Flying high: 10 Takeaways from Boston Celtics-Charlotte Hornets

1. Make no mistake, the Charlotte Hornets are a bad team. That being said, the Boston Celtics completely demolished them. This game was never close. On a night where Boston was without Jaylen Brown and Al Horford for maintenance/rest days and on a back-to-back, the only question was how many points the Celtics were going put on the board and how much they would win by.

Boston is now within a hair of shooting 50% from the field (49.6%) and 40% on three-pointers (40.3%) for the season. That’s never been done before in NBA history. The Celtics offensive rating is 121.5. That’s 4.4 points better than the second place Phoenix Suns. For reference, that is as large a difference as there is between Phoenix and the 10^th place Indiana Pacers.

Malcolm Brogdon said it’s “a treat” to play with this Boston Celtics team. They’ve been a treat to watch, as well. Every night it seems to get a little better from an offensive standpoint. And the defense is showing plenty of signs of being able to lock in when they need to.

A treat, indeed.

2. Jayson Tatum took a rare night off on Sunday. He was back it and it looked good right from the jump in this one. Tatum scored 16 points in the first eight minutes of the game, and he did it mostly by getting downhill.

If there’s anything to nitpick with Tatum’s game this season, it’s that he’s at a career-low 34.7% from behind the arc. But that’s been more than offset by a career-best 80.7% at the rim and a career-high 8.5 free throw attempts per game. History tells us the jumper will come around eventually, which makes the improved inside game that much more exciting.

Tatum has finally put together the full package of using his size, length, strength and skill to finish at the cup. This play starts with Tatum fronting the post. After the steal, he sprints the floor before pinning and overpowering Theo Maledon for the layup:

Pretty regularly now, Tatum is just bigger and better than the guys trying to defend him:

The skill is there too. For a certain subset of CelticsBlog readers that complain Tatum has no lefthand, how’s this switch-hands finish work for you?

Charlotte was on a 9-0 run at this point in the game. They weren’t threatening, but had the run continued, the game could have gotten a little interesting. Tatum was having none of it. This play loudly finished off the Hornets:

3. In the preseason, it was evident that Malcolm Brogdon was going to give the Celtics exactly what they…