Every season is full of games a team should have won, but lost, and games they should have lost, but won. For every time I crack my knuckles, stretch out my neck, and take to this space to scold the group for doing the wrong things and blowing an opportunity, there are times when I have to stop laughing, compose myself, and give them credit for manufacturing something out of nothing.
No one would have thought twice about the Celtics losing to the Raptors given the situation. Already without Jayson Tatum, the Celtics lost Marcus Smart and Robert Williams before halftime, and Derrick White for the home stretch. The Celtics had a ‘get out of jail free’ card, and they could have thrown it down at midcourt as they checked out and saved their legs for a Florida back-to-back.
The last time they were in Toronto, the Celtics said they made a choice to come back from a poor first-half performance to win. This time, they made a similar choice to get the same result.
“We don't want the mentality of a loser,” Grant Williams said. “Every night we compete to the highest level. We have to get beat, being who we are. That's kind of the mark of this team now. It’s understanding that we can’t settle for less and just take a night off because that's just not who we are. That's not how we’re built.”
That's also not always been the truth about this team. That certainly wasn’t how they approached things in Oklahoma City, but things change. Lessons are learned.
The Celtics called a timeout with 3:38 to go in the third quarter and the score 76-69 Toronto. That final stretch was going to determine the game. They were standing in a hole and handed a shovel. They had to choose whether to keep digging, or to fill it back in.
Blake Griffin was in the game, and he opened things up running a dribble handoff with Jaylen Brown to get a score. Then Malcolm Brogdon hit a pair of 3-pointers. Then Grant Williams hit four free throws. The Celtics were still down, but they fought to keep it close.
“It says a lot about our team,” Joe Mazzulla said. “In the beginning of the game, you could obviously feel that we just didn't have the juice and we just kept playing and we never wavered. We made great plays and guys did a great job managing the game … I just thought we kept a mindset and a poise about us.”
Usually that poise comes from the stars, but the Celtics were a little low on the star power by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. Brown, who played the whole second half, was Toronto’s defensive target, which left other guys open to get their opportunity.
Brown opened the fourth quarter scoring with a 3-pointer, but that was rapidly followed by bombs from Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams. Suddenly, Boston went from down six to up five in a hurry. Pritchard would hit three more 3-pointers in the quarter, including the one that proved to be the game-winner.
“I’m happy for Payton,” Mazzulla said. “This league can be unforgiving at times and you have to be strong-minded, you gotta work hard, you gotta be patient, and Payton is all of those things. And I’ve always told him whenever it’s his time, I trust him completely.”
Brad Stevens built a team that was supposed to be able to lean on its depth. That depth was called on to find a way to win without their All-NBA MVP candidate, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and an All-Defensive team center. Circumstances limited Boston’s non-Brown starting unit to 17 points in the game, normally a recipe for disaster.
But the bench was more than up to the challenge. They put up nearly five times as many points as their Canadian counterparts. I don't care what the exchange rate is. That's a massive difference.
The Celtics overcame an 18-point difference in points in the paint. They overcame losing the points-off-turnovers battle. They overcame letting the worst-shooting team in the league put up an effective field goal percentage that would lead the NBA. And they did it mostly behind their second unit and big minutes from guys who don’t normally get opportunities to play.
It's like the Black Knight versus Sir Lancelot, but with the Black Knight actually headbutting Lancelot into submission.
“Tonight we was out guys. Obviously I got more attention, but we had guys step up,” Brown said. “We had Payton play really well, Grant came out and got hot, and that's what we need. We’re a team, so no matter who rolls the ball out or which team is doing what, I got my money on the C’s.”