BOSTON — Even as the Celtics slogged through some struggles during the middle parts of their season, Kristaps Porzingis maintained a positive outlook. Sure, there were some tough times where he looked dejected after a dispiriting loss. But amid the tough times, Porzingis was often the guy speaking to the media that he wasn’t worried long-term.
Ahead of the All-Star break, the Celtics have clearly upped their play. They’ve won seven of their last eight games, including a blowout win over the Spurs on Wednesday at home. They haven’t been perfect every night, but the Celtics are back to playing winning basketball. Porzingis pinpointed reasons why they’ve played better of late ahead of the break.
“We finished heading into the break really well,” Porzingis said. “I think we’re still experiencing a little bit, but not as much anymore, that, like people are going off against us, having career highs in 3s or whatever. So, I think the luck is starting to turn our way and that’s it. We just got to stay with it. I want to speak it into existence that we’re going to peak at the right moment, and we’re going to hit our stride and just look like a team that’s going to win it all again.”
The C’s didn’t skip any steps Wednesday in their win over the Spurs. They built up a huge lead, and while the Spurs did make it interesting, the Celtics still completed the victory. Jayson Tatum finished with 32 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, while Porzingis put up 29 points and six rebounds.
Notably, the C’s won at home after some recent struggles at TD Garden. They improved to 17-10 at home as there have been some frustrating performances in front of the C’s fans. But there were mostly only cheers Wednesday as the C’s got out to a huge lead. Now, the Celtics get to take the next week off as they ready for the final stretch before the playoffs.
“The last game before All Star break is always mentally I think one of the toughest games of the year,” Tatum said. “It’s a long season, been traveling a lot, guys got plans for vacation with their families and things like that. In recent years we’ve dropped this game a few times so I thought it was really important the way that we started and made sure that we were just locked in throughout the game.”
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