Shorthanded Celtics outlast shorthanded Clippers in overtime thriller, Boston wins 117-113

January 23, 2025 Sportextra NBA, Sports 0

Coming off a 40-point blowout win over the Golden State Warriors, the Celtics continued their west coast road trip against the Los Angeles Clippers (24-18) and Boston’s first trip to the Intuit Dome was a successful one as they defeated the Clippers 117-113 in overtime.

Jaylen Brown (25), Jayson Tatum (24), and Derrick White (20) combined for 69 points to lead the Celtics, but tonight was all about Jaden Springer. Springer scored 8 points, forced 4 steals, and hit the dagger in overtime to give the Celtics the win. Boston doesn’t win this game without Springer’s contributions and he really impressed tonight.

Jayson Tatum started the scoring for Boston with a three and the Celtics offense was clicking early as they started the game 5-5 shooting.

The Clippers were not deterred by the Celtics hot start, matching Boston’s scoring even with most of their starting lineup out with injuries. Derrick Jones Jr. was the main source of LA’s offense, scoring 17 points in the first quarter.

With Holiday, Horford, and Porzingis out in this game, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh got early first quarter minutes for the Celtics. Jayson Tatum and Sam Hauser both scored 9 points, but it was the Clippers who lead after the first quarter 34-33. The Clippers couldn’t miss in the quarter, shooting 60% from the field.

Jordan Walsh had a good start to the second quarter, hitting a three and battle for offensive rebounds. The Clippers continued to hit every shot they took as Bones Hyland and Amir Coffey could not miss.

Boston continued to trade buckets with LA led by Derrick White, who made a deep three with a hand in his face and on the next possession, got the steal that led to a wide-open dunk.

Amir Coffey continued to hit every contested midrange shot he took and the Clippers took advantage of some sloppy play by the Celtics to keep it close. Boston was able to take a 60-59 lead at halftime and Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 13 points, punctuated with this monster dunk over Mo Bamba.

Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser had a hot a first half as well, both scoring 12 points. Brown shot 5-8 while Hauser shot 4-5 from three. Derrick Jones Jr. led the Clippers with 19 points on 8-11 shooting and Amir Coffey scored 14 points off the bench.

Boston shot the ball well in the first half, shooting 49% from the field and 36% from three, however they let LA shoot even better. The Clippers shot 57% from the field and 43% from three with most of their points coming off of long contested midrange shots.

Sam Hauser and Jaylen Brown continued their hot shooting to start the third quarter. Hauser hit his fifth three of the night to open the second half scoring for Boston while Jaylen Brown had back-to-back possessions with a tough midrange jumper and a behind the back dribble to get the bucket for a layup.

Kevin Porter Jr. responded with 13 points of his own in the third quarter as he was able to get any shot he wanted and helped the Clippers take their biggest lead of the night.

Jaden Springer checked in with about four minutes to go in the third quarter and played some ferocious defense. Springer forced three steals and it started to slow the Clippers offense down.

Even with Springer’s defense the Celtics trailed 84-81 at the end of the third quarter. Boston’s offense execution fell off a cliff in the third quarter as they shot 5-16 from the field and 1-7 from three as a team.

Both teams continued to trade baskets to start the fourth quarter, but Derrick White led the Celtics on a 15-2 run to retake the lead while the Clippers started to look like they were running out of gas. Jaden Springer continued to be the X-factor in this game, putting the clamps on Kevin Porter Jr. and force him into another steal.

The Clippers would not go away while the Celtics offense started to stagnate until who else but Jaden Springer hit a huge corner three and Jayson Tatum hit a fadeaway three to give the Celtics a 6-point lead with two minutes to go.

Derrick Jones Jr. came down on the other end, got fouled by Jaylen Brown and got hit in the head by Derrick White which led to a technical foul. Coffey hit the technical free throw and Jones Jr. made one of two to make it a 4-point game with 1:22 left.

Jaylen Brown hit two free throws and Terance Mann matched with a layup. Brown missed a shot, but Springer once again defended Porter Jr. and forced him into a miss. Then in a confusing play, Brown held the ball to drain the clock, but hooked Mann to get around him, resulting in an offensive foul and Clippers ball with 19.6 seconds left.

After a Clippers timeout Amir Coffey threw down a dunk to make it a 2-point game with 12 seconds left. Out of a Celtics timeout, White inbounded it to Brown in the corner and was immediately double teamed. He then proceeded to throw the ball away where it was picked off by Derrick Jones Jr. who made a layup to tie the game with 4.2 seconds to go. Boston didn’t get a shot off and the game went to overtime on more awful late game execution by the Celtics.

Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown all hit threes in the first two minutes of overtime. The Clippers magic seemed to run out as they could not hit a shot to save their life but the Celtics couldn’t bury the dagger. Porter Jr. hit a midrange jumper and Jones Jr. hit another three to cut the Celtics lead to 2 with 56 seconds left.

The Celtics came down on the other end, Tatum kicked it to the corner and found the man of the hour Jaden Springer who splashed a huge three with 34 seconds to go.

All Boston had to do was not allow a three out of the Clippers timeout. Then almost on cue Amir Coffey made an and-1 layup, made the free throw, and cut the Celtics lead to 3 with 30 seconds left. The Celtics drained the clock down and found Neemias Queta for a layup to seal the win for Boston.

The Celtics next game is on Thursday January 23rd, as a part of a back-to-back with the Los Angeles Lakers.

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