The Boston Celtics ended their tough four-game road trip by facing the only team they couldn’t beat last season: the Denver Nuggets.

Denver played without three-time MVP Nikola Jokic (due to illness), while Boston was without Derrick White (due to illness). However, that didn’t stop the Celtics and Nuggets from engaging in a competitive battle that included a resurgence of Kristaps Porzingis and Russell Westbrook amid what could be this year’s NBA Finals.

The Celtics return home with a 3-1 start to 2025 and an improved record of 27-10 after fending off the Nuggets in Denver.

Here are three guys and three duds from Boston’s 118-106 win over Denver:

SUPPORT
Kristaps Porzingis
Boston’s 7-footer got off to a strong start, scoring 15 points in the first quarter that set the tone.

Porzingis was Denver’s most dominant big man, posting his first double-double of the season with 25 points and 11 rebounds. The 29-year-old shot 9 of 18 from the field, had two steals and avoided a poster dunk from DeAndre Jordan by fending off the two-time rebounding leader at the rim in the fourth quarter. The Unicorn prevented Lob City from rising from the ashes and caused problems for the Nuggets all night long.

Russell Westbrook
No one shouted “Westbrick” from Boston’s bench.

Westbrook scored a team-high 26 points for the Nuggets, most impressively when he knocked down a game-high four 3-pointers. The nine-time All-Star flashed his 2017 MVP self and flirted with a triple-double, while Westbrook also recorded nine rebounds and six assists – making up for his game-leading eight turnovers.

Jayson Tatum
It wasn’t a great night of shooting for Tatum, but the 26-year-old did everything else to maintain a peak level of effectiveness.

Tatum scored a game-high 29 points on 11 of 23 shots from the field (1 of 9 from three), while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out six assists. Boston’s franchise star also managed two blocks and a steal and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Maybe Tatum was thinking about Brandon Jennings?

Idiots
Boston’s second quarter swoon
The inconsistency cost the Celtics their chance to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, and it occurred again before halftime in Denver.

Late in the second quarter, Boston let down its guard and allowed the Nuggets to go on a 29-14 run in the final 10:15 minutes of the court. Denver generated 16 points in the quarter, which alone matched almost all of the Celtics’ 20 points in the quarter. The Nuggets also beat Boston on their own, hitting 4 of 8 threes, while the Celtics went cold, hitting just 1 of 5 threes.

It was reminiscent of the Oklahoma City meltdown, but not nearly as costly.

Payton Pritchard
Boston couldn’t get much out of Pritchard’s minutes, with the undersized guard posing more of a liability than anything else.

Pritchard didn’t have his usual hot 3-point touch. He finished the game with three points on 1-of-4 shooting from the field and hit just one 3-pointer. The 26-year-old did have three rebounds and a steal, but it wasn’t enough to mitigate the ice-cold offensive performance that held the Celtics back.

Boston 3-point shooting
The Nuggets expressed that they wouldn’t underestimate the Celtics and their outside shooting at Monday’s practice, but that wasn’t necessarily necessary.

Boston continued its mediocre 3-point shooting streak, entering the contest ranked 20th in the league in three-point shooting (35.2%). That didn’t bring any improvement. Instead, the Celtics dropped even deeper, going 11 of 34 (32.4%) from 3-point territory. That left one problem unaddressed when the reigning champion returned home on Friday evening.