A pair of teams with not much at stake will meet Friday when the Charlotte Hornets visit the Boston Celtics.
Boston (59-21) is locked in as the No. 2 seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs and rested its top six players throughout Wednesday’s 96-76 loss at Orlando. A victory would have given the Celtics a share of the NBA record for most road wins in a season as they finished 33-8 away from home. The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors were 34-7 on the road.
Boston earned a 119-117 overtime victory against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, then decided to rest Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford for their second game in as many nights.
“I appreciate everyone’s creativity in the type of questions that they’re asking, but we got to the hotel (in Orlando) at 4:30 in the morning,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said after Wednesday’s loss.
The Celtics committed nine turnovers in the first quarter against Orlando — 16 in the game — and shot 7 of 40 (17.5 percent) from 3-point range. The Celtics finished with their lowest point total of the season.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t really hit too many of our good looks from 3, which obviously hurts, especially in the modern NBA,” Boston guard Payton Pritchard said. “Sleep plays a part in fatigue. You get in at 4:30 a.m., so it’s not easy, but it’s also not an excuse. So you have to find ways to win. That is the disappointing part of it, you learn from it, you grow from it and you move on.”
Charlotte (19-61) was eliminated from playoff contention last month and may be more concerned about the NBA draft than its final two games. The Celtics and Hornets will wrap up the regular season with another game in Boston on Sunday.
The Hornets haven’t qualified for the NBA playoffs since 2016, when they earned the No. 6 seed and lost to the Miami Heat in seven games in the first round. Charlotte qualified for the NBA’s play-in tournament in 2021 and 2022 but failed to advance either time.
Although the Hornets have lost five in a row and seven straight on the road, they received a strong performance from Nick Smith Jr. in the 126-96 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, when he collected 28 points and 10 rebounds. Smith is averaging 9.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game this season.
“Sometimes the stats can be deceiving, but (against Toronto) they didn’t lie at all,” Charlotte coach Charles Lee said. “(Smith) did it in a lot of different ways. Defensively, getting in there and rebounding after we talked about how many offensive rebounds (the Raptors) were getting. And then, offensively, he took what the game gave him.
“If I told him to make that seam pass, he made that extra pass to the seam. If he drove and got a piece of the paint, he was kicking out to Wendell Moore for a corner 3. And then he was able to score for himself, so I loved everything he was able to give to our team.”
The Celtics and Hornets played back-to-back games in Charlotte earlier this season. Boston won 124-109 on Nov. 1 and 113-103 on Nov. 2.
–Field Level Media
