Playoff wins, even those won by 25, aren’t always going to be pretty. There will be a 21-9 run or a quarter where only 19 points are scored. What matters is how a team responds to those things.
“(I liked) our will to continue to play, play through mistakes, play through some tough shot-making,” Joe Mazzulla said after the Game 1 win. “I thought there were some stretches there of really good offensive organization. I thought the guys made some really good rim reads, and I thought we defended without fouling. So, you know, pretty good game.”
Pretty good. Not great.
“I think if you want to get to where you want to against teams like this, you can always fight for another level,” Mazzulla said. “So I think the balance of knowing you’ve done a lot of good things, but also knowing there’s like 10-15 possessions — and that’s what we’ve said all year, win or lose, there’s 10 to 15 possessions you want to clean up. So just working through those, and just having that mindset of getting better. Every day.”
On the surface, the Celtics checked off all the relevant boxes for a big playoff win. They made eight more shots than Cleveland, seven of them 3-pointers. Their effective field goal percentage was 11 points higher, they easily won the rebounding battle, and they had three more assists. Most importantly, they put up 120 points and a whopping 130.4 offensive rating while holding the Cavs to 95 points and a 102.2 offensive rating.
Get even halfway to a lot of those numbers the rest of the way and Celtics in five might be generous.
And yet, there is room to grow.
“I think we gave them a lot of 3s early. So we kind of did a better job of that,” Derrick White said. “I’m excited for tomorrow and how we can learn and get better because I think there was a lot that we did bad and we need to get better at.”
Luckily for the Celtics, they can do bad sometimes, because there's too much good on this team for bad to last.
The Crayola Brothers, White and Jaylen Brown, were the stars of the Game 1 show, taking their place in “this is how success looks tonight” spotlight. Brown, the downhill skier of the group, basked in the glow of an absent shot-blocker. White, for whom I have no skiing analogy, peppered the Cavs from deep while also dishing out five assists.
“He’s unbelievable,” White said of Brown. “Just the things he can do on the court are special. I think he just consistently wants to get better. And he had it going but he was also making the right read and creating stuff for myself and my teammates. So he was unreal tonight. Started the game big for us and just consistently just made the right play. And then when he has it going it’s fun to watch.”
Brown returned the mutual admiration, saying “Derrick White has grown. This is a new version that we haven't seen before. He's put the work in, his body has developed a little bit, he's got some more playoff experience and he's being aggressive.”
When it comes to playing Boston, choices have to be made. The problem with those choices is, first, that there are no right answers because everyone on the floor is capable of hitting a lot of shots. And second, the guys being targeted by the opposing game plan are perfectly willing to take a step back for however long it is … a quarter, a half, a game, a series … in order to win.
“It just presents another challenge of what you can do to impact the game in a positive way and help your team win,” Jayson Tatum said. He was Boston’s third-leading scorer, but he had a higher +/- than Brown and White combined. “It really just goes back to playing the game the right way. Each possession is different, but come down and make the right play.”
It’s easy to make the right play, to trust your teammates, when those teammates are having the best seasons of their lives. Brown is right about White leveling up, and White is right about Brown being special.
White’s processing power is off the charts. He reads plays as well as anyone in the league and makes quick decisions. All he wants to do is make that right play and he doesn’t care if he’s the beneficiary.
“I think just the most important thing is just to win,” he said. “It doesn't matter if I score 0 or however much I scored today. If we win then that's doing enough."
Brown did more than enough with the 18 shots he took, turning those into 32 points. Brown has turned in perhaps the most efficient season of his career.
“We got a lot of threats on our team,” Brown said. “That means a lot of guys are gonna have it going or have the ball in their hands, so when I get it, I need to be efficient with the opportunities that I have just because of how the game is going, we got a lot of different guys that can do a lot of different things … When I get the ball, I wanna be as lethal as possible.”
Mission accomplished on that front in Game 1.
This team is literally built for this. This is what Brad Stevens had in mind when he reshaped his roster last summer. He made sure the burden wasn’t just on Tatum and Brown. He wanted to give them the help they needed so when they get the attention they demand in the playoffs, there are outlets that can make teams pay. It just so happened that Cleveland only had enough to make things uncomfortable for one of Boston’s stars.
Who knows what Game 2 will bring, but all Boston needs to do is lean on who they’ve become as a team to figure out who will do the scoring Thursday night and who will do the other things.
“Every guy has been through different experiences throughout their career, and they are at the point now where winning is the most important thing, and nothing can get in the way of that,” Mazzulla said. “Doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect, but the guys do a great job of holding that standard I think because of what they’ve been through in their careers. And we just have to keep fighting for that. Nothing’s more important than winning, and the process towards winning.”