BOSTON — The Celtics have been on a mission to reward their followers earlier than everybody headed house to start their New 12 months’s Eve festivities on Tuesday.
Followers crammed TD Backyard’s stands within the afternoon hours of Tuesday, hoping to look at the reigning champions shut 2024 on a robust be aware and bounce again from a slip-up loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. Boston checked all its mandatory bins by demolishing the Toronto Raptors, 125-71, prompting head coach Joe Mazzulla to share a candid message earlier than the group formally enters 2025.
“I instructed the fellows earlier than the sport, ‘It’s 3 o’clock on a Tuesday and we’ve misplaced extra house video games this 12 months than we had final 12 months,’ and take a look at the eagerness that (the followers) have for who we’re,” Mazulla mentioned. “So, I’m grateful for that however for a 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, to get that keenness is form of why this job is one of the best job. And that’s the place the duty is available in and also you gotta convey it.”
Boston dropped the ball on Christmas Day in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers, then throughout the second of a back-to-back internet hosting the Pacers. That put the Celtics on a 5-5 stretch throughout their earlier 10 video games with issues concerning the group’s outdoors taking pictures, defensive consideration to element and depth looming into query. However Mazzulla, Jayson Tatum and the remainder of the locker room expressed zero worries and accepted the truth of what comes with an 82-game common season — even because the title defenders.
The Celtics regained Jrue Vacation’s presence after the 34-year-old missed the earlier three video games with a proper shoulder impingement harm. Vacation instantly grew to become a difference-maker within the lineup, scoring 14 factors on 5-of-8 taking pictures with 4 made 3-pointers and tallying a game-high three steals on the opposite finish. It had been some time however the Vacation-Derrick White backcourt tandem suffocated Toronto’s offense — White recorded 4 blocks — and paved the best way for the group.
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Mazzulla’s pressing Celtics saved their foot firmly on the fuel, scoring 80 factors within the second half and tallying a rating differential (54 factors) that was the second-largest in group historical past. Boston recorded 14 steals and 7 blocks, shot 51.2% from three on 43 makes an attempt and gifted its starters an early elimination on the finish of the third quarter.
Mission completed and message delivered.
