For the first time in 210 days, the Celtics were able to trot out their preferred starting five Monday night at TD Garden.

The result: a hero’s welcome for the now-healthy Kristaps Porzingis and a comprehensive beatdown of one of the NBA’s hottest teams.

Boston steamrolled the Los Angeles Clippers 126-94 in Porzingis’ return from offseason leg surgery to improve to 15-3.

Porzingis played 22 minutes in his season debut, showing some expected signs of rust but finishing with 16 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.

“I thought he played well,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We were able to get back to some of our defensive versatility. Obviously, a little bit of rim protection, a little bit more physicality on the ball because he was back there, so I thought he brought that. Offensively, he just really helped our spacing. It was good to get him back.”

Jayson Tatum led all Boston starters with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Derrick White added 19 points, seven assists, four rebounds and a steal, and Jaylen Brown scored 17, plus six boards, four assists, three steals and one block.

White (5-for-9) and bench scorers Payton Pritchard (6-for-10) and Sam Hauser (3-for-3) led another explosive 3-point effort for the Celtics, who went 22-for-51 (43.1%) from downtown in the win. Pritchard scored 20 points and grabbed two steals as his NBA Sixth Man of the Year campaign continued.

The Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers, owners of the league’s fourth-best defensive rating, came in riding a five-game win streak, during which they allowed just 96.8 points per game. The Celtics surpassed that mark before the end of the third quarter.

“I think when we’re at our best, you have to have an understanding of, ‘This is what we do,’” Mazzulla said. “When we’re at our best, we do this. And how long can we stay at the best version of ourselves?”

Porzingis, who missed Boston’s first 17 games, waited until 10 minutes into warmups to take the court, doing so with a smile on his face and a paper coffee cup in his right hand. His solo entrance preceded a personalized hype video that played on the Garden Jumbotron, its final shot an all-caps declaration: “HE’S BACK.”

The fan-favorite big man remained the center of attention once the game tipped off. Porzingis attempted 3-pointers on three of the Celtics’ four possessions and four of their first seven. Though he made just one of those — after his third miss, he grinned, seemingly acknowledging the impact of his long layoff — he was immediately impactful on the defensive end.

Before being subbed out for Neemias Queta seven minutes in, Porzingis helped force misses by Ivica Zubac, Amir Coffey and Derrick Jones Jr. with strong contests at the rim.

Rim protection was one of Boston’s biggest areas of concern in Porzingis’ absence — they dropped from fifth-best last season to eighth-worst this season in opponent shooting percentage inside the restricted area and first to 14th in blocks per game — so this was a welcome sight for Mazzulla and Co.

“Eleven blocks tonight,” the coach deadpanned. “It helps.”

Queta, a healthy DNP in Sunday’s win over Minnesota, blocked two shots in the first quarter, including one by James Harden. He had some difficulties against Zubac, who was LA’s only consistent scorer in the game (23 points on 11-of-14 shooting, 10 rebounds), but was a solid second option with Al Horford (illness/rest) and Luke Kornet (hamstring) both unavailable.

The Celtics led 27-20 after one quarter, then stretched their lead to 29 points in the second by doing what they do best: flooding their opponent beneath a tsunami of threes. They went 12-for-17 from deep during a merciless 51-point quarter — the third-highest-scoring quarter in franchise history and highest since 1970. White hit four triples on his own. Brown and Pritchard made three apiece. Hauser and Jrue Holiday each had one.

The 12 made threes tied the NBA record for a single quarter. It also equaled the total number of threes the Clippers attempted in the entire first half. Boston led 78-49 at halftime.

“I just felt like we were playing with really good pace,” said Pritchard, who was a team-best plus-30 in the win. “Makes, misses, getting it out quick, running to our spots. I feel like when we play fast like that, we get great looks, and the flow was incredible.”

Porzingis did not have a hand in that second-quarter 3-point parade, but impacted the game in several other areas. He threw down an acrobatic dunk off a Brown alley-oop, scored on a put-back after a Brown miss, assisted on two made threes, notched one steal and recorded one official block, plus another as the Clippers’ shot clock expired to force a 24-second violation.

The Celtics went cold to start the third quarter, surrendering a 10-0 Clippers run that spanned more than 4 1/2 minutes. Tatum ended Boston’s scoring drought with a dunk, then Porzingis went to work, manipulating post-ups to score six straight Celtics points across four possessions.

A flurry of threes from Pritchard (two) and Hauser (one) gave Boston some additional breathing room, and despite scoring just 21 points in the frame, it took a 21-point lead into the fourth quarter.

The Celtics cruised from there, with the Garden crowd reaching max volume after Pritchard slipped past a Clippers defender and lofted a lob to Porzingis, who slammed it home.

Asked whether Porzingis’ return gave Boston an emotional lift, Mazzulla replied: “Yeah, no question.”

“I think he’s a high-level personality,” he said, “but I think any time — obviously we built an identity with him last year, and I think the guys were excited to get him back. We were ready to have him back. … I think each guy likes playing with him because of just how he plays and the pressure that we can take off each other. So we definitely felt that.”

Mazzulla emptied his bench midway through the fourth, giving late minutes to the seldom-used Jaden Springer and Baylor Scheierman. Queta was a force in garbage time, finishing with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, nine rebounds, four blocks and two steals.

The Celtics are off until Friday, when they visit the Chicago Bulls in their final game of NBA Cup group play.

Originally Published: November 25, 2024 at 9:41 PM EST

PITTSBURG – A father of two was fatally struck while walking home from church in Pittsburg on Friday night.

Police said they received a call about 9:15 p.m. about a crash in the 1500 block of Willow Pass Road and when officers arrived they found Joaquin Reveulta Galvez in the middle of the street.

Revuelta Galvez was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead a few hours later.

“There was some vehicle debris and the lone victim and that was the extent of the scene,” Cpt. Philip Galer said, adding that there was a headlight of a vehicle also there at the crash site.

In a news release, police said the entire crash was captured on surveillance video.

Revuelta Galvez’s family said investigators told them that he appeared to stumble and fall to the ground before the vehicle hit him.

“He was wearing sandals, and then he fell and landed in the street and a car ran over him,” said his partner Maribel Macias. The couple have two grown sons, and Macias said the young men were close with their father.

Macias said the family didn’t know about the crash until one of them noticed the emergency responders and police vehicles around the corner from the mobile home park where they live.

Now, during the holidays, she and her sons are grieving for Revuelta Galvez.

They said Revuelta Galvez had already been through so much. He had been recovering from brain surgery last year, but despite his health problems, he was a friendly neighbor and loving father with a good heart.

A relative said they saw him at the Sovereign Shepherd Church just a half hour before the crash, and he had bought some pupusas to bring back home.

His family wonders how someone could drive away and leave him there.

“If they had called 9-1-1… he would be alive right now. We don’t know how long he was on the ground bleeding, dying,” Macias said.

A relative set up a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for burial and funeral expenses.

Galer said investigators are withholding details from the surveillance footage to protect the investigation.

He said they do have leads on the vehicle that struck Revuelta Galvez.

Anyone with information on the hit-and-run crash is asked to contact Pittsburg police at (925) 646-2442 or contact Officer James Pena at (925) 252-4146.

Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU. Email Jana at jana.katsuyama@fox.com. Call her at 510-326-5529. Or follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU and read her other reports on her bio page. 

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