Boston, MA
Celtics wave white flag at halftime in blowout loss to Bucks
Joe Mazzulla processed the first half, saw the halftime score and made a rare decision.
The Celtics coach waved the white flag.
With the Celtics trailing by 37 at halftime, Mazzulla pulled his starters. He gave them the rest of the night off. Instead, he started an all-bench lineup of Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, Lamar Stevens, Svi Mykhailiuk and Luke Kornet. That unit and the rest of the bench played the rest of the night in the Celtics 135-102 blowout loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee.
“I just thought it was in the best interest of our team,” Mazzulla told reporters. “Just the way the game was going. I thought that was best for everybody.”
This game should have been a marquee showcase between the East’s top two teams. Instead, with the exception of the outcome counting toward their race for the No. 1 seed, there won’t be much to glean from Thursday night.
It doesn’t totally excuse the effort, but the Celtics weren’t given any favors by the schedule-makers. The Celtics traveled to Milwaukee exhausted on the second night of a back-to-back, a night after they put in maximum effort to beat the West-leading Timberwolves in an overtime thriller. Four Celtics players – Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday – played at least 40 minutes. Thursday marked their fifth game in seven nights.
Meanwhile, the Bucks hadn’t played since Monday. They were waiting at home for the Celtics and well-rested for their opportunity to exact revenge from their first meeting in Boston back in November, then blasted them in the first half. The Celtics trailed 75-38 at the break, their second-largest halftime deficit in franchise history.
Mazzulla said it was his decision to pull the starters after halftime. Tatum played just 16 minutes, Brown played 18 minutes, as all the starters played 21 minutes or less.
“Just didn’t have it tonight,” Mazzulla told reporters. “It happens from time to time. I thought the intentions were great. Guys gave it all they had for as long as they could, just didn’t go our way on either end of the floor. …
“It’s tough, right? Like, they want to play. They’re competitors. Again, it was my decision. It wasn’t theirs. But at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to do what’s best for them and the team, and so obviously if I had said hey you want to go out there, they’re going to do it. It was me. I told them and I felt like that was my responsibility to do it.”
The game was basically over by early in the second quarter. The Celtics’ fatigue was apparent offensively with a 6-for-20 start from the field. It seemed to affect their defense. Still, they hung around in the first quarter. Two dunks from Oshae Brissett made it a 31-23 game with 2:14 remaining in the opening period.
But then it became a laugher.
The Bucks erupted for a 10-0 run – which included eight points from Bobby Portis – over the final two minutes of the first as they took an 18-point lead. The Celtics never recovered, as missed shots piled up, almost in bizarre fashion. The Bucks extended their run to 25-0 with 15 consecutive points to start the second quarter as their lead ballooned to 33.
Portis, who finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds, celebrated with the crowd after hitting a step-back jumper that forced a Celtics timeout early in the second. The Bucks looked like they wanted to make a statement regardless of Boston’s circumstances.
Brown’s dunk with 7:38 remaining in the second snapped a Celtics scoring drought that lasted six minutes and 34 seconds. But the Bucks extended their lead to 38 as the Celtics continued to struggle mightily on both ends. The C’s went 1-for-16 from 3-point range in the first half.
Mazzulla was not close to being concerned after this drubbing. The circumstances were certainly unique and difficult, but he knows the makeup of his team. He acknowledged he may have handled this situation differently a year ago, but this season, Mazzulla has looked more at the bigger picture.
“You look at the intentions and the character of your team, and a year of experience for myself, and so I trust our character, I trust our team,” Mazzulla said. “You have to look at this and say OK, is this a one-off, is this a trend, is this something you have to be concerned about and when you look at stuff like that, the answer is no, no, and things like this happen. And you can actually use them as opportunities because it gives you perspective, you’re able to take a deep breath, and as I said, we’re not on the side of that very often, and when you are, it’s good to learn from it.”
The Celtics trailed by as much as 43 in the third quarter, and TNT actually changed the game briefly because it was so lopsided. But Mazzulla was happy with how the bench responded as they won the fourth quarter, 32-24.
Mazzulla did not want to use excuses for this loss, even if they were easy to make. He stressed that this was an anomaly, but was eager to see how his team responds when they return home on Saturday to face the Rockets.
“I don’t want to use the phrase throw in the towel, it’s more about the perspective of your team and where your team is at,” Mazzulla said. “You look at our team over the course of … 38, 39 games, we’ve developed a toughness, a mindset, we’ve done a lot of great things on back to backs, we’ve done a lot of great things underhanded, and tonight just wasn’t our night. I think you have to have the humility to know that from time to time. …
“It will be more important how we respond on Saturday, because these aren’t excuses. This is just the way life is, it’s the way it goes. As I said to the team after, I’ve said it before, it’s more about who we’re going to be on Saturday, who we’re going to be in other tough situations.”
Boston, MA
New Japanese restaurant brings affordable bentos, hand rolls to Boston
The team behind several popular hand roll spots in Boston has opened its newest concept near a college campus.
NoriNori Test Kitchen, opened at 399 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brookline on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
Located just steps away from Cleveland Circle and Boston College, the Japanese bar and restaurant is the third venture from NoToro Hospitality Group. The group oversees other popular sushi spots including Matsunori Handroll Bar in Fenway and Mai, which opened in Seaport in September 2025.
“Norinori is a salute to the humble bento, bringing their affordability, simplicity, and versatility to Brookline and modernizing their traditional flavors with a boldness that reflects our industrial cyberpunk-inspired space,” the restaurant’s website states. “Bentos fuel Japan. From Tokyo to Hokkaido. Come join us as we welcome them to Brookline.”
Keeping NoToro’s focus on affordability, NoriNori’s menu consists of moderately priced hand rolls and bento boxes.
Boxes range from $19-$27 and come with diners’ choice of protein, rice, soup and salad. Standouts include the $24 Gyukatsu, a fried beef sirloin cutlet with homemade tonkatsu sauce, and the Miso Butter Cod (also $24), which features Atlantic white cod marinated for 24 hours in a homemade miso butter mix.
Meanwhile most of NoriNori’s hand rolls are between $5-$6. Diners familiar with NoToro’s other concepts will recognize these rolls, which feature several staple fish including salmon, tuna, yellowtail and eel.
NoriNori is open Tuesday through Sunday from 5:30-9:30 p.m.
Boston, MA
David Pastrnak, Bruins earn 3-2 overtime victory over Nashville
The Bruins may not liked how they got to the end result on Tuesday night at the Garden, but results are all that matter right now.
For the second night in a row, the B’s could not protect a lead that they held after 40 minutes. But unlike the verdict in Manhattan, the B’s were able to get the full two points on the table in overtime.
It took just 15 seconds into OT.
Mark Kastelic won the opening faceoff and Charlie McAvoy skated with it into the offensive zone. Marat Khusnutdinov jumped on for Kastelic and, after some razzle-dazzle, McAvoy sent a backhand pass toward the top of the crease to David Pastrnak for the redirection goal for the 3-2 win. It was an all’s-well-that-ends-well kind of night for Pastrnak, who took a costly penalty late in the second period that helped Nashville get back in the game.
The day was an interesting one for the B’s.
The schedule gives and it takes away, and Tuesday was a night when the B’s were at a distinct disadvantage. Because of flight issues related to the winter storm, the B’s could not fly out of New York on Monday after their overtime loss to the Rangers and were forced to bus back up to Boston, arriving back home around 1:30 pm on Tuesday.
The Preds on the other hand, last played on Saturday afternoon and chartered into Boston on Saturday night to beat the blizzard.
The team chefs arrived with meals at Hanscom Airport to help the players fuel up. Skills coach John McLean, who doesn’t travel with the team, also went the airport and shoveled out the entire traveling party’s cars, no small task with the amount of snow dumped on the region.
“We owe him a couple of beers,” said Morgan Geekie. “It takes a village and everybody stepped up today no matter how it was. Happy we could get the win.”
With all the help they did get, coach Marco Sturm wasn’t going to allow his players an out if they did lose in OT.
“It doesn’t matter if we lost the game or whatever. That shouldn’t be an excuse,” said Sturm. “Guys were ready to go today. You’re not always perfect Our third was definitely better than (Monday). Couldn’t close it but guys came back and showed character and at the end of the day, we need to take all the points we can get….I’m just happy the way the last couple of weeks went.”
Dating back to their New Year’s Eve win in Edmonton, the B’s are 11-2-1 in their last 14.
Despite the travel complications, the B’s were the ones to score the lone goal in the first period, which came off the stick of Sweden’s newest Olympian, Hampus Lindholm. The defenseman took the puck down from the left point to the circle and sent what looked like a harmless shot toward the net. But working the net front after winning the faceoff back to Mason Lohrei, Fraser Minten went for the tip and missed, but that seemed to distract Juuse Saros enough to allow the puck to get behind him for the 1-0 B’s lead at 13:16.
They made it 2-0 early in the second period, thanks to the simmering stick of Geekie. Pastrnak first danced around Roman Josi just inside the Nashville blue line and then shoveled the puck along the left boards to Geekie. Geekie took a few strides toward the net and, from the bottom of the circle, snapped a shot that beat Saros off the far post and in. It was Geekie’s 30th goal of the season and fourth in three games while Pastrnak extended his point streak to eight games.
Though the game was a snoozer, the B’s appeared to be in full control. That is until their season-long problem raised its ugly head again – penalties.
Late in the period, Pastrnak took a bad slashing on Josi in the neutral zone. It was the B’s fourth penalty to that point and, this time, the Predators made them pay. From above the right dot, Josi’s low shot got under Jeremy Swayman’s glove with 35 seconds left in the period, changing the complexion of the game just like that.
“Obviously I know it’s a bad penalty and I apologized to the group and moved forward,” said Pastrnak.
To make matters worse, the B’s lost Elias Lindholm to an upper body injury off a faceoff late in the period and he did not return. Sturm did not have an update after the game but said the centerman would be getting some tests on Wednesday.
In the third, the B’s had a great chance to regain the two-goal lead when Casey Mittelstadt, from behind the net, found a wide-open Viktor Arvidsson a the top of the crease, but Saros stoned him.
And with 6:43 left in regulation, the Preds tied it. After matching roughing minors, Nashville scored on the ensuing 4-on-4 when Nick Blankenburg used the extra room to roam free out high and he beat Swayman with a long shot under the blocker.
It stay deadlocked after 60 minutes. It got unlocked 15 seconds later. On the winner, another non-uniformed member of the B’s had another big assist. The plan, as usual, was for Kastelic to take the opening draw and jump off the ice. This time Khusnutdinov was set to jump on. Only problem was, he was missing a skate blade.
Equipment manager Keith Robinson heard assistant Matt Falconer yell out “Khusy needs steel!” As soon as Robinson snapped the blade in, Khusnutdinov jumped onto the ice and joined the weave in the offensive zone, dropping the puck for the circling Pastrnak, who then executed the pretty give-and-go with McAvoy for the winner.
As Geekie said, it takes a village.
Loose pucks
Hampus Lindholm will be going to the Olympics after all. Due to the injury to Jonas Brodin, Lindholm was named to Team Sweden on Tuesday, where he’ll join Bruin teammate Elias Lindholm. Other Bruins going to the Games in Milan, Italy will be Swayman and McAvoy (USA), Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha (Czechia), Henri Jokiharju (Finland) and Providence Bruin Dans Locmelis (Latvia).
“Any time you put (the Sweden jersey), it’s such a cool jersey, it has so much history tied to it. I haven’t had any opportunity for the Olympis for me in my career, so it’s going to be a great honor to go there,” said Lindholm… Alex Steeves was scratched in favor of Mikey Eyssimont, who played his first game since Jan. 11…Nikita Zadorov, who missed Monday’s game with a lower body injury, returned to the lineup and saw 21:53, second most on the B’s to McAvoy’s 27:14.
Boston, MA
Families of two killed in US boat strikes near Venezuela file wrongful-death suit in Boston – The Boston Globe
The lawsuit against the federal government was filed Tuesday morning by lawyers from the political advocacy group American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Samaroo’s sister, Sallycar Korasingh, and Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley.
Maritime lawsuits can be filed in any federal court in the US, the ACLU noted, and they said they chose Boston because of the long history of such suits here.
The complaint alleges the deaths amount to extrajudicial slayings, or the unlawful killing of an individual by a government.
“I miss him terribly. We all do,” Burnley said of her son, in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “We know this lawsuit won’t bring Chad back to us, but we’re trusting God to carry us through this, and we hope that speaking out will help get us some truth and closure.”
The strike that allegedly took both men’s lives came on Oct. 14, as they made the short journey to the island that’s only a handful of miles off Venezuela’s coast.
For Joseph, according to the lawsuit, it was to be a long-delayed homecoming. The farmer and fisherman had been in Venezuela since April for work, as sometimes happened with him. On top of that, the suit said, he had a hard time finding a boat back to the small fishing village on Trinidad’s north coast where he lived with his common-law wife and three children.
On Oct. 12, he called his wife to tell her the 20-mile boat trip was finally happening: He’d be back in two days, according to the lawsuit.
He’d be with Samaroo, a coworker and fishing buddy who had moved to Las Cuevas a year earlier after his release from prison. He was imprisoned for 15 years for his role in a killing, according to the lawsuit. Media reports say it was the homicide of a street vendor, but don’t provide further detail about what happened.
Samaroo told his sister he was returning on the Oct. 14 boat because he wanted to see their mother, who had fallen ill.
Neither man, their families and the Trinidadian government claim, was involved in the drug trade.
Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister, said he had “paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again” when the strike killed him.
“If the U.S. government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him,” she said in a statement. “They must be held accountable.”
On Oct. 14, the news came in the form of a social-media post from the president of the United States.
Trump posted that he’d authorized a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking” in international waters near Venezuela. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route.” Six “male narcoterrorists,” Trump said, died in the strike.
If was the latest of what would ultimately be more than 30 such strikes on boats near Venezuela, whose leadership Trump has blamed for the influx of drugs coming into the United States. Ultimately, tensions escalated to the point that US military forces entered Venezuela and arrested its president, the dictator Nicolas Maduro, in a raid earlier this month.
In the Oct. 14 post announcing the strike, the president attached a video of the men’s last moments. A small boat appears to sit in the middle of the frame. Suddenly, a dart of light comes from off the screen above, striking the boat, which explodes into a fireball.
Joseph’s mother, Burnley, saw the reports of the strike on the news and called her son’s wife.
“They immediately feared that Mr. Joseph was aboard this boat, as the timing of the strike directly coincided with Mr. Joseph’s journey by boat from Venezuela to Las Cuevas,” lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
They called his phone, but it was dead. And, the complaint said, “The line remains dead to this day.”
Their remains were not found. Both families have filed missing-persons reports and sought more information, but non has been available. Both families, according to the lawsuit, have held funerals.
As justification, Trump has said that the US is essentially in conflict with the large drug-trafficking organizations that smuggle drugs into the United States.
In the lawsuit, the families allege the strike was illegal because drug traffickers — even violent ones — do not qualify under international law as an entity that a country can claim it’s in armed conflict against. But even if that were the case, the suit claims, the government should not target civilians.
“As a result, even in the context of an armed conflict, the killings of Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo would constitute a grave breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and thus a war crime, making its perpetrators punishable under federal and international law,” the complaint states.
The lawyers are suing under the century-old Death on the High Seas Act, which allows family members of people killed in international waters to sue for wrongful death.
Ultimately, this suit is seeking unnamed monetary damages for the families. The complaint is not seeking an injunction ordering the government to change its behavior.
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.
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