Recap: Hospital Celtics squeak out revenge win over Kings 103 - 102


Marcus Smart dominated on both ends of the floor and was key to the Celtics 103-102 win over the Kings. Photo via the Boston Celtics on Twitter @celtics. 
In yet another extremely tight game from start to finish, the Boston Celtics came out on top over the Sacramento Kings 103 - 102 in the TD Garden tonight despite the lack of the injured Kemba Walker, improving to 12-4 on the season.
Jaylen Brown led the charge once again for the C's, scoring 24 points on 56% shooting to go along with 4 rebounds and a steal. Jayson Tatum was not too far behind though, scoring 20 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. 
Marcus Smart did his job in the starting point guard position tonight in the absence of Kemba Walker, who sat out with a neck sprain. He recorded 17 points (with some huge shots late in the game) and 7 assists in addition to his game-high 5 steals (including a huge one with just 30 seconds to play), keeping his defensive player of the year nomination very much alive.
To add more to the list of DNPs, Daniel Theis sat out due to illness. As a result, Enes Kanter started at the five, where he grabbed 9 rebounds and scored 13 points on 83% shooting.

Also due to the absence of Walker, rookie point guard Tremont Waters was brought up from the Maine Red Claws fresh off his player of the week award win. In just 19 minutes on the court, Waters gained a huge lead in the +/- category with a +20, despite a stat line of just 7 points on 28% shooting, 2 blocks, and 3 assists. His help in the team win came in the form of defense and ball movement, which played a major part in keeping the Celtics in the game in the face of some great individual performances from Sacramento.

Speaking of Sacramento, it's time for the regular Buddy Hield spotlight report. After scoring 35 in his first matchup with Boston just a matter of days ago, Hield came back to the Garden and shot 58% and scored a career-high 41 as a result. In the process of doing that, he also managed to break the record for most three-pointers scored against the Celtics with 11 three-pointers, previously held by James Harden who had 9 total.  In 41 minutes, he also tallied 5 rebounds and 2 assists. He did record a game-high 4 turnovers, which appeared to be his only flaw.
Missing Walker, Hayward, and Theis, this was certainly a team win for the Celtics all around. Hopefully, they can keep that up for their next game on Wednesday night in Boston when the Brooklyn Nets come to town (without Kyrie Irving).

Check out the full box score of tonight's game here, as well as a full highlight reel of the game's top plays down below.
You can follow Thomas Desmond on Twitter @td_654.
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I'm a college student studying in Creative Writing as well as Communication and Media studies.