Phoenix gave the Celtics what they needed.
On Friday, it meant taking advantage of some downtime in 80-degree weather.
“I got to play 18 holes of golf, get some sun, enjoy time with the guys outside and just kind of get away from it mentally,” Jayson Tatum said. “I was really looking forward to that and we had a lot of fun yesterday … I won some money.”
On Saturday, it meant another clutch game, and another opportunity to work on the one thing Boston hasn’t had to do much this season: win tight games.
“I just felt like we had good energy,” Al Horford said. “I really liked how Sam (Hauser) and Luke (Kornet) came in and changed the game for us in that first quarter and second quarter. Just the energy that we had. It felt like we were much better.”
Heading into this month, one of the talking points was Boston’s domination without much suffering. Appearing on the All-NBA podcast on February 29, ESPN’s Tim Legler said “the Boston Celtics have the best starting five in basketball. That doesn’t mean that if you asked me to put money, right now, in Vegas, tie game, two minutes to go between them and Denver, that I’m not going to pick Denver.”
If there's any one thing the Celtics have left to prove, it's their late-game clutch execution. I'm very confident in the Celtics winning a championship this year, but I wouldn't be mad at four or five games in March where Boston had the last shot to tie or win. https://t.co/Jh5XOmCDTo
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) March 1, 2024
Each NBA season is its own thing, no matter how many players return from the previous season. Tatum and Jaylen Brown are older. Brown has a giant new contract. There are new teammates. This process of growing into a potential champion is a new one.
And still, one thing this road trip has shown us so far is that the Celtics are still too willing to do things the old way.
When things tighten up in late-game situations, the Celtics have shown a tendency on this trip to still go mismatch hunting and let Tatum and Brown do their own thing rather than what the team has been doing throughout the season. The Celtics are a team built on ball movement and sacrifice, but this week they have suddenly reverted too often into the old show where Tatum and Brown try to carry everyone.
And that's why plays like the one that led to Horford’s clutch 3-pointer to close out the Suns are so important.
Tatum got the ball, Jrue Holiday set a screen for Brown, and suddenly three Suns were occupied to Holiday slipped the screen and, more importantly, Tatum made the pass. From there, it was an easy kick to Horford and he drilled the corner 3-pointer.
Four Celtics were involved in the play, the Celtics made two passes, and suddenly Horford had time to tie both of his shoes and check the wind before actually firing the shot. Not only did Boston get a clutch bucket, but that play opened up the lane for Tatum on his next possession because they ran the exact same thing.
The set up was exactly the same, but this time the floor was spread out, and there was no help coming. This time, Tatum had the room he needed to isolate. He went left, which held Holiday’s defender in place, so by the time he spun there was no second defender to slap at the ball.
For the Celtics to get to where they want to go, they're going to have to learn how to do things a little differently. We saw how the Nuggets closed Boston out by just relentlessly being who they are. The Celtics have to do the same.
That might be a departure from who Tatum and Brown think they want to be in these situations, but it’s how this story is unfolding. For the two of them to pull off the heroics they want, they have to be willing to give the ball up in late-game situations. For the Celtics to be who they want to be, they have to make sure they are using the full power of this team’s potential.
For three straight games, the Celtics have been tested in a way they haven't been all season. Their focus, execution, and poise have all been pushed. In Phoenix, the Celtics got closer to where they need to be in order to be a champion.
“I liked the discipline that we played with as far as game management,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I think that's the biggest lesson that we took from last game. The standard that we have to hold ourselves to is just elite game-management and elite discipline on both ends of the floor. And we got more possessions tonight of that than we did last game.”
This trip has been uncomfortable for the Celtics, and that's a very good thing. We should want every game over the next four weeks to be close and difficult for Boston so they can see these situations over and over again. Each time they have to fight for a win puts them closer to becoming a team we can trust to get the job done.