NBA Hoops

Tatum, C’s rain 3s on L.A. in blowout win

Mazzulla calls out key mistake after Celtics' ‘lucky' win in Memphis

Celtics-Clippers takeaways: Tatum, C’s rain 3s on L.A. in blowout win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Three Key Storylines

The Boston Celtics took care of business against one of the hottest teams in the NBA on Saturday.

Their West Coast road trip continued in Los Angeles against the Clippers, who entered the early-afternoon matchup with nine wins over their last 10 games. Coming off a bounce-back road win over the Sacramento Kings, the C’s improved to 2-1 out west with a 145-108 win at Crypto.com Arena. They’ve scored a whopping 289 points over their last two games.

Jayson Tatum returned after missing Wednesday’s win with a sprained ankle and led the C’s with 30 points in 30 minutes. He was one of six Celtics players in double figures, including Jaylen Brown (24 points) and Jrue Holiday (20 points).

The Celtics will stay in L.A. and prepare for a Christmas Day showdown with LeBron James and the Lakers on Monday. First, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s victory.

Jayson Tatum powers through ankle issue

Tatum was listed as questionable to play in Saturday’s game up until the opening tip. He suffered an ankle sprain in Tuesday’s loss at Golden State that forced him to miss Wednesday’s win in Sacramento.

The injury didn’t appear to impede his performance at all in L.A. The four-time All-Star quickly made his presence felt with a 10-point first quarter highlighted by two tough finishes at the rim.

Tatum stayed hot in the second quarter, though he had Celtics fans holding their collective breath with another ankle issue.

He drilled a 3-pointer but landed awkwardly on Clippers rookie Kobe Brown‘s foot. After staying down holding his ankle for several moments, he popped back up and hit his free throw to complete the four-point play. C’s fans breathed a sigh of relief as he stayed in the game and finished the first half with 21 points.

Brown received a Flagrant 1 for the incident, which you can watch below:

Tatum finished with 30 points (9-16 FG, 5-10 3-PT), five rebounds, two assists, and a steal. He did so in only three quarters as a sizable lead allowed him to rest for the entire fourth.

The re-aggravation of Tatum’s ankle injury doesn’t appear to be an issue, but his status will still be worth monitoring leading into Boston’s Christmas Day game.

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