Tatum and the Stay Ready Group come up huge in Celtics 123-105 win over 76ers

Coming off a historic win against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Celtics matched up against the Philadelphia 76ers on the second night of a back-to-back. Both teams were shorthanded in this matchup and it was the Celtics who came out on top 123-105.

Jayson Tatum led the way for the Celtics with 35 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals on 14-23 shooting. The Stay Ready Group came up huge for the Celtics as the bench scored 59 points led by Payton Pritchard (19 points), Baylor Scheierman, (15 points), and Torrey Craig (12 points).

With Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis out, it was good to see everyone on the bench contribute in a meaningful way. The Celtics had a hot shooting night overall as they shot 50.5% from the field and 40% from three as a team.

After a career-high 41 points on 9 three pointers the night before, Derrick White fittingly started the game with two more threes and 8 points in the first two minutes. Drew Peterson made his first career NBA start tonight and showed off his defense early as he forced a turnover and found Jayson Tatum for an easy basket.

Just like White, after scoring a career high 43 points on 10 threes the game before, Payton Pritchard checked in and hit his first three, but the first quarter belonged to Jayson Tatum. Tatum tied his career high in first quarter scoring with 18 points on 8-10 shooting and just picked apart the 76ers defense.

Philadelphia tried to stay in the game as former training camp Celtic Lonnie Walker scored 9 points on 3-3 from three point range, but were still trailing Boston 35-24 at the end of the first. The Celtics shot an absurd 66.7% from the field and 45.5% from three in the first quarter, dominating the short handed 76ers.

Tatum started the second quarter, but it was Torrey Craig that led the Celtics offense as he scored Boston’s first 7 points of the quarter including a crazy put back dunk on a Neemias Queta miss.

Derrick White went back to the locker room mid-way through the second quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Kelly Oubre and it looked like he got another tooth knocked out.

With White out, it was Baylor Scheierman who stepped up in his place. He scored a career high 8 points in the second quarter and made a couple great hustle plays that led to second chance opportunities for the Celtics.

After a chaotic end to the quarter where both teams couldn’t grab a defensive rebound, Boston took a 64-46 lead into the break. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals on 9-15 shooting at the half while Kelly Oubre and Lonnie Walker led the 76ers with 11 points.

Boston also got some big production from the stay ready group as the Celtics bench scored 29 points in the first half with the main contributors being Payton Pritchard (11 points), Torrey Craig (10 points) and Baylor Scheierman (8 points). The Celtics hot shooting continued in the second quarter as they finished the first half shooting 50% from the field and 41% from three.

There was good news for the Celtics to start the third quarter as Derrick White returned to the game after getting his tooth knocked out. Tatum picked up right where he left off at the end of the first half as he scored 8 of the Celtics first 12 points of the second half while Luke Kornet scored the other 4 points.

Kelly Oubre started to get the 76ers back in the game with 16 points in the third quarter and led Philadelphia on a 14-5 run to cut the Celtics lead to 10. Boston countered with a 10-2 run of their own to end the third quarter with a 97-79 lead.

Tatum scored 15 points in the third quarter to bring his total to 35 points and Baylor Scheierman knocked down another three for his first double digit scoring game of his NBA career. Kelly Oubre finished the third quarter with 27 points as the 76ers tried to make a comeback.

The Celtics started the fourth quarter on a 12-0 run including 6 straight points from Neemias Queta top open their lead to 28 points.

The Celtics took out their starters when the lead hit 30 points as new two-way signing Miles Norris checked in for his NBA debut. Xavier Tillman played some solid minutes to end the fourth quarter as he put the game away for a Celtics victory.

The Celtics next game is on Saturday March 8th at 8:30 pm against LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Los Angeles Lakers.