The Boston Celtics continued their homestand by hosting several old friends, now members of the Utah Jazz, at TD Garden on Monday night.
Boston was without center Kristaps Porzingis for the sixth straight game, all while in search of its fifth consecutive win. Jayson Tatum, the team’s leader in points, rebounds and assists, and Al Horford, the team’s backup big man, were also sidelined with knee and toe injuries, respectively. Still, that didn’t prevent the reigning champs from continuing their ongoing winning streak.
Sam Hauser’s out-of-nowhere career performance paved the way past a gritty Jazz squad. The Celtics improved to 47-18 and kept their streak, now at five straight victories, intact with one game left on the homestand.
Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s 114-108 win over Utah:
STUDS
Sam Hauser
Boston’s undermanned unit needed a scoring boost, and Hauser provided that in the most electric way possible.
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Hauser took over the floor in the third quarter, knocking down seven 3-pointers to help the floodgates open and allow the Celtics to take a 90-69 lead over the Jazz. The 27-year-old finished with a career-high 33 points along with six rebounds, one assist and one steal, successfully rewarding head coach Joe Mazzulla for giving him the starting nod.
Jaylen Brown
Instead of following Tatum’s lead, Brown followed Hauser’s lead in the scoring department and did so efficiently.
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Brown provided 26 points on 8-of-20 shooting, shaking off an 0-for-5 performance from beyond the arch. The four-time All-Star flirted with a triple-double, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out seven assists, while also contributing on the defensive end — Brown tallied three steals and a block.
Brice Sensabaugh
The rookie came through for Utah in the fourth quarter to help them muster up a desperate last-minute bid against Boston.
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Sensabaugh, off the bench, shot 5-of-7 from the floor in the final frame to pitch in with 22 points — more than any Utah starter besides John Collins (28 points). The 21-year-old emerged out of nowhere, shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 5-for-7 from three with four rebounds and five assists.
Danny Ainge, former Celtics executive and current Jazz president of basketball operations, was likely watching from afar with a smile across his face.
DUDS
Svi Mykhailiuk
Mykhailiuk’s biggest highlight came pregame when the former Celtics wing collected his 2024 championship ring and received a round of applause.
That was it.
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Mykhailiuk shot 3-for-8 from the field across 23 minutes off the bench to provide Utah with eight points of offense. The 27-year-old also grabbed four rebounds and recorded two assists, finishing with a minus-9 rating, the lowest of anyone coming off the Jazz’s bench.
Payton Pritchard
Boston didn’t get much out of Pritchard, the team’s usual reserve unit weapon.
Pritchard struggled to get going offensively, shooting just 3-of-11 from the floor and 2-of-8 from 3-point territory. The 27-year-old scored eight points with three assists and two steals and notched a minus-4 rating.
Boston’s near fourth-quarter collapse
Utah went on a 34-11 run in the fourth quarter to even up the contest at 103-103.
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The struggles in closing out loomed once again as the Celtics allowed the Jazz to climb back from a double-digit deficit — once as large as 24 points — and score 39 points in the closing quarter of regulation. That’s a major momentum shift after Boston managed to hold Utah to under 25 points for each of the previous three quarters.
It wasn’t costly, but it also wasn’t pretty to look at.
