PHILADELPHIA — A couple of ft behind my press row seat, a Philadelphia 76ers fan donning a classic Allen Iverson jersey turned to his buddy.
“This time, we’re going to drag it off.”
The rating was 85-84 in favor of the Celtics with slightly below 9 minutes to play in Recreation 3, however inside Xfinity Cell Enviornment, it felt just like the tides have been turning after Tyrese Maxey hit one other three-pointer — his second consecutive, unanswered jumper, which evoked shades of his huge fourth quarter within the 76ers’ Recreation 2 victory.
The Celtics known as a timeout, and for a second, as 76ers followers rejoiced, it felt like time stood nonetheless.
It’s in these moments that, as a author, the story sometimes begins to unfold in my head.
Groups that win Recreation 3 find yourself profitable round 80% of NBA playoff collection.
Philadelphia appears actually, actually assured.
And at last, probably the most overarching thought:
Was this actually how such a particular Celtics season was going to finish?
However, though I had already visualized a 76ers win, Maxey by no means scored once more. The Celtics’ championship pedigree and timeless perception in each other powered them to their most important victory of the yr.
“I favored the mindset that we had, the competitiveness, the togetherness,” stated Joe Mazzulla after the 108-100 win. “I assumed there was nice communication, nice physique language, nice togetherness – simply issues that may provide help to get by means of stuff.”
Jaylen Brown checked into the sport with 8 minutes to play
Brown, like many of the Celtics’ prime performers, was within the midst of an evening that got here with loads of highs and loads of lows when he got here again into the sport to shut out the fourth quarter. He had already turned the ball over 5 instances — two of which got here on offensive fouls.
However, with the season seemingly on the road, he delivered.
It began with a defensive play; he stole the ball from Maxey to discover a streaking Derrick White, who laid it in to present the Celtics a 3-point lead with 7 minutes to spare.
Then he took over offensively; from the 6:10 mark within the fourth quarter to the two:39 mark, Brown was the one Celtic to make a basket for Boston.
“This was like a Recreation 7 for us,” he stated on the podium, after a 25-point, 7-rebounds, 4-assist, 3-block efficiency.
I saved going again to the 4 minutes within the fourth quarter through which Brown put the offense on his again and scored eight consecutive factors, preserving the Celtics alive amid the numerous issues that went mistaken (17 turnovers, a Neemias Queta foul hassle, the checklist goes on).
Throughout that complete time, I couldn’t assist however take into consideration all of the discourse that has lengthy surrounded Brown’s profession: his on-off numbers, the superior analytics, being pigeonholed as an NBA Robin, and all of the inevitable noise that comes with being a star participant on one of many NBA’s most storied franchises.
You could possibly put away the spreadsheet; when it mattered most, Brown bought bucket after bucket together with his workforce’s season on the road.
“That’s what it comes all the way down to,” Brown stated. “All of your preparation comes all the way down to these moments. Each groups are drained. Your workforce is possibly, offensively, in a bit little bit of a rut. Gotta work out the best way to get a basket. Gotta work out the best way to create some momentum in your workforce. And I really feel like I did simply sufficient to shift issues in our favor.”
Then, with simply over two minutes to spare within the ballgame, he handed the torch to his co-star.
Jayson Tatum, clutch-time heroics, and taking part in with pleasure
Within the closing 130 seconds of the basketball sport, Jayson Tatum bought to the free line, hit two pull-up three-pointers, and located Payton Pritchard for an enormous three-pointer to beat the shot-clock buzzer.
Tatum’s greatest shot — the unequivocal dagger — got here after an offensive rebound from Derrick White. White handed it out to Brown, who had the ball in his fingers with Kelly Oubre Jr. defending him.
Brown usually likes that match-up (he’ll take most). However, a couple of ft away, he noticed that Jayson Tatum had Adem Bona guarding him. That was a fair higher match-up.
So, Brown didn’t hesitate earlier than passing the ball to Tatum, who rapidly known as for the iso. After 118 playoff video games collectively, the proper play was instinctive.
“In these moments, I bought nothing however belief for Jayson Tatum,” Brown stated. “When it comes all the way down to it, we’ve been by means of it.”
The ultimate three-pointer gave the Celtics a 106-100 lead with 27 seconds to go.
And, because the ball splashed by means of the online, the look on Jayson Tatum’s face conveyed one expression: pleasure.
“I simply missed being part of moments like that, the place it’s similar to a back-and-forth sport,” Tatum stated. “We had some moments the place issues didn’t go our manner, after which we needed to combat again and get the lead. And it was only a figure-it-out kind of sport, and make profitable performs. The rebound that D-White bought, the steal that JB bought, P hitting that huge shot. Simply as a basketball participant, being on the workforce the place all people’s simply contributing and making performs.”
Tatum continues to be rehabbing, he reminded us after Recreation 1. It hasn’t even been a yr since his Achilles rupture. Nonetheless, he completed the night time with 25 factors, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, scoring or helping on the entire workforce’s discipline targets within the closing two minutes. He performed a whopping 42 minutes.
However, requested about different folks’s expectations for his play, he smiled.
“Clearly, I’m not 100% but and whatnot, however the expectations of what folks need me to do is the very last thing that has crossed my thoughts,” he stated. “Simply the quantity of pleasure I’ve been capable of finding in simply being again on the market, and being on the market with my teammates, is all I take into consideration.”
Pleasure, as a matter of reality, was in every single place. It was throughout Luka Garza’s face every time Nikola Vucevic hit a giant three. Hugo Gonzalez virtually represented it as he jumped up and down after his veterans made game-saving play after game-saving play.
It was throughout Deuce Tatum’s face as he danced after his dad hit the dagger; the identical dad he watched depend on crutches simply months earlier.
However maybe nobody felt the enjoyment greater than Tatum.
“I simply missed being part of moments like that,” he stated. “And it was simply enjoyable.”
For Joe Mazzulla, that fourth quarter stretch — which started with Brown and ended with Tatum — embodied the workforce’s championship expertise.
However, actually, it began with each stars’ even response to disappointment in Recreation 2.
“I belief our group,” Brown stated on the TD Backyard podium, pointing to the workforce’s progress all through the season. “We simply bought to proceed to have the correct mentality, have one another’s again, simply breathe.”
“What I’ve realized all through my 9 years within the playoffs is simply keep even-keeled all through, proper?” Tatum stated. “And I feel the workforce that sticks collectively and does that from an emotional standpoint will likely be high-quality.”
That unflappable demeanor, maybe much more than their huge fourth quarter, is what stood out most to their head coach.
“I feel it reveals up in the way you deal with playoff losses, the way you deal with a nasty sport, the way you deal with profitable,” Mazzulla stated. “I feel the expertise simply form of reveals up in – they’re poised on a day-to-day foundation – not getting too excessive, not getting too low, having a transparent understanding of what’s at stake and what’s wanted on a constant foundation. And I assumed you noticed that tonight.”
The opposite 2024 champions stepped up, too
It wouldn’t be honest to present all of the Recreation 3 credit score to the Jays, although the duo did rating or help on the entire Celtics’ fourth-quarter factors (except for two end-of-game free throws).
Derrick White has made headlines for his taking pictures struggles this season; in his collection, he’s taking pictures 29.4% from the sphere and 20% from three.
However he secured two offensive rebounds within the closing 4 minutes, each of which led to Celtics baskets. His second rebound is what led to the Tatum dagger three-pointer.
“We want him,” Tatum stated. “I can say it 100 instances. We want him. We want him. We want him. And, it’s powerful as a basketball participant. We’ve all been by means of it while you’re not hitting photographs on the price that you just anticipate to or need to. It’s simply generally you simply don’t make them. However D-White is an unreal basketball participant that also simply has his imprint on the sport and makes performs on each ends of the ground.”
Mazzulla stated it finest: “Anybody who ever doubts D-White, they don’t actually care about profitable.”
And, Payton Pritchard hit one in every of his most clutch photographs as a Celtic, beating the shot clock buzzer with a deep three and speaking smack all the way in which down the ground. That three-pointer — his fifth of the night time — gave the Celtics a 5-point lead with simply over a minute to play.
Mazzulla acknowledged that Pritchard hadn’t been tremendous concerned within the offense up till that time.
However, with the clock winding down, he delivered.
“We discovered him,” Mazzulla stated, “and he made it.”
Nikola Vucevic doesn’t have the playoff expertise that lots of his teammates do. Nonetheless, the Celtics’ commerce deadline acquisition grew to become the workforce’s most oft-used submit participant on Friday, tallying 11 factors, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and three blocks in half-hour.
And, he watched in awe as Tatum and Brown lifted the workforce to victory.
“Two nice gamers, totally different gamers which have been in these conditions so many instances; you’ll be able to simply inform [when the] sport is coming all the way down to the wire, they’re simply very poised,” Vucevic stated. “They didn’t let the second or physicality have an effect on them. They knew what they wished to do. They knew what spots they wished to get to.”
By the point Tatum and Brown walked off the ground, Xfinity Cell was principally stuffed with Celtics followers, who cheered as they watched one of many NBA’s most profitable duos stroll off the parquet.
“This was a giant win for us,” Brown stated.
