TORONTO -- Nothing caps off a four-game, week-long road trip like a flight delay. That was the Boston Celtics' prize for going 4-0 on their latest swing. Added wait time.
Normally, the Celtics fly out a couple of hours after their final road game. They were scheduled to leave Toronto around then. Delays left them waiting around in the locker room. But it also gave them a rare chance to exhale.
When a game ends, especially a road game after which the Celtics are flying out, everyone is scrambling. Players shower, gather their stuff, and get on a bus to the airport ASAP. That wasn't the case late Wednesday night.
Mitchell Robinson walked through two different scrums, moving in and out of the locker room. Almost as if he was walking laps to pass the time. He threw compliments at Neemias Queta and Derrick White as they answered reporters' questions. Almost everyone else was sitting at their lockers, listening to music together.
Ron Harper Jr. was on the aux. Boston's musical curator. 'Angels Smile' by NoCap was a locker-room favorite. Everyone sang along.
Olivia Dean also hit the airwaves. Her hit, 'Man I Need,' drew some positive reviews, and Harper even began to play 'So Easy (To Fall In Love)' as an encore. Those choices weren't quite as popular.
When Jayson Tatum walked into the locker room, he said, 'What is this?', with an expletive or two mixed in. Baylor Scheierman seemed to back him up. Though it was hard to tell if they actually didn't enjoy the selection or were just messing with Harper. Regardless, Harper pivoted.
He worked his way through a few Lil Durk songs, including 'Fabricated,' which was Chris Cenac Jr.'s request. Those seemed to be a fan favorite.
As the Celtics awaited their late departure on Wednesday night, the music helped them unwind. Boston has won five games in a row. Four on their current road trip. And now, they'll get three days off before another back-to-back on Sunday and Monday (both home games).
But in theory, their sigh of relief could have occurred 24 hours earlier, all the way back in Philadelphia. That could have been Boston's nightcap.
Led by Paul George, who did not play in Toronto, the Celtics took down the Philadelphia 76ers. They beat Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, and the rest of Philadelphia's All-Star cast in a game that felt like the Eastern Conference Finals.
Boston could have breathed out. That was the big one. After two dominant road wins over the Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks, a blowout win over the Sixers could have been the finale.
The Celtics could have rested guys in Toronto. George was out with an illness, but Tatum could have taken the night off. Robinson, too. Even guys like White and Payton Pritchard could have taken a breather.
That's not how this team operates. Even in the immediate aftermath of the Celtics' win over the 76ers, Tatum was already looking ahead.
"Tonight in the locker room, [Tatum] said it, it means nothing tonight if we don't play the way we need to play tomorrow," Joe Mazzulla said post-game in Philadelphia. "That's just the nature of the business."
But the willingness to battle doesn't always translate to execution. Exhaustion kicks in. Mental fatigue. All of those factors caught up to Boston on Wednesday night.
"Just kind of trying to psych myself out. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tired today," Tatum said. "Travel, and back-to-back, and all the things. So, just trying to find something to energize yourself to get a win."
The Toronto Raptors were missing Scottie Barnes and Kawhi Leonard on Wednesday. But they still threw out a lineup of hard-nosed defenders. Defenders who also happened to begin the game red-hot from three.
Toronto shot 10-of-18 from deep in the first quarter. Their 10 makes tied a franchise record. It was an onslaught.
"Obviously, anytime they hit 10 threes in the quarter, it seems like it's going to be a long night," White said. "But I think honestly, we were just kind of a step behind, and so, those threes, usually, we're a step closer. So, they were a little bit more open than teams normally are against us."
Midway through the second quarter, the Raptors were up 59-37. That was the Celtics' second chance to phone it in. The first, post-Sixers win. The Celtics passed up that opportunity, instead choosing to fight in Toronto. They made the same choice down by 22 points.
"Patience. It's a game of runs," Mazzulla said. "I think [we] showed great poise. They shot, what, 10-for-18 from three in the first quarter. Shot 60% from three. Just having patience. We weren't playing bad. We just weren't playing good. And you take a look at how they were scoring; it was in ways that we wanted them to. And I just give credit to the guys [for] being patient, showing their poise."
The 22-point deficit hit at the 5:24 mark in the second. Over the course of those last five minutes (and change), Boston went on a 17-2 run to cut the lead to seven by the break. And it was Tatum who led the charge.
"I thought JT made an interesting shift [at the] end of the first quarter, middle of the second," Mazzulla said. "Put him back in earlier than I normally would, just because I thought he was ready to impact the game in different ways."
Mazzulla subbed Tatum in with 7:28 to go in the second. It was roughly two minutes before his usual sub pattern. At the time, the Raptors were on a 12-3 run. Boston's head coach felt something shift in Tatum.
"I thought just his energy," Mazzulla said. "We always go back to his types of leadership. I thought his energy just lifted everybody."
After the Raptors went up by 22, Tatum ascended to another level. He scored 11 unanswered points. He assisted on three more -- a Scheierman triple that came after he drew a Flagrant foul on an and-one 3-pointer.
Tatum scored or assisted on 14 of the Celtics' 17 points to end the second quarter. All the while, Toronto's only two points came from a Jakob Poeltl 10-footer at the 2:20 mark.
"Just trying to find some energy," Tatum said. "Came out a little flat, I felt like. Just trying to find ways to impact and just give a spark to the group that was out there, and try to make a push before half."
The shift was real. Mazzulla was right. An ugly start to the game was immediately washed away, and without Tatum's control over the offense, the Celtics would have been listening to very sad music in the locker room.
"Just with my play," Tatum said of how his approach helped the rest of the team. "With my voice. Whether that's getting out in transition, or trying to get a block, or whatever the case may be. We was down 22, so it was just like, we gotta do something to try to get us going."
The rest of the game was a battle. Toronto didn't simply accept its fate after Boston's comeback attempt. The Celtics won the third quarter by two points, which was progress, but it also meant the Raptors were up 85-80 heading into the final frame.
The fourth quarter was ice-cold. "At the end there, it just seemed like nobody was making shots," White said. "Just a war on the glass." Both teams combined to make just four field goals in the first 5:20 of the fourth quarter.
Those final minutes were everything. Had the Celtics failed to execute, their massive run in the second quarter may have been for naught. But once again, Tatum stepped up to the plate.
He nailed a fadeaway to put Boston up 90-89 with 1:55 to go, but RJ Barrett answered with a floater. Boston went right back into its offense.
Tatum tried to find Sam Hauser for a three, but Toronto didn't give him any space. So, Tatum attacked his matchup, got downhill, drew two defenders, and dumped the ball off to Queta for a monster dunk.
"He's special," White said of Tatum. "He can just kind of control the game in a lot of different ways. Whether he's making shots, missing shots, he just kind of impacts the game in so many different ways. And so, it's always a privilege to be on his team, and whether he has it going, doesn't have it going, he just impacts winning in a lot of different ways, and does a little bit of everything for us."
From there, the Celtics were just one Jamal Shead missed three and some free throws away from victory. That's exactly how it all played out.
Energy levels were subpar. Some guys were running on fumes. "Not sure," Queta said with a smile when asked where he found his energy on Wednesday night. "Not sure. I think it's also energy plays from other teammates. Baylor going in for a rebound, getting steals from blind sides. A lot of guys were making energy plays that galvanize your teammates, and I think we kind of fed [off] each other. And I think that's something we need to do more, and [it] will get us over that hump most nights."
There was no time to rest this past week. Game, travel, shootaround, game. Wash, rinse, repeat. Over and over again. That's the harsh reality of an NBA season.
Opponents don't matter. The schedule doesn't care that you blew out the Sixers on their own home court. So, the Celtics didn't rest. They never do. Well, almost never.
If only for a moment, Lil Durk and Olivia Dean provided some rest. Even though every player, coach, and staffer in the locker room would have chosen an on-time departure over the tunes.