The Boston Celtics took care of business at home on Thursday night, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 116-107 to remain unbeaten at home. With the Celtics now leading the NBA standings at 18-5, superstar forward Jayson Tatum credited his teammates' willingness to sacrifice for the betterment of the team as a key factor in Boston's early dominance.
Al five Celtics starters scored double digits Thursday. Rather than just having either Tatum or Jaylen Brown shine each night, the Celtics have done a fantastic job at spreading the love this season. Instead of forcing the ball into their top players' hands, they let the game flow freely, relying on their trust with one another to find the best possible shot.
"We all have to do a little bit less to achieve more," Tatum told NBC Sports Boston's Abby Chin after beating the Cavs on Thursday at TD Garden. "It may not always be scoring for everybody, but we have to spread the wealth and do other things to keep winning."
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A perfect example of this can be seen in Celtics guard Jrue Holiday. While he is not scoring as much as in years past -- he's averaging 12.4 points compared to 19.3 last season -- he finds other ways to contribute. One of the biggest ways Holiday has made an impact on winning is in the rebounding department. Going into Thursday night's game, Holiday was second in rebounds per game among guards with 7.0, only behind Luka Doncic's 8.2 per game. Holiday added three more boards to his resume against the Cavaliers, two of which came on the offensive end.
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"We're having a hell of a year so far," Tatum added. "[We're] undefeated at home, and we can get a lot better, so that's the scary part."
The Celtics have tied their second-longest home win streak to begin a season at 12. The last time Boston started 12-0 at home was 2007-08, a season that ended with the C's winning Banner 17. They are the only team in the league that is still unbeaten at home.
"To be honest, the last two years, we haven't played great at home," Tatum said. "We lost a lot of home playoff games, which is not normal for us, so it feels good to reward the best fans in the league by winning at home, and hopefully we continue that."
Coming off back-to-back wins over the Cavaliers, the Celtics will look to carry this momentum into the weekend when they host the Orlando Magic, who got the best of Boston in the In-Season Tournament. The Magic will play the C's on Friday and Sunday at the Garden.