Jaylen Brown wasn’t about to let it happen again.
The Cavs were about to join the club already filled with teams making second quarters a nightmare for Boston. It was bad enough that they spent the first quarter becoming the third team to score 42 points in a quarter against the Celtics. Now they’d erased the small lead Boston had fought to regain, and with 3:54 remaining in the first half, it looked like they were ready to follow the rest of the script.
But Brown had other ideas.
He scored five points in 32 seconds. Later, he took a feed from Payton Pritchard and made a quick, decisive move at the right elbow for another two points. He snagged a defensive rebound the next trip down and the Celtics cashed in on an alley oop in transition. After a second alley oop, Brown sized up a defender and buried a 3-pointer a step away from the logo. Then, 15 seconds later, he put his dancing shoes on, dribbled, and spun into a step-back 3-pointer that splashed through the net as the halftime buzzer was sounding.
Thirteen points in three-and-a-half minutes. And instead of another sobering halftime conversation, the Celtics had a 15-point lead and momentum, for once.
“That's just not how he operates. He operates doing what the team needs,” Joe Mazzulla said after the win. “Some of the changes that we made have kind of played to his strengths, as far as the pace offensively and the defensive activity, and you're seeing him reaping the benefits of that efficiency. So he's getting to his spots, he's making the right play, and he's competing defensively. I just think that's how he looks at it. He just wants to win, wants to do what it takes to win.”
Brown is off to an incredible start to the season. Aside from a seven-turnover game in New York, Brown has done everything asked of him and more. About 4% of his field goal attempts have shifted from 3-pointers to 2-pointers, but he’s shooting the ball so well that he’s seeing a 9% increase in points scored from deep. And he’s doing it by creating his own offense.
Last year, 27.6% of his 3-pointers were unassisted. So far this season, 53.3% of them are created by himself.
"I think (playing faster) is my game, for sure," Brown said. "Just being able to get out and explore my athleticism and things like that. Find a rhythm, etc. … just being able to get out and run and play basketball -- at the end of the day, it's your job to come out, have fun and play ball. I feel like I'm one of the best at that, so just coming out and just playing. That's it."
Brown’s hot start was overshadowed by three straight losses to open the season. Now with a couple of wins in a row, the attention can turn more towards Boston’s biggest remaining star as he helps carry a team that's still very much in the process of figuring things out.
“We're still learning, still figuring some stuff out. But we're moving in the right direction,” Brown said. "I've got full confidence in my teammates and the coaching staff, but we're still growing and learning every single day. Today was a good night for us. We played well. We've just got to keep building on that."
Part of that building is the development of the night’s other big headline grabber … or maybe stealer … Josh Minott. He was unleashed on Evan Mobley, and the result was a disruptive defensive performance that, appropriately for Halloween, turned Mobley into a ghost.
“(He) just has an understanding of what the standard is, how he has to play,” Mazzulla said. “Just his ability to make plays on both ends of the floor, his versatility. So, still gave up some plays. He's got to get better at that. So he'll continue to work at it.”
Minott has quickly gone from a scrap heap salvage project to getting starts and becoming a cult favorite. Minott has embraced the challenge in front of him from day one, and now he’s getting embraced by Celtics fans.
“I can't even explain it,” he said. “My teammates, everyone here, associated with Boston, just empowers me. It's just a blessing to be here, truthfully. From the coaching staff to the training staff, to the equipment managers, teammates, you know, it's just like, everyone just helps me to be the person I'm trying to be.”
Minott got his first taste of what winning is like at TD Garden. The way this season is lining up, the adulation might not be a regular thing. But because this season is what it is, wins like this feel like more fun. It’s one of the ups and downs this team will face, and the reality is that we don’t know when those will happen. This win was unexpected, just like some losses will be. The process, the Celtics stress, remains the same.
“It’s super early. The season just started a week and a half ago,” Brown said. "Some of these guys are starting in the NBA for the first time. Some of these guys are playing roles in the NBA for the first time, getting real minutes for the first time in their career…
“We’ll make mistakes at times and as a team we learn and we take our heads together, but we’re still super early in that stage. Great win tonight, but we’re still, this is not our peak. We’ve got a long way to go and I’m looking forward to getting there.”