Celtics Started Blowout Win Over Nets By Making NBA History
'We were locked in defensively,' Ime Udoka said
The Boston Celtics never gave the Brooklyn Nets a chance to win.
The C’s blew open Tuesday night’s tilt by taking a 28-2 lead. You read that correctly, and here’s proof if you don’t believe your lying eyes at first.
In doing so, the Celtics made NBA history.
“According to the TNT broadcast, it was the first time that a team has scored 28 of the first 30 points in a game since the NBA began tracking play-by-play data in 1996,” Celtics.com’s Taylor Snow wrote on the team’s website.
Boston went on to cruise to a 126-91 win over Brooklyn, with the result lifting the Celtics over the Nets into seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Celtics head coach Ime Udoka credits the team’s defensive mindset for their stellar performance in the first quarter.
“We were locked in defensively, obviously, to hold them to two ,” he said, per Celtics.com. ” … “It feels like we’re connected. It feels like, at times, we engulf teams and suffocate them with our size and length and some of those things. It feels like everybody is taking the challenge and embracing it, embracing that mentality. When everyone comes out on the same page, you see a lot of first quarters where teams are scoring in the teens. That means we are coming out focused and prepared and doing it on that end, but also we saw how easy it translates to offense. When we are guarding like that and getting out in running, it’s a much different ballgame than taking it out of the net and having to play in the half-court.”
By playing their game as Udoka describes, the Celtics extended their season-high winning streak to six games.
