A minute into the fourth quarter of their win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Jaylen Brown jab stepped twice and rose up to take his eighth 3-pointer of the night.
When it flicked through the bottom of the net for his first made triple of the night, he looked down, and yelled to himself.
“My mom told me not to use curse words no more, so I can't tell you what I said to myself,” Brown said. “I had a bunch of open looks throughout the game and for whatever reason, they weren't going in. My teammates encouraged me to take them, I had a bunch of open shots, they just did not fall. I think one didn't even hit the rim. And it was just -- but you stay with it. I found one to go in and was able to get some momentum and it kind of just steamrolled into that fourth quarter.”
The sweet release of unrepeatable verbiage may have finally relaxed Boston’s star, who admitted his first three quarters of basketball were some of the worst of his career. He went off for 23 fourth-quarter points to help lead the Celtics to a desperately-needed win.
But as much as that 3-pointer was what broke the seal, it was his and his teammates attacking that finally polished off the Timberwolves.
Boston was 12-25 in the fourth quarter, with seven of those makes coming within the restricted area. Five of those belonged to Brown. Of the 23 points Brown scored to close the game, 14 were either at the rim, or at the free throw line.
“When we get to the basket, when I get to the basket, I think that this year is when I’ve found a lot of my success,” Brown said. “Sometimes I guess we get away from it because it feels like we’ve got open shots or maybe we’re overthinking the game a little bit, I’m not really sure … I think getting to the basket, getting to the paint creates openings for everybody. To be able to create even more open shots, so I think we should do that a lot more.”
He’s not alone. Earlier in the day in his first media session of the season, Brad Stevens said he’d like to see his team get more layups. The Celtics seemed to oblige their former coach with a steady stream of layups early in the game.
Once again, the Celtics built a nice lead by doing the right things. And once again, they gave it all back and then some by getting away from it.
“Sometimes things just happen, a couple of bad plays (one) after another or not necessarily bad plays but just kind of you get away from things, whether it’s intentional or the flow of the game,” Jayson Tatum said. “That’s what timeouts and halftime are for, to regroup and get back on the same page. Even to start the third quarter we were a little flat. It took us a couple minutes. But it was just all about picking up our intensity on the defensive end and that just kind of got us going for the rest of (the game).”
As much as offense has been their identity, defense is the key to Boston’s success. They whipped off 24 fastbreak points against a team not known for getting back all that well. They managed 58 points, nearly half their point total, in the paint.
“And we made them,” Joe Mazzulla said, referencing Boston’s massive troubles finishing against Indiana. “We were aggressive. We took the best shot, we spaced and we drove the ball and did a good job making the right play at the rim whether it was the layup or the kickout. We got both tonight. To shoot 28 percent from 3 and win like that shows the great stuff we did on the margins, free throws, not fouling, offensive rebounds, extra possessions.”
That last sentence is everything. It’s all that we’ve all wanted from this team over this stretch but haven't seen.
Cold shooting is going to happen to every team. The Celtics were never going to be immune from a correction in their shooting percentages. But all too often over this stretch of mostly bad basketball, the team let their shooting dictate their effort across the board. They let it get into their heads defensively, they let it rattle them in other areas like free throw shooting, and they lapsed when it came to the finer details.
Against Minnesota, they snapped out of their haze. A team struggling to shoot and keep a lesser team at bay for three quarters finally woke up and decided they were going to put a team away by getting to the rim. And they were led by the guys who were supposed to lead them.
“We're one of the most athletic teams in the game and with (Tatum and Brown) especially, so when they get out and run, it puts pressure on a defense in every aspect of the game,” Marcus Smart said. “Just get down on the floor. I'll get you the ball, but I need you to run and that's just constantly what I'm preaching to them. Make or miss, no matter what's going on, bad call, no call, just keep playing. It’s gonna come back around to you and that's what happened tonight.”
This funk has been more mental than anything for Boston. Yes, the shooting has suffered throughout most of it, but they’ve proven that brushing off the missed bombs to continue playing defense and attacking the basket will ultimately make up for whatever shots aren’t falling.
“I think that what we saw in the second half of last game, and we saw tonight, is the best version of our team,” Mazzulla said. “We just have to commit to that night in and night out. If we’re physically and mentally tougher and we work at it, the talent and everything else will take care of itself because we have that.”