Celtics Take Easy Win Over Nuggets Despite Key Absences

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Transcript

00:00Let's start on the court. Then we'll go off the court as Gilbert joins us here on the show. Gilbert,

00:03great to have you back here on Newswire. Let's dive into the Celtics Nuggets game last night,

00:08which was supposed to be a marquee game on the slate this season. Again, these teams only played

00:13twice, but Nikola Jokic sick, so he didn't play. And then I think at that point you had to figure

00:18Boston was going to win. They did pretty easily. Absolutely. Game lost a little bit of its luster

00:23when we found out Nikola Jokic wasn't going to play. Derek White also inactive for the Celtics.

00:28I'm sure that hurt for him in front of his hometown fans in Denver. That took a little

00:32bit away from the game, but the Celtics took care of business. We know the Celtics are oftentimes a

00:36team who lets up a little bit when the other team's best player isn't in action, but they

00:40didn't do that. I know the Nuggets hung around and it's a good effort from Michael Porter Jr.

00:44and Russell Westbrook and Jamal Murray, the guys who did suit up, but the Celtics are trying to

00:49work through a little bit of a slump. And I think that yesterday's game was a big step toward doing

00:53that. Anytime the team, the league's most recent two champions go head to head, it's a marquee

00:58matchup regardless of who suits up. But I'm sure the Celtics will take some confidence from that

01:01one, even if Jokic didn't step up and play in that game and the Celtics will continue this trip that

01:06they're on and try to get back on track because they did have a strange slump. Would you say

01:11Porzingis was the main reason they won last night? 25 points plus 14 on the court yesterday.

01:16Big, big game from Porzingis. I know he's had some injury issues. The situation that held

01:21him out at the beginning of the year with the weird ankle injury that he suffered during the

01:24finals and then still having some ankle injuries this year. So for him to bounce back and come back

01:28on the floor and had a huge first quarter in this game last night. So the fact that they're trying

01:32to establish him and take advantage of the fact that Jokic wasn't on the floor, I think that shows

01:36he's the big difference maker for them regardless of what happens once they get to the postseason.

01:41Having Porzingis and a healthy Porzingis will be the key to the Celtics repeating this year.