Boston Celtics – New Orleans Pelicans · NBA

Win probability changed during the game. · 31 January 2025

BOS118–116NOP

Is it worth watching?

Highly recommended

It was more exciting than 81% of NBA games since 2017

It measures how much the win probability moved during the game —without looking at who won or at the score— and compares it with the 10,950 NBA games with a curve since 2017. “Highly recommended” is the most intense 20%, “recommended” runs from 50% to 80%, and “skippable” is the rest. Source: ESPN.

↑ NOP winsBOS wins ↓

Home team's win probability across the game (source: ESPN). The band rises when NOP leads and falls when BOS does.

This is how the game was decided.

Jaylen Brown decided it, the Boston Celtics player with the most points (28, with 6 rebounds and 4 assists; +2 with him on the floor); the winner's best plus-minus was Jayson Tatum's (+4). The criterion: the winner's points in the box score; plus-minus says who was on the floor when the game opened up.

The game-winner in New Orleans Pelicans 116-118 Boston Celtics (January 31, 2025) was hit by Jayson Tatum: a jump shot with 0.1 s left in the fourth quarter, putting the Boston Celtics up 118-116. They never trailed again.

The biggest run of New Orleans Pelicans 116-118 Boston Celtics (January 31, 2025) was a 8-0 run by the New Orleans Pelicans in the third quarter (from 5:28 to 4:29), from 69-75 to 77-75. The Boston Celtics' best was a 8-0 run in the second quarter (from 6:03 to 4:42), from 39-42 to 47-42.

What were the keys of the last New Orleans Pelicans vs Boston Celtics game?

▸See where these figures come from

Play: Jayson Tatum makes 20-foot pullup jump shot.

I count as the game-winner the basket that puts the winning team ahead for good. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

A run here is consecutive points by one team without the opponent scoring. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

Source: the game's official box score and play-by-play.

Jayson Tatum decided this game: his points put his team ahead with 0.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and the opponent never led again.

It is one of the 8 games he has decided this way in the NBA since the 2002-03 season.

His profile shows the games Tatum decided

▸See where these figures come from

A game is decided by the last basket that puts a team ahead in the final ten seconds of the fourth quarter or of an overtime, if that team wins.

31 January 2025 · The source is the ESPN play-by-play, play espn:401705249:654; the date is the one on the NBA box score.

Rotations · who was on the floor

Closing lineup · BOS

Tatum · Porzingis · Holiday · Horford · Kornet

Closing lineup · NOP

Murphy · McCollum · Green · Boston · Alvarado

Q1Q2Q3Q4

BOS

Jayson Tatum

39′ · +4

Jaylen Brown

35′ · +2

Derrick White

34′ · +2

Kristaps Porzingis

30′ · +3

Jrue Holiday

30′ · +1

Al Horford

25′ · -4

Payton Pritchard

17′ · 0

Luke Kornet

16′ · +2

Sam Hauser

14′ · 0

Jaden Springer

0′ · 0

NOP

Trey Murphy III

39′ · +3

CJ McCollum

34′ · -2

Yves Missi

30′ · -2

Javonte Green

29′ · +1

Dejounte Murray

8′ · -1

Karlo Matkovic

18′ · 0

Brandon Boston

30′ · -7

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl

13′ · -4

Jose Alvarado

34′ · +1

Jamal Cain

5′ · +1

Each bar is a stint on the floor (source: NBA). The number is minutes played and the team's +/− with him on the court. BOS and NOP.

These lineups played the most minutes together.

Boston Celtics

Brown, Tatum, White, Holiday, and Porzingis played 22.4 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 6 points.
Tatum, Kornet, Pritchard, Hauser, and Horford played 8.4 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 3 points.
Brown, Kornet, Pritchard, Hauser, and Horford played 4.8 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.

New Orleans Pelicans

Green, Murphy, Alvarado, Missi, and McCollum played 10.6 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 6 points.
Robinson-Earl, Boston, Alvarado, Matkovic, and McCollum played 5.7 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 6 points.
Murray, Green, Murphy, Missi, and McCollum played 5.4 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.

▸See every lineup of the game

Boston Celtics

Tatum, White, Horford, Holiday, and Porzingis played 3.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.
Brown, White, Horford, Holiday, and Porzingis played 2.2 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Brown, White, Kornet, Pritchard, and Horford played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.
Brown, Tatum, White, Horford, and Holiday played 1.6 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 3 points.
Tatum, White, Hauser, Horford, and Porzingis played 1.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.

New Orleans Pelicans

Robinson-Earl, Boston, Murphy, Alvarado, and Matkovic played 5.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Green, Boston, Murphy, Alvarado, and Missi played 5.2 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Green, Boston, Murphy, Missi, and McCollum played 4.0 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Boston, Murphy, Alvarado, Cain, and Missi played 3.0 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Boston, Alvarado, Matkovic, Cain, and McCollum played 2.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Murray, Green, Murphy, Matkovic, and McCollum played 2.2 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Green, Boston, Murphy, Matkovic, and McCollum played 2.0 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Robinson-Earl, Boston, Alvarado, Missi, and McCollum played 1.5 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.

▸See where these figures come from

The lineups come from the NBA's official rotation: who was on the floor and when. Each lineup's plus-minus is worked out from every player's stints and is only shown when they all add up with each other and with the final score.

Trey Murphy III covered 4.23 km, more than anyone in the game.

Jayson Tatum touched the ball 85 times, a game high.
Jayson Tatum made 62 passes, a game high.
Kristaps Porziņģis defended 14 shots at the rim, a game high, and opponents made 6.
Yves Missi had 19 rebound chances, a game high.

▸See what was measured for each player

Boston Celtics

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Derrick White	3.75	6.7	57	49
Jaylen Brown	3.70	6.5	50	33
Jayson Tatum	3.70	6.0	85	62
Jrue Holiday	3.35	6.9	42	36
Kristaps Porziņģis	3.07	6.1	46	35
Al Horford	2.72	6.7	25	19
Payton Pritchard	1.96	7.1	31	32
Luke Kornet	1.79	7.0	14	9
Sam Hauser	1.75	7.6	22	16

New Orleans Pelicans

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Trey Murphy III	4.23	6.7	60	39
CJ McCollum	4.09	7.4	55	35
Jose Alvarado	3.85	7.1	65	51
Brandon Boston Jr.	3.41	7.0	32	22
Yves Missi	3.36	6.9	39

The figures come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game; speed is each player's average while on the floor.

Who stood out on defense during the season

These figures cover the whole 2024-25 regular season, not this game.

Boston Celtics

Kristaps Porziņģis defended 6.1 shots at the rim per game over his 42 games, and opponents made 15 fewer out of every 100 than usual.
He ranks 2 of 138 in the league.
Jaylen Brown recovered 0.8 loose balls per game over his 63 games.
He ranks 19 of 388 in the league.
Luke Kornet defended 4.5 shots at the rim per game over his 71 games, and opponents made 12 fewer out of every 100 than usual.
He ranks 8 of 138 in the league.

New Orleans Pelicans

Dejounte Murray deflected 3.5 passes per game over his 31 games.
He ranks 10 of 388 in the league.
Yves Missi contested 8.5 shots per game over his 73 games.
He ranks 21 of 388 in the league.
Jose Alvarado deflected 2.7 passes per game over his 55 games.
He ranks 36 of 388 in the league.

Hustle figures come from the hustle stats the NBA publishes (NBA.com) and rim defense comes from its tracking; both cover the regular season. For each player in this game we show the figure that ranks him highest in the league, and for each team, the three best ranked. Ranks count players with at least 30 games and, at the rim, at least 4 defended shots per game.

The New Orleans Pelicans have won 8 of their 26 games against the Boston Celtics.

8-18record of the New Orleans Pelicans · NBA 2013-14 – 2025-26, regular season and playoffs

0-2in 2025-26

See the full head-to-head in the Analyst

See where it comes from

Official NBA box scores, regular season and playoffs, 2013-14 – 2025-26. It counts every game between the two teams that the house holds, this one included.

SportiveWorld knows much more about this game

Game context

Attendance

16.432

97.4% of capacity

Smoothie King Center · New Orleans

Scoring

234

combined points

6.3 above the season average (227.7)

⚖️ The last two minutes

Official NBA L2M report: every call in the endgame, reviewed by the league.

20 calls reviewed2 errors admitted by the NBA

Violation: Defensive Goaltending · 01:17.1

Javonte Green → Kristaps Porzingis

Green (NOP) puts his hand through the net and makes contact with the ball while it's in the imaginary cylinder as the called illegal contact occurs with Porzingis (BOS) during his play at the basket.

Foul: Shooting · 01:37.6

Derrick White → Trey Murphy III

White (BOS) has a resting forearm on Murphy III's (NOP) body as he drives toward the basket, and marginal contact occurs before White removes his arm during Murphy III's upward shooting motion.