Jaylen Brown was trying to play it cool.
He was asked if there was any relief after getting their first win of the season. And he started with the kind of answer you might expect.
“No relief. We got a tough schedule coming up with some big time opponents. So it’s great, it feels great to get the first one …”
And then he broke character.
“It feels awesome, actually,” he said, letting a smile through his usual stone-faced media facade. He let out a little laugh, and then recomposed himself. “We got a quick turnaround. We gotta get ready for Cleveland, and we got a tough road trip coming up.”
Yeah, the Celtics needed this one.
It’s not that the three game losing streak was something out of the ordinary. Guys have lost three in row before, though it had been a long time since it’s happened around here. It’s that the way they've lost these first few games has been frustrating.
Everyone in that locker room feels like their first win should have already happened. Everyone knows the mistakes that have prevented that are mostly mistakes that can be erased over time.
They are also aware that those mistakes, and the losing streak they caused, have shaken the faith of Celtics diehards.
“Obviously, you don't want to lose games while you are figuring that out, but like I said before the season, I don't know, maybe it went on deaf ears, but it takes a little bit of time,” Brown said. “Hopefully they give us more than a week, Celtics fans, but we know how Celtics fans can be, so we don't make any excuses. Tonight was good to get a win, but we still got a lot of figuring out to do.”
There wasn’t a lot materially different in this game as compared to others. The flow of the game felt similar to the first three losses. They were strong at the start of each half, and the lulls happened in the same second and fourth quarter spots. It’s just this time, the Celtics weren’t crushed under the weight of an unrelenting opponent. This time around, they were the team making the key plays in key moments.
“The difference between winning and losing is 10-15 possessions,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Tomorrow in film, we’ll show the same possessions that we need to get better at, whether we won or whether we lost. And we got to fight to get better at those.”
The fight isn’t always easy. When 37-year-old DeAndre Jordan, who just joined the Pelicans this week, got his second dunk in three minutes on the Celtics, Mazzulla called a timeout to chastise his guys.
“DeAndre Jordan was on the street four days ago and you let him come in here and dunk on you,” he said, according to Abby Chin’s sideline report right after the timeout. “You cannot pick and choose when you wanna be the best versions of yourselves. You need to bring it every possession.”
That's still a challenge for these Celtics. They are new. The preseason was meaningless. Their first chance to test themselves came against an electric backcourt duo that's shredding everyone to start the season (Tyrese Maxey had 43 and VJ Edgecombe 26 on Monday night). Then they faced an Eastern Conference Finalist, followed by tough up-and-coming wanna-be contender.
There were good things in each of those games. There were just more bad things.
“They’re learning. They're becoming better basketball players,” Brown said of his new teammates. “As we go through practice, as we're going through sets, as we go over coverages, they're seeing it and their brain is -- everybody's understanding it now going out there and being able to apply it to the actual game as it's coming at you full speed. Being able to do that night in and night out is a challenge for younger players, but I think this group, we have the potential to do so.”
We’ll see where the potential takes them. Right now the win is a sweet elixir that dulls the growing pains. They face a real contender in the Cavs on Wednesday night, and who knows what that will look like. There haven't been many moments to have fun after games, so it was good to let loose a little.
“We lost four All-Stars last season between Al (Horford), Jrue (Holiday), Kristaps (Porziņģis), and (Jayson Tatum) being out,” Brown said during one of his answers, before breaking character again as Luke Kornet’s name popped into his head.
“Luke is an All-Star to me,” he said, cracking another smile and getting some laughs from the assembled reporters. "Luke's an All-Star in all of our hearts. But we lost some big time players. We didn't lose one guy. We lost five. So to replace those guys does not happen overnight …
“I'm looking forward to growing with this group, growing as myself, and also being a leader. So we'll see as more comes, but a good victory tonight.”
