Pacers 98, Celtics 96

 

So, my magic Celtics formula (3-point %  + > Rebounds + González Minutes = Success) only works when Jaylen Brown is in the lineup. The formula is for the Celtics team, and without Brown, the Celtics aren't the Celtics.

Last night, a Brown-less Celtics team lost to the lowly Indiana Pacers. You can argue that the formula still applied, because the Boston scored only 9 threes compared to Indiana's 16. No > Rebounds, no Success. But the truth is, the three-point total was low because Mr. Brown wasn't in the lineup and the Celtics weren't themselves. Mr. White tied the game with a layup at 00:29 left in the game, but on the next play, Pascal Siakam came from behind and set a screen on White and knocked him to the ground, then spun around and finished with a layup to take back the lead. White missed a final three-point attempt (he was 2-9 all game) and the Pacers won.  

Mazzulla thought Pascal's screen was illegal and was irate at the refs for not calling a foul. It was all he would talk about after the game. But again, I don't like blaming losses on bad officiating. We just have to play well enough to overcome the refs.

The Celtics road trip takes them south next, way south to Miami, Florida for a Thursday night game against the Heat (20-19).

New England 16, L.A. 3

 

Chargers fans wanted their team to face the New England Patriots in the Playoffs. The Pats had a weak schedule, they reasoned, their 14-3 season record was overinflated with easy games against weak, cupcake teams.  Well, careful what you wish for L.A. Your team just got blown out, you only scored one single field goal all game, and after that you were completely shut out for three consecutive quarters.

The New England Patriots won their Wild Card playoff game over the L.A. Chargers last night, 16-3. The Patriots defense stifled the Chargers all game, forcing a turnover on downs during a goal-line stand on the New England 2-yard line in the first quarter, and forcing the Chargers sole field goal after a second goal line stand on the three. They sacked Chargers QB Justin Herbert six times 

New England QB Drake Maye competed 17 of 29 passes for 268 yards, and rushed for another 66, including one spectacular 37-yard run in the second quarter. 

Fun trick play of the game: In the second quarter, Maye handed the ball off to wide receiver Efton Chism III and then ran downfield, and Chism then passed to Maye. It didn't work - Chism's pass went too high - but it was fun to watch.

The win was New England's first playoff win since 2019, back when you-know-who was the quarterback and we won the Super Bowl. Another Super Bowl win would be nice, but let's not get ahead of ourselves - we still have to  play the winner of tonight's Pittsburgh-Houston game in the Divisional Playoff next Sunday.   

Bruins 1, Penguins 0

 

Last night, we used ten goals to beat the Rangers. Today, all we needed was Viktor Arvidsson, whose first period goal won the game. Oh yeah, Joonas Korpisalo's 17 saves helped a lot, too.

Bruins win, 1-0. Off to watch the Patriot's wild card game.

UMass 2, BU 0

 

Unranked UMass avenges Friday night's loss with a 2-0 Saturday-night shutout of the No. 19 Boston University Terriers.  BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov misplayed the puck behind the net in the middle of the first period and UMass was able to scoop it up and tuck it into the net. The Minutemen scored a second goal into an empty net as well.

The Terriers are 10-9-1 overall and 7-6-0 in conference play. Their 20 points put them one point behind BC in Hockey East and five behind first-place UConn. 

Next up is a non-conference game against Harvard (7-6-1) on Monday, BU's third game in four days. Puck drops at 7:00. 

Spurs 100, Celtics 95

 

Alert readers will recall that my formula for the Celtics to win their games can be summarized as 3-point %  + > Rebounds + González Minutes = Success! Last night, the Celtics completed more three-pointers (16) than the San Antonio Spurs (10), and had a higher percentage, too, 36.4% to 22.7%. They were competitive in rebounding, 52-53, and González was a starter and got 12:44. Yet the Celtics lost the game, 100-95.

What went wrong? Well, the refs let the Celtics get to the free-throw line only four times in the entire game,  compared to 20 times for the Spurs. "It's the same shit every time we play a good team,: Jaylen Brown told the AP after the game. "It's like they refuse to make the calls and they call touch calls on the other end. That's just extremely frustrating."

"Every time we play a good team, the inconsistency is crazy," he went on. "I'm irate at how they officiated the game today."

I don't like blaming losses on the refs, but only four free throws all game? And a five-point loss in a low-scoring game when we did everything right vis-a-vis three-pointers, rebounds, and Hugo? Whatever. Time to flush this one down the toilet and move on to Monday night's game in Indianapolis against the lowly Pacers (8-31). 

The Celtics and the Knicks are both 24-14 and tied for second place in the East behind Detroit (28-10).

BU 2, New Hampshire 1

 

The Boston University women's hockey team, back from their triumphant series in the Friendship Cup in Belfast, North Ireland, beat the New Hampshire Wildcats, 2-1, up in Durham last night. Luisa Welcke and Sydney Healey scored BU's goals and goalie Michelle Pasiechnyk made 25 saves.

The unranked Terriers improve to 6-11-3. Their 5-6-2 conference record translates to 19 points and fourth place in Hockey East, 19 points behind the first-place Northeastern Huskies (12-1-0 in Hockey East play). 

Speaking of the Huskies, the next up for the Terriers is the 47th Beanpot, which will start with a home game against the Huskies (16-5-0 overall). Puck drops at 7:30.   

Bruins 10, Rangers 2

 

What a weird-ass game! I mean, I love it, but I doubt I'll ever see something like this again. The mighty Boston Bruins drop 10 goals on the New York Rangers, and not one of them was by Geekie or Pastrnak, Boston's top scorers. Instead, we got two hat tricks, one by Pavel Zacha, and the other a four-goal double hat trick by Marat Khusnutdinov, who only had five goals all season up until last night's game. 

The Rangers actually scored first, but then the Bruins came back with six unanswered goals of their own, including Zacha's full hat trick, half of Khusnutdinov's four goals, and a Fraser Minton goal for good measure.  The Rangers scored again on a power play (big deal), and than former BU Terrier Charlie McAvoy scored for the Bruins, Khusnutdinov finished his double hat trick, and Fraser chipped in another goal for another good measure.

TD Garden fans - were you not entertained?

Ranger goalie Jonathan Quick (.700) gave up six goals on 20 shots (Here lies the body of Jonathan Quick, Skated to Boston and tripped on his dick).  The Rangers replaced him with Spencer Martin (.714), who allowed four goals on 14 shots (The Ranger goalkeeper Spence Martin, ate beans before playing the Garden, and missed so many shots, and I'm talking lots, 'cause be couldn't stop constantly fartin'). 

Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman (.931) saved 27 of 29 attempts.           

However, for all those goals, the Bruins only pick up two points in the standings, and are still two points back from qualifying for a Wild Card.

The Penguins (21-13-9) come to Boston today (5:00 pm) to try their luck against the mighty Bruins scoring machine.    

BU 1, UMass 0

 

Even in college hockey, it's unusual to score only one goal in a game and win, but the No. 19 Boston University men's hockey team pulled it off last night in Amherst against unranked UMass for their fifth win in their last six games.

Jack Harvey scored the Terrier's sole, game-winning goal, and Mikhail Yegorov made 18 saves in the net.

The Terriers improve to 10-8-1 overall and 7-5-9 in Hockey East play. Their 20 points puts them third in the conference behind No. 10-ranked UConn (22 points) and No. 13 BC (21).

The weekend series moves to Boston tonight for a 6:00 pm game in Agganis Arena.   

Celtics 125, Raptors 117

 

The surprisingly resilient Boston Celtics may still be four games back from Detroit in the overall Eastern Conference standings, but they've returned to first place in the Atlantic Division with last night's win over the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors may have sank more three-pointers (18) than the Celtics (14), but they had a much lower percentage than Boston - 38.3% to 50%. They were just chucking from outside like crazy the whole game with 47 three-point attempts and missing most of them. That's generally not a winning strategy.

With the Raptors all hanging around outside the paint, the Celtics easily outrebounded Toronto, 40-31. Hugo González got four of Boston's 40 rebounds, as well as blocking a shot and sinking two buckets, one from outside, in his 18:32 minutes of play off the bench.  

Hauser (19 points) had the hot hand on threes for Boston, going 5-of-7 from outside. Pritchard went  3-for-5 from outside on his way to a team-leading 27 points. Brown was right behind him with 25 points. 

The Celtics are now 24-13, a half-game ahead of the Knicks, who lost last night in Phoenix. They trail the Pistons by four games in the Eastern Conference but will face a test tonight against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, featuring former Celtic Luke Kornet.

    

Bruins 4, Flames 1

 

The long road trip that started last year is finally over, and the mighty Boston Bruins celebrated their return home last night with a 4-1 beatdown of the Calgary Flames.  

Kuraly and Elias Lindholm scored in the first period, and then Lohrei and Mittelstadt made it 4-0 before Calgary finally scored their first and only goal of the game. Korpisalo was in the net last night and made 28 saves (.966).  

The Bruins improve to 23-19-2. Their 48 points put them two points back from qualification for a Wild Card spot 

The Rangers will skate into town Saturday for an afternoon (1:00 pm) game televised by ABC. You have no excuse not to watch it.   

Nuggets 114, Celtics 110

 

The Denver Nuggets made more three-point buckets (20) than the Boston Celtics (15) last night and won the game, 114-100. 

The Celtics outrebounded the Nuggets, 53-39, and González got 20:45 off the bench and even hit a three. But Denver had a higher three-point percentage (45.5) than Boston (39.5), and Boston had twice as many turnovers (14) as Denver (7), so even without Serbian strongman Nikola Jokić, the Nuggets won the game.

Jaylen Brown scored 33 points in the game last night, including 4 of 6 on threes. His average 11 goals per game is second in the NBA only to Giannis (11.3), and his 29.7 points per game is fifth in the NBA. 

With the loss, the Celtics fall back behind the Knicks, who won their game last night, by a half game in the standings.

The Toronto Raptors (23-15) come to the Garden on Friday.

Kraken 7, Bruins 4

 

The Bruins lose their first game of 2026, ending a two-game win streak that started last year (New Year's Eve to be precise).

Pastrnak got two goals in the game - the Bruins' first two, the second one tying the game up at 2-2. But then the Kraken scored four (four!) unanswered goals in the second and third to take a 6-2 lead. Lohrei and Arvidsson each scored late in the third to make it interesting at 6-4, but then the Kraken got an empty net goal with 15 seconds left to play for the final 7-4 score.

The Bruins went 2-3 on this road trip from Buffalo to Seattle and are now 22-19-2, one point ahead of last-place Ottawa in the Atlantic. Boston's 46 points are three behind Pittsburgh for a Wild Card spot. 

Now they go back home and will host the Calgary Flames (18-20-4) on Thursday night.