After beating the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, the Celtics are back in action to welcome back old friend Marcus Smart and the Memphis Grizzlies. Last year Smart was injured and didn’t get to play in his first game back at TD Garden so this will be his first game playing against his former team. Smart was the heart and soul for the Celtics for 9 seasons and even though it still looks weird seeing him in a Grizzlies uniform, its good to see him playing on the parquet again.
Al Horford is out tonight on the second half of a back to back and Kristaps Porzingis, the main piece in the Marcus Smart trade, returns for the Celtics. For the Grizzlies, Zach Edey, Luke Kennard, and Vince Williams Jr were ruled out.
Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images
Marcus Smart checked into the game at the 8:50 mark for Memphis to a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd.
It was a back and forth game early in the first quarter but the Celtics offense started sloppy. Boston started the game shooting 2-11 from three including Jrue Holiday going 1-6. The Grizzlies defensive strategy of “make Jrue Holiday beat us” worked early as they went on a 10-0 run to get a 10 point lead.
The Holiday strategy didn’t work for long however as Holiday drilled back to back wide open corner threes. Holiday finished the first quarter with 11 points on 4-10 shooting and 3-8 from beyond the arc.
Jrue Holiday has scored 11 points in the first quarter for the first time since Jan. 17, 2023. It’s been 5 years since he took 10+ shots in a first quarter.
— Dick Lipe (@DickLipe) December 8, 2024
Smart was given a rude awaken in his return as he went 0-5 shooting in the quarter including a Neemias Queta block which led to a Payton Pritchard hustle play to save the ball from going out of bounds.
The Grizzlies role players stepped up big as guys like Jay Huff, Santi Aldama and Jaylen Wells made sure Memphis kept a 31-27 lead over the Celtics to end the first quarter. Holiday’s 11 point quarter led the Celtics and Ja Morant led the Grizzlies with 11 points as well.
Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
After Neemias Queta was the first center off of the bench for the Celtics in the first quarter, Luke Kornet started the second quarter.
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