Celtics 110, Mavericks 100

 

Before getting to the game, we first have to acknowledge that the Celtics have traded Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for veteran big man Nikola Vučević. Simons was a great asset to the Celtics this season, shooting 44%, 39.5% on threes. Thanks you for your service, Anfernee, but the Celtics most pressing need was for a big man in center, and Vučević  (6' 9", 265 lbs) fills that role. He's averaged 16.9 points per game for the Bulls this season, shooting 50.5% and 37.6% on threes. More importantly, his 9.0 rebounds per game will be useful on a team whose best rebounder, Neemias Queta, gets 8.1 and Jaylen Brown, 7.0.

Last night, Mr. Brown snagged 11 rebounds and scored 33 points against the Dallas Mavericks. Pritchard and Garza got 26 and 16 points, respectively, and Hauser and White 11 each. Garza went four-for-four on three-point shooting, but overall the team shot only 33.3% outside the line. They were outrebounded by Dallas, 49-47, but they was good enough to beat the Mavs, 110-100, even with teen sensation Cooper Flagg (36 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists).

The Knicks won last night as well, so Boston and New York remain tied, 32-18, in first place in the Atlantic The Pistons won as well, so Detroit remain 5½ games up in the Eastern Conference.

The Texas roadhouse roadtrip continues and takes the Celtics from Dallas to Houston tonight (8:00 pm), where they will face Kevin Durant and the Rockets (31-17).  

Beanpot Semifinal: BU 3, Northeastern 2 (SO)

 

The Boston University men's hockey team, the defending 2025 Beanpot champion, is heading back to the championship game after beating Northeastern, 3-2, in the semifinal last night.

Freshman Charlie Tretheway tied the game at 1-1 early in the second period and Nick Roukounakis tied it again at 202 later in the second. No one scored in the third period or in the OT,  although the Terriers' Ryder Ritchie appeared to score a goal in OT but, in a call similar to Pastrnak's apparent OT goal in Tampa Bay during the previous night's Bruins game, the goal was negated based on an interference call. 

Jack Harvey and Cole Hutson both scored in the 2-1 shootout to give the Terriers the win and an opportunity to avenge last weekend's loss to BC by facing them next Monday in the Beanpot title game. A BU win would be the second consecutive Beanpot trophy for the Terriers. First, however, they have to play No. 18 Maine (14-10-2) on Friday night.

Although BU won the shootout and will play in the Beanpot finale, the game is officially a tie since OT ended without a goal and it took a shootout to determine who will advance. Therefore, the unranked Terriers are now 12-13-2 overall and 8-10-0 in Hockey East play. 

Lightning 6, Bruins 5

 

Goalie fight! Bruin's goalie Jeremy Swayman and the Lightning's Andrei Vasilevskiy went at it on the center line during the second period last night on national t.v.

Swayman understandably had taken issue with a Lightning player poking a puck between his pads after a power-play shot. After the whistle blew, Swayman went after the player, tackling him on the ice and throwing punches. Charlie McAvoy (BU, 2016) and Tanner Jeannot broke it up, but then Vasilevskiy left the crease and skated down the ice into the melee. 

Swayman stripped off his helmet and gloves and met Vasilevskiy at the center line. They wrestled each other and Vasilevskiy forced Swayman to the ice before referees stepped in and broke it up. Vaseline tapped Swayman on the head as they were pulled apart and players on both benches stood and tapped their sticks on the boards out of respect for their teammates. Each goalie was given a five-minute penalty for fighting.

The Bruins had a 5-2 lead at the time of the fight, which you can say the Lightning won because they came back with three unanswered goals - two in the second and one in the third - to force OT. No one scored, allegedly, in the OT, although an apparent Pastrnak goal 22 seconds into OT was nullified due to a delayed slashing whistle against Pasta. The Lightning hit a goal in the second attempt during the shootout, Pasta missed his attempt, and that was that - Tampa Bay took a 6-5 win.

This was the first-ever outdoor NHL game in Florida - isn't technology amazing? - but big deal. 

Boston (32-20-4) is fourth in the Atlantic and fifth in the East. Their 68 points has them comfortably in the lead in the Wild Card race by seven points ahead of the first non-qualifying contender, Columbus. 

The Bruins will stay in the Sunshine State and play the Panthers on Wednesday.

Celtics 107, Bucks 79

 

The Celtics, playing without Tatum, beat the Bucks, playing without Giannis, by 28 points. Jaylen Brown scored 30 points and snagged 13 rebounds, and Anfernee Simons hit for 27 points. Between the two of them, they sank 10 of 16 three-point attempts. The Celtics out-rebounded and outshot the Bucks on threes, and gave defensive wunderkind Hugo González 17:19 minutes of playtime, during which he grabbed five rebounds and stole the ball twice. 

Mr. Brown's 22.4 shots per game is tied with Luka Dončić for most in the NBA; he trails only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (11.0) in shots made (10.8), ahead of Luka's 10.7. Brown's 29.4 points per game is third in the NBA, behind Luka and SGA.  

The Celtics remained tied with the Knicks in the Eastern Conference, 5½ back from the Pistons. The team is off to Texas for games against Dallas on Tuesday night and Houston on Wednesday night. 

BU Sweeps Merrimack, 3-0, 3-1

The BU Terriers women's hockey team completed a weekend home-and-away sweep of Merrimack. 

In North Andover on Friday night, Lola Reid and Greta Henderson scored goals in the first period and Clara Yuhn scored the third goal in the third period. Michelle Pasiechnyk made 23 saves in the net, her 22nd career shutout.

Back home this afternoon, Sydney Healey scored twice and Lexie Bertelsen scored the third goal. Mari Pietersen made 27 saves to complete the weekend sweep. Healey's 12 goals on the season is tied with Northeastern's Stryker Zablocki for best in Hockey East, and her 17 points are tied with BC's Madelyn Murphy for fifth in the conference.  

The Terriers are 9-15-3 overall and 7-9-2 in Hockey East action. BU is fifth in the Hockey East standings with 25 points. Their next game is Thursday for some reason against Vermont (12-14-4).   

BC 4, BU 1

 

As The Dude famously said in The Big Lebowski, "I hate the fucking Eagles, man!" 

The fucking Eagles beat the BU Terriers men's team last night, 4-1. Jack Harvey scored his ninth goal of the season in the third period but that was it for the Terriers, and the fucking Eagles added a late empty-netter for the final score. Mikhail Yegorov made 17 saves in the net.

The Terriers fall to 12-13-1 overall and 8-10-0 in Hockey East play. The team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation back in mid-October has fallen off the poll completely, and their 24 points puts them in fourth place in the conference standings. With their win, the 13th-ranked Eagles move into a tie with Providence for first place in the conference, seven points ahead of BU.

Whatever. The 73rd annual men's division of the Beanpot tournament begins on Monday night, and the defending champion Terriers play against Northeastern (12-12-0) at 8 p.m. Bring it on! 

Celtics 112, Kings 93

 

Just because the Celtics lost a game to the Atlanta Hawks doesn't mean they can't beat the Sacramento Kings. Even without Jaylen Brown (hamstring; tightness, and knee contusion).

Payton Pritchard had 29 points, 15 of which came off of his five-of-six three-point shooting. Overall., the Celtics had 18 threes to the Kings' 10. Scheierman and Simons each scored 16 points, and Queta got a double double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. 

The Celtics are tied with the Knicks at 30-18 for first place in their division and for second in the conference, 5½ back from the Detroit Pistons. Their next game is Sunday afternoon (3:30 pm) against Giannis Antenna-whatever and the Milwaukee Bucks (18-28) in the Garden. The game will be caried by ESPN right before the 6:30 Bruins-Lightning game on the network, so you're required to stay home tomorrow and watch both. You've got nothing else to do, right?, and the Super Bowl isn't until next Sunday, so watch your Celtics and Bruins on nationwide broadcast while you can.

Bruins 6, Flyers 3

 

Two days after losing Elias Lindholm, the Bruins lost Pavel Zacha to an upper-body injury in last night's 6-3 victory over Philadelphia. 

Before leaving the game, Zacha had scored a goal, the second of the game, in the first period to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead. Viktor Arvidsson scored the first goal, and Minten, Mittelstadt, and Jeannot added goals in the second period. Marat Khusnutdinov hit an empty-netter in the third to cap off Boston's scoring. Swayman made 33 saves in the net.

Boston went undefeated at the Garden in the month of January and improves to 32-20-3. They are fifth in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference, and eight points ahead of Florida in the Wild Card standings. 

Next game is at 6:30 on Sunday in Tampa Bay (34-14-4) and will be carried by ESPN. The Super Bowl's still a week away, so you have no excuse not to watch this game.

Hawks 117, Celtics 106

 

Time to play America's favorite genning game: in what quarter of last night's game did the Celtics underperform? 

Ig you guessed the first, you are correct! The Celtics played like shit in the first, giving up 38 points to the Atlanta Hawks while only scoring 18 themselves. They let the Hawks go on a 12-0 run in the first five minutes of the game, followed by a 12-2 run. 

The Celtics outrebounded the Hawks in the game, 51-38, but committed 16 turnovers to the Hawks' nine The Hawks three-point percentage (42.9) was higher than the Celtics (26.5) and they completed twice as many three-pointers (16) as Boston (eight). Just a terrible performance by the C's all around: Brown scored 21 points, but Pritchard, Hauser, and Simons all followed with only 12 points each. Probably the most telling statistic is the Celtics were -30 when Pritchard was on the floor and -24 when Brown was on the court.

The Celtics are 5-5 in their last 10 games. Even without Tatum playing, this team could and should do better. With the loss, the Celtics move into a tie with the Knicks for first place in the Division and for second in the Conference. 

Friday, the Sacramento Kings (12-36) will come to the Garden. I expect better things from the Celtics then.

Bruins 3, Predators 2 (OT)

 

Last night, after an OT loss the evening before, the mighty Boston Bruins remembered they have David Pastrnak and he scored an goal in OT to win the game.

Hampus Lindholm scored in the first and Morgan Geekie scored in the second, but the Predators responded with two goals of their own to tie the game up and force the OT. Enter the Pasta. . . 

Geekie's goal was his 30th of the season, tying him for third in the NHL with the Dallas Stars' Jason Robertson. The team's 178 goals is tied with Montreal for third highest in the league.  

Unfortunately, Elias Lindholm suffered an upper-body injury in the game and testing today will indicate the extent of his injury.   

The Bruins (31-20-3) remain in fifth place in the Atlantic, but now have a six-point margin between them and Florida Panthers in the Wild Card race.

Thursday night, the Bruins will host the Philadelphia Flyers (24-18-9). 

Rangers 4, Bruins 3 (OT)

 

Morgan Geekie scored a goal, Elias Lindholm scored two, and David Pastrnak got his 900th career point last night, but the Rangers also scored three goals in regulation and beat the mighty Bruins in OT, handing Boston only their third OT loss this season. Goalie Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves on 28 shots (.857).

The Bruins are 30-20-3 and remain eligible for the last Wild Card berth, four points ahead of the Florida Panthers. They host the Nashville Predators (24-23-4) tonight. 

Celtics 102, Trailblazers 94

 

Please allow me to be perfectly clear: I'm a big fan of Portland, Oregon - I spent a lot of time there in 2007 and 2008 and almost moved there. Visited many times since then, too. I'm also a very big fan of Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III. Timelord got us within striking distance of the championship and his trade to Portland gave us Jrue, who took us to the mountaintop in 2024. 

So it saddens me to see them on a once-mighty Trailblazers team that's been struggling as of late. The team suffered two consecutive losing seasons, although they are improving and nearing .500 this year. So best wishes to Jrue, to Timelord, and to the Blazers, except for last night.

Last night, the Boston Celtics beat Portland 102-94 behind Pritchard's 23 points. Mr. Brown got 20 points and Mr. White scored 18. For the record, Jrue had 14 points for the Blazers and Timelord came off the bench for another six plus two steals and a blocked shot.

The Celtics remain atop the Atlantic Division at 29-17, one game ahead of Toronto and 1½ ahead of New York. They're five games behind Detroit in the Eastern Conference. The Atlanta Hawks (23-25) will come pay a visit on Wednesday.