The Celtics beat the Hornets 114-93 at TD Garden on Wednesday night in their third preseason game. Yahoo Sports said Boston played its starters and primary rotation players for most of it. CelticsBlog's Robby Fletcher wrote that the Celtics have passed the halfway point of the preseason and moved to 3-0. He also noted they used the same starting five for a second straight game, beginning with Derrick White, Jordan Walsh, Jayson Tatum and Paul George. His summary cuts off after that, so we can't confirm the fifth starter from the feed.

Sportsnet's recap highlighted three players. Jayson Tatum had 19 points and eight rebounds, Derrick White had 17 points and four steals, and Payton Pritchard had 11 assists off the bench. The box score matches all three lines. Tatum shot 8-of-17 with six assists in 29 minutes. White shot 6-of-9 in 20 minutes. Pritchard scored only seven points on 3-of-11 shooting and had no turnovers, and Boston outscored Charlotte by 19 points while he was on the floor.

The margin came from turnovers and the paint more than from shooting. Charlotte committed 30 turnovers to Boston's 11, which produced 27 Boston points, compared with 12 for Charlotte off Boston's giveaways. Boston scored 56 points in the paint to Charlotte's 20 and had 31 assists on 44 made field goals. The Celtics shot only 11-of-39 from three (28%), while the Hornets made 16 of 42 (38%). Boston led by as many as 23 and was ahead for 94% of the game. The second half decided it: Charlotte led the third quarter 33-31 but lost the fourth 29-16.

Boston's other starters had quieter nights. Paul George had five points on 2-of-10 shooting in 24 minutes, and Walsh scored two on 0-of-3. Neemias Queta had 16 points and Mitchell Robinson 12 on 5-of-5 shooting. Luka Garza added 14 off the bench, and Sam Hauser was +23 in 18 minutes. For Charlotte, Brandon Miller and Tidjane Salaun each scored 16, though Miller shot 4-of-17. Royce O'Neale made all four of his threes but turned the ball over five times.

Boston has now beaten Cleveland 124-113 on the road and Philadelphia 144-106 at home, and it leads the Atlantic at 3-0. Charlotte is 1-2. It beat Milwaukee 105-90 on Sunday but lost 124-90 to Brooklyn on Oct. 6. Both teams play Friday, Oct. 16. Boston goes to Philadelphia, the team it beat by 38 six days ago. Charlotte is at Memphis.