Boston, MA
Celtics score a franchise-record 53 points in first quarter in rout against Heat – The Boston Globe
“We didn’t do that,” Mazzulla said. “We kept fighting for good looks, the next best look, and I thought that kept the momentum going.”
When the dust settled after this historic opening quarter, the Celtics had scored a franchise-record 53 points and raced to a 20-point lead behind a startling display of shot making. Their defense afterward was imperfect, but it did not matter in this 147-129 win in front of an audience that included Tom Brady.
“That first quarter,” Hauser said, “was unbelievable.”
The Celtics’ first-quarter point total and their 11-of-15 3-point shooting were franchise records. Jaylen Brown (20) and Hauser (17) became the first Celtics teammates in the play-by-play era (since the 1996-97 season) to score at least 17 points apiece in the same quarter.
Boston actually trailed Miami by 1 point with just over four minutes left in the first before closing the period with a loud and masterful 24-3 run.
Brown put another notch in his MVP-caliber season by pouring in 43 points on 17-of-29 shooting. He was disheartened by a rare off night in Monday’s loss to the Hawks, but confident it would not be repeated.
“I didn’t like how that game went,” Brown said, “so I wanted to come out with an aggressive mind-set tonight and make up for that last game.”
Jayson Tatum registered his first triple-double of the season, with 25 points, 18 rebounds, and 11 assists. Despite the impressive stat line in yet another Celtics win, Tatum stressed that he is still working to regain his All-Star form after missing the first 62 games because of last May’s Achilles injury.
When asked after Wednesday’s win how close he is to truly being back, he said he could not attach a figure to his recovery. But he said he feels the progress that has also been quite visible.
“It sounds cliché, but I feel a little bit better every game,” he said. “I don’t know how long it’ll take to get back to what I was, or hopefully better, but the goal is to continue to stack days.”
The Celtics shot 58.3 percent from the field and made 21 of 44 3-pointers. Miami actually outshot Boston from beyond the arc by making 24 of 47 (51.1 percent). The Heat hit 11 in the third quarter, matching the Celtics’ franchise-record total from the first. But it was not enough.
Still, Miami’s response allowed the Celtics to extract some teaching moments from an otherwise feel-good night.
“The sign of a great team is even after a great quarter you come back and do it again,” Brown said. “I thought in the second quarter we allowed some slippage and they took advantage. So, still some stuff to clean up.”
Brown scored the Celtics’ first 11 points, and they opened the game by making 10 of 12 shots and 5 of 6 3-pointers. Despite this initial surge, though, they trailed, 30-29 with 4:15 left.
Then Boston uncorked one of the most dominant stretches of this season. Hauser, who was 5 for 5 from the arc in the quarter, drilled four over the final 4:14.
Baylor Scheierman came up with a steal and flipped the ball over his shoulder to Brown for a reverse dunk. The dam was opened.
Hauser’s fifth 3-pointer, with 32 seconds left, set up a two-for-one chance. Tatum air-balled a 3-pointer on the final play, but Payton Pritchard slid in for the putback to make it 53-33.
“Just high-level shot-making on both ends,” Tatum said.
The second quarter was more, well, normal, with Tatum leading the way after having his first quarter disrupted by foul trouble. The forward had 10 points and eight rebounds and Boston outscored Miami, 27-24.
At the end of the second, Derrick White lofted an alley-oop to Brown, who converted the layup with 1.5 seconds left. White then noticed Heat guard Pelle Larsson roaming free at the other end, so he broke into a full sprint and got there in time to disrupt his last-second attempt. The Celtics went to the break with an 80-57 lead.
Boston led, 104-80, with four minutes left in the third, but Miami punched back with three 3-pointers over the final 65 seconds, with a buzzer-beater by Davion Mitchell pulling the host within 112-102 after its 45-point period. The Heat sliced the deficit to 9 early in the fourth, but a pair of mid-range jumpers by Hauser and a Tatum 3-pointer ensured there would be no collapse.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
As the Boston Red Sox struggle with offense like never before, the trade deadline seems to be zooming forward quicker than ever.
Though they scored six runs on Friday night and seven in a game earlier this week, the Red Sox still rank 29th in both runs scored and home runs out of the 30 Major League Baseball teams. The American League is weak, which means their 22-28 record hasn’t yet sunk their ship, but if they’re going to make any noise whatsoever this year, they’ll need more offense.
It’s no secret that trade talks have been happening across the league at a faster pace than usual for May. CEO Sam Kennedy said on WEEI this week that the Red Sox were looking to add offense. But they’ve also got some baseline criteria that The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey reported on Saturday.
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Red Sox looking for right-handed bats
According to McCaffrey, the Red Sox’s preference is to add a right-handed bat, with position being something of an afterthought. The team’s weakest offensive positions thus far have been all over the infield, excluding first base, catcher, and left field.
“What caliber of bat and what the Red Sox would be willing to trade in return remain the biggest questions,” wrote McCaffrey.
“While an immediate trade is unlikely, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has shown early aggressiveness before. He traded Rafael Devers, one of the team’s most productive hitters, to the San Francisco Giants in a stunning deal on June 15, 2025.”
A sneaky dream target for Boston
While we don’t yet know every player available across the league, a few teams have fallen out of the race. We could examine a few trade candidates and their fits with the Red Sox, but because the preference is for a righty, a name to circle (maybe just in pencil) is Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto.
The Red Sox were known to be high on Neto in the offseason, but ultimately couldn’t get a deal done. It didn’t sound like things were particularly close to getting across the finish line. But the Angels, who have started the season a ghastly 18-34, have to at least be considering a total sell-off.
Neto, 25, has rebounded from a slow start to post a 115 OPS+ in the earlygoing this season. The real question is whether the Angels see him as too valuable to let go this soon, but they’re not going to get a better package for him in the future than they would now.
Just food for thought, not a report that the Red Sox are back on Neto’s tail. It’s a fit that would make sense as long as Trevor Story can’t be depended upon, and Neto could easily move infield positions someday as well.
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A West Yarmouth, Massachusetts man has been charged in connection with a pair of armed bank robberies in Boston last month.
Federal prosecutors say 25-year-old Angel Gonzalez brandished a firearm during the robberies at a Santander Bank branch in Roxbury and a TD Bank branch in Roslindale on April 28. His alleged accomplice, Steven Harris, was charged with armed bank robbery earlier this month and remains in federal custody.
During the first robbery in Roxbury, Gonzalez allegedly dragged an employee from her office to the teller window, held her at gunpoint and threatened shoot her.
Less than two hours later, Gonzalez and Harris allegedly robbed the TD Bank in Roslindale. Prosecutors say Harris moved multiple employees from their offices to the main area of the bank, while Gonzalez threatened to shoot them if they did not comply. Gonzales then allegedly took $3,000 from a teller drawer before they left in a getaway vehicle.
Radek Weirdeowski was inside the Roslindale bank at the time of the robbery, and told WBZ-TV it happened so quickly. “While one guy was at the teller with the gun, the other guy was kind of rounding everyone else up,” he said. “And I thought we would all get robbed as well. But fortunately, they just took the bank’s money and took off.”
Gonzalez is charged with armed bank robbery and is currently in state custody in connection with unrelated offenses. He will make his initial appearance in federal court at a later date.
A young man was shot and killed in Boston early Friday morning
The shooting near 260 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester was caught on surveillance video that showed a group of people running and ducking for cover behind cars in a parking lot.
Boston police confirmed one person died in the shooting, which happened at about 1 a.m. Family members identified the victim as 21-year-old Giovanni Bala. They lit candles with messages written on them, remembering Bala as a loving and caring person.
“It’s a sad situation. I’ve never seen this happen in this area before,” said Oral Pierre, the manager of One Family Diner.
The restaurant’s cameras captured the shooting and the chaos that followed. Pierre has worked at his family’s restaurant for 20 years and was shocked to see the large crime scene when he got to work Friday morning.
“We saw in the parking lot two cars with bullet holes,” he said. “And when I get the video I saw about 15 people in the parking lot just running and shooting.”
Police shut down the area of Bowdoin and Hamilton streets with crime tape. Investigators scoured the area with police dogs and three cars were towed from the scene.
Kelvin Bell lives nearby and was upset to see violence in his neighborhood.
“I just heard loud bangs, commotion and sirens,” he said. “I just shook my head and said ‘enough is enough’ with the gun play. Whatever this is isn’t important enough to be taking lives. Trust me, this is not a video game, you can’t press reset.”
The Boston Police homicide unit is investigating. There’s no word on a motive or any arrests.
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