The Boston Celtics look to become the first team to reach the 50-win mark this season when they visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.
Boston just ended its second two-game losing streak of the entire season with Saturday night’s 117-107 road victory over the Phoenix Suns.
The Celtics rattled off 11 straight victories before the bumpy patch that included losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and defending champion Denver Nuggets to start a five-game road trip.
Boston star forward Jayson Tatum said the win in Phoenix was much needed.
“We’re not perfect. We try to be, we really do try,” Tatum said. “But we make mistakes. This is a tough league, the other teams are really good and have great players. It’s all about how you respond.
“You want to be a special team, you’ve got to do a good job responding.”
Tatum scored 13 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter against the Suns.
Tatum wasn’t impressed with his game in totality. Though he made five 3-pointers, collected 10 rebounds and handed out seven assists, he was just 11 of 28 from the field and committed four turnovers.
“I finally stopped turning the ball over,” Tatum said afterward. “I’m thankful I got some great teammates because I stunk it up.”
Jaylen Brown added 27 points for Boston, which also got solid bench contributions from Luke Kornet (14 points on 6-of-7 shooting) and Payton Pritchard (10 points).
“They were amazing, they were tremendous,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of the reserve duo. “I thought Payton changed the game with his defense.”
Boston big man Kristaps Porzingis (hamstring) missed Saturday’s game.
The Celtics have won six of their past eight meetings with Portland. This is the first matchup between the teams this season, and they play again in Boston on April 7.
The Trail Blazers enter Monday on a high note after ending their nine-game home losing streak with Saturday’s 128-118 overtime victory over the Toronto Raptors. It was Portland’s first home win since beating the Milwaukee Bucks on Jan. 31 to spoil Damian’s Lillard homecoming.
Against Toronto, Deandre Ayton returned from a five-game absence due to a hand injury and stood out with a season-best 30 points while collecting 19 rebounds in the victory.
“He’s just a game-changer for us,” Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said of Ayton. “He manned the paint, he got all the rebounds. If it came in his area, he was snatching it. And then just him being able to score was a big deal.
“He alleviates so much stress for our guards. … Any time you’re in trouble anywhere, to just be able to throw it up (to Ayton) is a luxury.”
Rookie Scoot Henderson also returned to the lineup and had 13 points and five assists. He missed eight games with an adductor injury.
Dalano Banton scored 25 points against Toronto, one game after putting up a career-best 30 against the Houston Rockets. Anfernee Simons added 23 points as Portland won for the third time in the past six games.
The Trail Blazers led by as many as 21 points before the Raptors rallied late to force overtime. But Portland started the extra session with a 13-1 run to finish off Toronto.
“We was locked in,” Ayton said. “‘This game going to be ours,’ that was our attitude. Our defense was good enough to guard in the halfcourt set and we just needed to get back and slow them down a little bit on the offensive end. Just making sure we was on the glass, don’t give them no more possessions. That’s winning basketball.”
Portland forward Jerami Grant (hamstring) has missed the past two games.
–Field Level Media