The Boston Celtics swept their preseason games in Abu Dhabi, beating the Denver Nuggets again in Sunday 130-104.
The Jays had a big game today with Jaylen Brown leading the Celtics in scoring with 21 points on 8-16 shooting and Jayson Tatum dropping 17 points on 6-14 shooting. Sam Hauser was also nearly perfect with 15 points and 8 rebounds on 6-7 shooting from the field and 3-3 from three. Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets in scoring with 20 points and and Julian Strawther looked good for Denver with 17 points in the loss.
1st Quarter
Boston started the game cold on the offensive side of the ball for the second game in a row, starting 4-13 from the field and 2-8 from three. Jamal Murray was hot for the Nuggets, scoring 7 of the Nuggets first 13 points of the quarter.
Jaylen Brown was aggressive early on driving to the paint, he made a transition bucket with an and-1. There was no Al Horford for this game, so replacing Luke Kornet as the first big man off the bench today was Neemias Queta. Jayson Tatum’s jump shot looked really good as he hit 2 threes and 2 mid range fadeaway jumpers as a part of a 14-4 Celtics run.
Nikola Jokic wasn’t going to be denied on offense either, scoring 9 straight points for Denver getting to the paint and hitting a three.
At the end of 1, the Celtics lead the Nuggets 34-29. For the second game in a row, all of the starters minus Kornet played the entire quarter. Tatum finished as the Celtics leading scorer with 10 points but it was a pretty even scoring output for everyone as Brown (9 points), White (8 points), and Holiday (7 points) were able to find their groove. The Celtics finished the quarter shooting 13-28 from the field and 4-13 from three.
2nd Quarter
The bench squad checked in to begin the quarter with Pritchard, Hauser, Springer, Walsh and Tillman. Sam Hauser scored 8 straight for the Celtics, hitting a fadeaway jumper and two threes. Boston started to build up their lead a little more as Jaden Springer hit a three, growing their lead to 9 points (46-37) with 8:26 left in the half. Denver is losing the math game from three, shooting only 2-14 to start.
The starters for both teams checked back in around the 8 minute mark but Sam Hauser stayed out there and hit his 3rd straight three at the 6:48 mark.
Jaylen Brown continued to show off his strength, hitting a layup and giving Jamal Murray a “too little,” threw a no look pass to Kornet for a score, and threw down a thunderous dunk on the fast…
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