Just two days after Jayson Tatum‘s season debut after recovering from a torn Achilles, the Boston Celtics embarked on a road trip against three of the best teams in the league.
The first stop? A date with the new-look, James Harden-led Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jarrett Allen was out, but Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and Evan Mobley were all available.
Tatum started the game red-hot. He was making everything on offense. All the rust that was on display to start Friday night was gone. He finished the first quarter with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
But it was Boston’s offense that led the charge.
Both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net in the second quarter, but the Celtics found much, much more success (on both ends).
Nobody on either team scored more than five points in the second. However, as a team, the Cavaliers only mustered up 10 second-quarter points. Boston scored 21.
The Celtics’ defensive rotations were crisp. They knew what they wanted to accomplish on that end: Make Mitchell, Harden, and Mobley as uncomfortable as possible.
Boston sent extra pressure at Cleveland’s stars. When Mobley touched the ball in the post, they sent pressure. When Mitchell and Harden set up the pick-and-roll, they hustled around it. It was a beautiful, well-connected performance on the defensive end.
But in the third quarter, Cleveland found a rhythm. They snapped a streak of 16 straight missed threes, and at one point, they had the lead down from 20 to 12.
Tatum’s red-hot start turned into an icy tundra of missed threes in the second. And in the third, he shot just 0-of-2 (both two-point attempts). Even Payton Pritchard and Derrick White were cold in the third, shooting a combined 1-of-5.
Someone had to step up. So, that’s exactly what Jaylen Brown did.
It started with isolation possessions. He scored over Keon Ellis multiple times in the mid-range, and even got himself to the cup for an and-one.
Then, when the Cavaliers started to double-team him, he turned into a passer. He found open shooters, helping fuel a nine-point quarter for Sam Hauser.
Baylor Scheierman‘s hustle gave Boston a great spark, too. He was dominant on the glass and nailed his threes, shooting 2-of-3 from deep range in the frame.
When the fourth quarter opened up, the Cavaliers made another run. It was eerily similar to the one they went on to begin the third.
Within the first three minutes, Boston’s lead was down to 10. A step-back three from Mitchell got them there. Right after that, a Celtics shot-clock violation got the Rocket Arena crowd riled up.
Boston was on its back heels. The Celtics needed something to calm them down.
So, Scheierman provided it. Brown threw a cross-court, corner-to-corner pass to Scheierman, who nailed a three in front of the Cavaliers’ bench. After the bucket, Scheierman stared down Max Strus, who was trash-talking him during the shot.
Still, Mitchell was everywhere. Defensively, he turned up his intensity. He was checking Brown and even picked up a monster block against Neemias Queta at the rim.
With just over six minutes to go, a Jaylon Tyson three brought the Cavaliers within eight points, but Pritchard immediately answered with a three.
That was the story of the late fourth. The Cavs kept cutting the lead down, and the Celtics kept answering.
Two Pritchard iso buckets and a Tatum drive provided Boston with a much-needed 6-0 run. They even forced the Cavaliers into a shot-clock violation.
With just under two minutes left, the Cavs doubled Pritchard. He was trapped. But he found a way out of it, passed it to Queta in the middle of the floor, who found a wide-open Tatum at the three-point line.
After missing his last five threes, Tatum finally made one. And it was the biggest three of the game.
From there, the Celtics’ lead was just too big for the Cavaliers to overcome. Boston took a nine-point lead into the final 60 seconds of the game, and that was that.
Despite some offensive struggles, the Celtics held on. They always had a response. And that won them the game.
Big winner: Sunday afternoon was all about Brown. The Cavaliers had no answer for him.
It’s what he’s been doing all season long: Scoring buckets and adjusting his offensive game when the defense collapses around him. When the Celtics needed him most, Brown showed up in a big way.
He may not win it, but Sunday was a perfect example of why Brown should be firmly in the MVP conversation.
Honorable mentions: Boston’s defense and Scheierman’s third quarter.
Ouch, tough one: Despite starting off on a great note, Tatum slowly faded off on Sunday.
The Cavaliers did a good job of playing deny defense off the ball, so Tatum had to take some tough shots, though some felt forced. As if he was trying to relocate his rhythm, especially from three-point land.
Unfortunately, the result was an inefficient afternoon in Tatum’s second game back from injury.
The big picture: Don’t let Tatum’s (incredibly important) return fool you, Brown is still one of the best players on the planet.
He may not always be the guy as often as he’s been for the first portion of the season, but he’s still liable to explode for a big night. And that’s exactly what the Celtics needed on Sunday.
Brown’s scoring was utterly dominant, forcing Cleveland to completely alter its defensive game plan. From there, Boston’s offense flowed beautifully.
