Sometimes basketball can feel like tuning one of those old rabbit ear televisions. Whenever one little thing was out of place, the whole thing fell apart. When you got things lined up just right, the picture looked perfect.
The Cavaliers came into the game having won both matchups against Boston, leading a lot of fans to think a matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers would be the lesser of two evils if the Celtics ended up finishing the season as the second seed. They have one of the most talented scorers in the league, an author of one of this season’s 71-point games, in Donovan Mitchell. Darius Garland is dangerous, Evan Mobley could be a unicorn, Jarrett Allen is a killer rim protector.
Cleveland is dangerous. They're young and flawed as well, but they're probably going to have home court in the first round of the playoffs.
There weren’t very many minds changed after 12 minutes, especially considering how the first quarter ended.
Gross. Maybe everyone is right about wanting Philadelphia instead.
But then things snapped into place. Suddenly, everyone was a true star in their roles. The Celtics showed what they could really be if they played basketball the way it was supposed to be played.
“We feel like it's important in the week that we have that we responded well at home,” Al Horford said “Cleveland's a really good team, they've been playing really well. They beat us the first two times earlier this season. For us, it was important (to) get this win tonight."
To get it, they had to learn their lessons from the loss to New York. To get things right, you have to acknowledge what you did wrong before, and then fix it.
“We started off the game shooting way too many 3s,” Jaylen Brown, who watched the game from home, said of the Knicks game. “Even tonight we didn't start off the game shooting fantastic but being able to score in transition, getting some open shots and creating for others opens the game up for everybody.”
Once the game opened up, shots started to fall. The Celtics made 16 3-pointers, and 12 of those were assisted. The emphasis on getting to the rim paid off in drive-and-kick opportunities.
“You got to get those paint touches first,” Brown said. “Usually, I'm that guy, usually, I'm the one creating that paint threat, trying to sneak the defense in a little bit, create that pressure for us to get open 3s. I think there's a difference between just swinging around the perimeter a little bit and not having the physical presence in the paint.”
Just as an aside, you can put those two quotes from Brown on a loop with someone slapping on a standing bass and maybe someone playing the drums with brushes and I’ll gladly fork over many many American dollars to hear it.
Anyway … three of the unassisted 3-pointers belonged to Jayson Tatum, but by the time he started hitting those, he’d already taken a few at the rim and finished a couple of dunks, including his monster putback.
“I just got some easy ones early,” Tatum said. “Layup in transition, getting downhill, finishing at the basket, just kind of open things up. It wasn’t like I was discouraged or worried that I hadn’t shot the ball that great coming out of the break. Just came out with a mindset, trying to find a way to win.”
The way Boston won was everyone on the floor excelling at what they did best, and doing so at the same time. If the Celtics could bottle their middle two quarters against the Cavs and play that way every night, they’d be unstoppable.
They won the second and third quarters by a combined 20 points, 70-50. Tatum had 33 points all on his own. Al Horford was a perfect 3-3 from deep in that stretch. Robert Williams caught two alley oops and hit a putback and-one. Marcus Smart had two steals and even more unheralded defensive plays. Even Brown, who didn’t shoot well, contributed three assists in this stretch.
“You take on what the defense gives you. Just looking for opportunities,” Horford said. “I feel like our guys did a really good job today attacking and then finding it.”
Playing this way isn’t always as easy as it sounds. There is, after all, another NBA team out there with the Celtics, trying to get them away from the things they like to do. Some guys have habits they suppress, which tend to show up at the worst times. No games or seasons are perfect.
But the Celtics gave themselves a perfect example of how they should be playing. If they do that again, they’ll be in great shape.
Except for the end part. I remember bumping into the antenna and ruining the picture and then scrambling to try to fix the picture before the last few seconds of the game ticked away on TV. The Celtics shouldn’t have relived that particular moment. Everything before that was cool though.