By eight o’clock, the TD Garden had largely emptied out, but the parquet floor wasn’t empty. Under the soft yellow-tinged dusk of the arena raged a full-court, two-on-two basketball game between four rambunctious children with seemingly limitless energy.
They ran up and back, counting down from five over and over again, trying to recreate a moment that nearly sent this old barn crumbling to the ground just hours ago. One of them managed to whip off a spinning layup, yelling out “J.T.!” as he let it go.
He made it too.
Jayson Tatum’s layup and the dizzying close to a stunning Game 1 Celtics win has already entered the fantasy world of young minds copying their sports heroes.
It also probably caused at least one email to whomever edits the jumbotron vignettes with the message “we need to redo the introduction video.”
What it mostly did was put an exclamation point at the end of a 30-second story that encapsulated everything about this Celtics season. The final half minute of this game can be talked about for hours because of who did what and when.
:30
Kyrie Irving stands just to the left of the Celtics logo with the ball. It was Irving’s departure from Boston that triggered Danny Ainge’s final flurry of moves that ultimately put Boston in the position it’s in today. Kemba Walker was Ainge’s answer to Irving, and it was supposed to be Walker who would help guide Tatum and Jaylen Brown to the promised land. With Al Horford also out the door that same summer, Ainge’s pivots ultimately proved to become entanglements. Ainge’s departure led to Brad Stevens’ ascent to the President of Basketball Operations role.
He stands opposite Marcus Smart, officially a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. Smart leads the league’s best defense, tasked at getting stops in this exact moment.
Irving begins to make his move…
:25
Horford comes to double. Reacquiring Horford to move off Walker’s contract was Stevens’ first move, and it has proven to be a pivotal one. The half-season off in Oklahoma City has given Horford fresh enough legs to play 40-plus minutes in this game. Horford’s ability to play as well as he has is a major part of why Boston’s defense is as good as it is.
:20
The double team rides Irving across the court. Bruce Brown, whose comments about being able to drive on Horford and Daniel Theis because Robert Williams is out ruffled feathers enough to be included on the scoreboard, cuts to a wide open area on the floor.
Williams, dressed in a white hoodie and gray sweatpants, watches from the sideline. Boston’s title hopes rest on him coming back and being the massively athletic disruptor that he’s been. Boston is simply trying to get by this series as he nears a return. Williams becoming as important as he has is a major reason why the Celtics are even in this spot. He has been the most welcome of surprises with how much he’s been able to contribute and how much he’s grown.
Brown does not get the ball.
:18
Kevin Durant does, and he’s facing Tatum one-on-one. Tatum has built his game to a point where this is a battle of Titans, of MVP candidates. These are the faces of their franchises, and it’s Tatum’s growth as a leader and player that has kicked this Celtics season into high gear.
:15
Durant fires an off-balance 3-pointer because he can’t get by Tatum at all. Boston’s game plan has been to make things difficult on Durant and Irving. Tatum shows he’s more than just an offensive player, which is part of why the Celtics have been pushing for their whole starting unit to get All-Defensive team votes. Tatum’s ability to defend on the perimeter is a key element to Ime Udoka’s game plan.
:11
Horford secures the rebound and gets it over to Derrick White. Stevens’ acquisition of White is a flashpoint of this season because it moved two players who were, to varying degrees, more ball-stopping types of guys in exchange for a ball-mover like White. It’s White’s versatility and ability to make the right play that is key to Boston’s playoff success.
The Celtics are also advancing the ball without taking a timeout.
“I tell the guys all the time if we have an advantageous position we’re in, I won’t call a timeout,” Udoka explained after the game. “If I don’t like what I can see, I can still call the timeout and draw something up with a few seconds left.”
Udoka is in position to make these decisions because of the front-office shift that sent Stevens upstairs. It’s Udoka’s coaching that is at the epicenter of this whole turnaround. From getting Tatum to evolve, to engineering the league’s best defense, to coercing the team to pass the ball and move to get better shots, his coaching philosophy and approach are all driving this team’s success.
:05
Jaylen Brown drives up the right sideline and draws the attention of four Nets. Brown’s early season injuries and battle with COVID were part of what derailed the first couple of months. As one of the pillars of this franchise, Brown is expected to carry a massive scoring load.
But at this particular time, Brown decides to give the ball up, adhering to the coaching principles of drawing a crowd and giving it up to a teammate.
:02.9
Smart catches the ball and upfakes, sending two defenders flying.
Most people expected Smart to shoot that. In the past, Smart normally would have. He caught the ball with the intent of shooting it. However, he read what was happening, and made a decision.
“I seen two guys flying, so I took a pump fake,” Smart said. “(I) just wanted to get the easiest shot we can, as close as we can to the basket.”
Smart has been criticized to death about his shooting, and some of it has certainly been earned. But one of the critical elements to this season has been his ability to be a good point guard for this team. On a night where he was 4-9 on 3-pointers, he could have shot the ball with some confidence. However, much like most of this season when he was in the starting point guard role, he gave up the shot to look for something better.
:01.9
Tatum cuts to the basket and gets the pass from Smart. Boston’s lack of cutting has been an infuriating hallmark of the Tatum/Brown era, with players mostly standing and watching in a my turn/your turn cycle. Tatum’s cut is indicative of the Celtics offense growing to a point where players both on and off ball are making the right decisions.
It’s also a poetic connection after a miscommunication from earlier in the quarter where Smart and Tatum were arguing about a missed assignment that gave Irving a wide open 3-pointer. It led to an animated timeout where Tatum, Smart, and Udoka were going over what should have happened.
“It shows our growth,” Smart said. “To be able to observe the situation where we failed in an instance, to come back out and not let it affect you, and we can come out with a win and execute on the other end, it just showed growth.
“It just goes back to that trust that I’ve been saying. I trust JT enough to be able to look him in his eye and have those type of conversations. He trusts me enough to have those conversations where we’re going back at each other, because we’re trying to be perfect. We know we’re not going to be perfect, but that’s what we’re striving for. So to be able to move on to the next play is a growth that we have this year, and that we’ve been working on. And that shows.”
0:00
Boston wins the game. This is not a game they win in November or December. Barfing up a 17-2 run would have driven this team into a deep funk back then, and the Nets might have won by double digits.
Not this time.
Those last 30 seconds tell us a lot about this team; where they’ve been, how they’ve changed, how they’ve grown. It also gives a good look at where they could be going. While nothing is guaranteed, it feels like it’s going to be a fun trip.
