Three Studs, Three Duds As Celtics Down Spurs Before All-Star Break

The Boston Celtics hosted the San Antonio Spurs in their final game before NBA’s All-Star Weekend in San Francisco.

Boston improved to 39-16 with a 116-103 win while San Antonio fell to 23-29.

Boston won a third straight game since they dropped their NBA Finals rematch against the Dallas Mavericks last week. The Celtics relied on their stars to down the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat. Boston made it look easy Wednesday night even without Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday available.

Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s win:

STUDS
Jayson Tatum
Tatum is on an absolute tear for the Celtics in February.

The Celtics star entered the night averaging 29.4 points per game this month and scored 73 points over his last two games. Tatum got right back to work with a monster first quarter for the Celtics with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists on 6-of-9 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3-point range.

He finished the night with 32 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists on 12-of-25 shooting from the field.

Tatum heads back to All-Star festivities for the sixth time in his career. He already earned Player of the Month honors in the opening month of the season and could have another case for that honor in February.

Kristaps Porzingis
The veteran big man humbled young star Victor Wembanyama on multiple occasions.

Wembanyama goaltended an early Porzingis shot and the Celtics center followed that up with a clean look over the reigning Rookie of the Year in the first quarter.

Porzingis tallied 29 points on the night and shot an efficient 10-of-16 from the floor.

Derrick White
The Celtics guard turned in a productive night against his former team just days after the three-year anniversary of his trade to Boston.

White put together a balanced outing with 19 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and a plus-11 rating.

DUDS
Spurs’ perimeter shooting
San Antonio had nothing going from the outside.

The Spurs shot just 1-for-11 from deep in the first quarter and ended the first half 3-for-21 for an abysmal 14.3% clip. They finished 9-for-39 from beyond the arc.

Chris Paul
The 12-time All-Star only averages 9.3 points per game this season, but he couldn’t do much to elevate the Spurs on Wednesday night despite his eight assists.

Paul also missed his free throw off Jayson Tatum’s technical foul for pushing off the Spurs guard in the second quarter.

Boston’s third-quarter defense
The Celtics still took care of business but slipped out of halftime and lost the third quarter to San Antonio, 34-27.