If the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown era had been scripted, the story may well have been written by Prudentius.
If this is their Psychomachia, their battle between basketball virtue and the vices that have plagued them for so many years may be reaching its denouement because they have finally learned the value of patience.
In the epic poem, It’s patience that allows all the other virtues to win their battles against vice and sin. In NBA basketball, especially for a team as good as the Celtics, patience allows the other skills to win their battles against the opposing defense.
The Celtics have been their own worst enemy in the past. The less time there was on the clock, the more impatient they grew. They would throw caution to the wind, go on individual forays regardless of what the situation called for, and hope to make something out of nothing.
That is, they’d say, what stars are supposed to do, right? When things aren’t working, they make them work.
But with patience on their side, they are starting to understand how much of a liar the clock can be. Seconds last longer than the numbers let on. Strung together, the seconds become minutes and a lot can happen in those minutes if they're managed correctly. And if you have a bunch of those minutes on the clock? Well, anything can happen.
Patience is new to this team. But now that she’s here, she’s making a big difference.
“We’ve progressed to understanding that each night is gonna look different,” Tatum said. “If it calls for me to essentially pass the ball eight possessions in a row because that’s the right read, then you have to trust that that’s what’s going to help us win the game. … If I feel like I’ve got the big on me, but (Kristaps Porzingis) has a small, I’ve got to be OK with trusting to throw it to him at the post. And we take advantage of that. Then they change how they guard us and then I can find different ways to attack. And we’re winning, so it makes things a lot easier.”
Thirty minutes of NBA basketball gave us no real insight into whether the Mavs or Celtics would win on Friday night. Boston was only up two. They had been giving up second chances and were showing very little ability to keep the Mavs away from the rim. If Kyrie Irving, inciter of wrath from the Celtics faithful, had a normal shooting night, things might have been very different.
And then patience did her work. Over the final 18 minutes, Boston outscored Dallas by 26. The defense clicked. The offense hit another gear. The Celtics took off.
“I don’t think we look at it as a run,” Brown said. “We just gotta stay consistent and keep doing what we’re capable of doing, and eventually, their line will break. … It’s more like we’re finally breaking the line of execution that they were playing at. But I think if we do that more times than not, we’ll be in a good spot.”
Tatum hit for 15 points in that breaking of the line. Brown added eight. But Porzingis, Derrick White, Xavier Tillman, and Payton Pritchard all hit multiple shots. Boston’s firepower is so great that it makes patience an easy virtue to have.
“I think it does give us confidence,” Brown said. “If we’re reading it right, you got to, as a defensive team, you gotta pick a choice. So we’re analyzing to see what they're going to give up and then we’re gonna make them pay for that. So we are confident in each other, we’re confident in the game plan, and we’re confident in our ability to read the game.”
It’s not easy to stick with any of that, be it cold-shooting teammates, a strategy that isn’t working right away, or passes that aren’t getting to their intended targets. Being virtuous is difficult. Giving into the temptation of vices is very easy, and the Celtics have two stars whose penchants to do everything themselves has been part of opposing game plans for a long time.
Teams like Miami have banked on Tatum and Brown becoming impatient and breaking from the plan. Whether it’s growth and maturity, a refined plan, or different teammates, the temptation to do it all themselves has dwindled this year.
You saw it in this game. The third quarter threatened to get away from the Celtics because Tatum was starting to isolate too much. But after he dribbled out the shot clock, missed, and gave up a transition bucket on the other end, he and the Celtics regrouped. They let patience take over, and they were rewarded for it.
“We all have to sacrifice something, and I think just understanding this window that we have with this team is very unique,” Tatum said. “Our team doesn’t call for me to dominate the ball and necessarily have to make every single play. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s just the dynamic of our team doesn’t necessarily call for that. So in a sense, it kind of makes life easier at times, right? We’ve won 10 games in a row. There’s nothing to really complain about. We’re on the right track.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said "patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." There will be plenty of bitterness moving forward for the Celtics. That's unavoidable. But having the patience to get through it, and the trust in one another to keep pressing and looking for weak spots, will bear the sweetest fruit basketball has to offer.