Celtics Wrap: Donovan Mitchell’s 36 Points Lead Jazz To 122-108 Win

The best team in basketball added to their resume Tuesday night.

Things looked good for Boston for a while, as the Celtics came out hot shooting 63.3 percent from deep in the opening quarter with Jaylen Brown dropping 20 first-half points, and then again as they hung around in the fourth.

But Donovan Mitchell led Utah in a balanced scoring effort as the Jazz earned a 122-108 victory and moved to an NBA-best 20-5 record. Mitchell had 36 points, nine assists, four rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

Joe Ingles contributed 24 points and six assists, Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 16 points with eight rebounds and four assists and Rudy Gobert had an 18-point, 12-rebound double-double with three assists and three blocks, too.

All in all, it was a 42-point third quarter that put Utah over the top.

So after five games on the West Coast the Celtics head back to Boston having gone 2-3 over the stretch.

For Boston, Brown finished with 33 points and eight rebounds after missing the last two games.

Jayson Tatum had 23 points, four rebounds and four assists while Grant Williams led the bench with nine points, four rebounds, two steals a block and an assist. Kemba Walker (seven points) had another rough shooting night (2-for-12 from the field) but had seven assists and four boards.

Despite fouling out in the fourth, Daniel Theis had 15 points and was 5-for-6 from beyond the arc with four rebounds and a block.

With the loss, the Celtics fall to 12-11 on the season.

Here’s how it all went down:

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STARTING FIVE
Walker ran the point with Brown and Tatum starting on the wing, as the three players were all available together for only the fourth time this season.

Tristan Thompson and Daniel Theis rounded-out the double-big starting rotation.

C’S FROM DEEP
Brown wasn’t rusty from deep after missing two games for the Celtics, and he opened the game with three triples to send the Celtics out on a 9-2 run to begin the game.

Utah managed to cut the early deficit to three points behind Mitchell’s effort before Walker got involved for Boston with a 3-pointer of his own.

The Jazz took their first lead with 7:15 left on the clock and a Joe Ingles’ shot from deep, and the teams swapped leads for a sequence, but Boston was too hot from beyond the arc.

The Celtics went 7-for-12 (63.6 percent) from behind the 3-point line in the first frame with Daniel Theis, Semi Ojeleye and Payton Pritchard joining Brown and Walker on the action.

Boston led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, but Utah managed to hang around despite shooting 36 percent from the field and 21.4 percent from deep.

The Celtics, meanwhile, led 27-24 after one.

THIS IS A CLOSE ONE
Points were harder to come back in the first few minutes of the second frame for both squads, but Utah slowly chipped away before taking a one-point lead on a Derrick Favors dunk at the 8-minute mark.

The Celtics, meanwhile, scored just four points in the first five minutes of the quarter thanks to a pair of offensive boards from Tatum and Thompson.

Grant Williams stuffed Favors with a big block but it was hard for Boston to turn any momentum from that into a real run.

Brown was carrying the team on his back, though, and scored the go-ahead points on a hard drive to the basket that resulted in an And-1. It caused the Jazz to put Gobert back in the game to close out the half.

The two teams battled it out right before the break, with Mitchell (12 points), Ingles (11 points) and Gobert (nine points) leading a balanced offensive effort with 14 team assists.

Brown finished the half with 20 points and two rebounds while Tatum (four rebounds, two assists), Theis (three rebounds) and Thompson (four rebounds, one assist) all contributed six points.

Boston trailed Utah entering halftime, 48-47.

LET’S FORGET THIS QUARTER HAPPENED
Theis was still hot out of the locker room, hitting his third 3-pointer of the game on his fourth attempt.

But the Jazz, behind a few ridiculous knock-down triples from Mitchell, cruised out to a 10-point lead to make it 68-58 and instigate a Celtics’ timeout.

It got much worse from there for Boston, as the Celtics were outscored 42-32 in the fourth.

This was pretty cool, though:

To put things into perspective, Jordan Clarkson hit this shot after going 1-for-10.

Utah eventually closed out the quarter 90-79.

JAZZ PULL IT OUT
Tatum began to take on more and more of the offensive load as the second half progressed, and was running the floor.

A 6-0 run capped off by a filthy drive from Brown made it a four-point game. The Jazz managed to pull away again and Theis fouled out with more than five minutes to play.

Brown then made it a five-point game again, as it was tough to stop him all night.

But a late Ingles 3-pointer made it 111-104 with under 2:30 to play, and the rest is history.

PLAY OF THE GAME
This drive by Brown was so good we have to show it in slow-mo.

UP NEXT
Home, sweet home.

The Celtics finally get to head back to Boston as they host the Toronto Raptors at TD Garden on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET.