown kept the pressure on the Nuggets wings drilling a two-pointer on a step back jumper and then drawing a foul on Braun who hit Brown from behind. Tim Hardaway Jr gave the Nugs some energy from the bench in the third, hitting a pair of shots, Denver up 70-67.
Boston started to show fatigue during the third, on the second night of a back-to-back, Denver’s hustle wearing down the road team at altitude. The Nuggets ended the quarter up by 10 points, 77-67, their largest lead of the game, with 12 minutes of regulation to play.
Denver went on a 15-0 run which pretty much sealed it. Scheierman stepped out of court and later had a three-pointer overruled. Boston’s attempted clean sweep of the West Coast ended as they went down by a wide margin managing to shoot a paltry 33% from the field, and recorded 11 turnovers on the night. Danilo Banton and Luka Garza got some run in the final 5 minutes of play as Coach Mazzulla waved the white flag and got White and Brown out of the game for good.
Boston would drop just their second game of February and now return home to face the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night, 7:30 pm EST.