After a slow start in their last game against Cleveland, the Celtics flipped the script Thursday night in TD Garden.
Boston was clearly motivated to be the aggressor out of the gates, and those intentions translated to production. Jayson Tatum continued his recent trend of looking to get others involved early on, dishing out back-to-back assists to open the game.
Derrick White did a little bit of everything — I know, shocker — racking up five points in the first three minutes including a nice putback layup over multiple taller defenders. In an unusual turn of events, Luke Kornet was ruled out just minutes into the opening quarter before even checking in due to left abductor tightness. Neemias Queta was in street clothes on the bench, which left Boston’s frontcourt depth pretty thin and resulted in first-quarter Lamar Stevens minutes.
Evan Mobley’s absence made the lack of size a little easier to deal with, but Stevens was unable to make the most of his playing time, exiting early following three quick fouls. After operating mostly as a playmaker to start the night, Tatum picked up his scoring in the middle of the quarter with a mixed approach of inside and outside attempts.
Jaylen Brown — a.k.a. Mr. First Quarter — earned that nickname once again Thursday, pacing the Celtics’ offense with nine points in the first, including this emphatic slam:
Speaking of Brown, the “Best Friends” connection was back in action early, as Jaylen connected with Kristaps Porzingis for this alley-oop:
Donovan Mitchell continued to torch Boston early, which was a very predictable outcome, as he entered this game having scored 30-plus in five of his last seven meetings with the Celtics. Spida led all scorers with 12 in the first, but Boston boasted a 33-24 lead after a dozen minutes. A massive three-point shooting disparity proved to be the difference, as the Celtics hit six of their 10 long-range attempts while the Cavaliers only connected on one of their 10 deep balls.
Payton Pritchard immediately made an impact in the second quarter with a great hustle play, grabbing a contested rebound before pushing it to Al Horford in transition for a layup. His fellow Bus 1 Boy Sam Hauser was also feeling it from outside, hitting both of his first two threes.
Besides those plays, it was a slow start to the second quarter for the Celtics, who scored just nine points in the first five minutes. Joe Mazzulla ended that drought with a great ATO design, creating a curling opportunity for Porzingis off a double-screen which led to an and-1 layup for the 7-footer. Kristaps was dealing with calf tightness leading up to this contest, but it didn’t stop him from attacking the basket frequently.
Brown kept the positive momentum rolling after his hot start, hitting a tough fadeaway middy followed by a three to keep the offense afloat.
Boston’s three-point shooting cooled off a bit, but they were still sitting at 47.1% from beyond the arc at the break, taking a 65-54 lead into halftime. Brown and Porzingis led the way with 18 and 15 points respectively, and the Donovan Mitchell show continued on Cleveland’s side as he poured in 21.
It was a painful beginning to the second half for the Cavaliers, literally, as Darius Garland hit his head on Porzingis’ hip in the opening minute and was forced to exit the game. Luckily for Cleveland, their star guard was able to return later in the quarter.
Jrue Holiday looked to ignite the offense early in the second half, hitting a layup and transition three to keep Boston comfortably in front. Brown hit the 20-point mark with nine minutes to go in the penultimate quarter on yet another nice mid-range fadeaway.
We were also treated to another instance of fantastic Celtics ball movement, as Boston punished the Cavs for trying to jump the passing lanes:
Cleveland got a bit sloppy with the ball and this time Tatum was rewarded with a slam on the other end in transition following Brown’s steal. Caris LeVert wanted nothing to with the MVP candidate at the rim, which is understandable.
Cleveland rattled off a 7-0 run following Tatum’s dunk, but Hauser and Brown steadied the ship with back-to-back buckets. LeVert made his presence felt in this quarter with 15 points, scoring at all three levels to keep the Cavs in it. Boston fell asleep defensively on multiple occasions and Garland’s last-second triple shrunk the Celtics lead to three (90-87) with 12 minutes to play.
Tatum took over to open the final quarter, scoring five quick points and providing this massive rejection on Garland at the rim:
As has been the case frequently this year, the Celtics ramped up their defensive intensity when called upon. Lamar Stevens re-entered the game and made an instant impact with his hustle, for which he was rewarded with an open dunk off a backdoor cut.
After opening up a double-digit lead once again, the Celtics settled for bad threes on multiple possessions, which allowed Cleveland to close the gap. Boston’s long-range shooting completely cooled off in the second half, and every time the Cs attempted to stretch their lead, one of Mitchell, Garland or LeVert had an answer.
After leading the way for Boston all night long offensively, Brown made a huge hustle play with just over 2:30 left, fighting for a contested rebound and firing a fantastic pass to Jrue Holiday, whose layup put the Celtics up seven.
Multiple stops and a pair of Jayson Tatum dunks put his squad up double-digits with 1:28, finally proving to be an insurmountable deficit. The two teams traded buckets for the remainder of the contest and Boston emerged with the 116-107 victory.
Tatum’s takeover down the stretch ultimately made him Boston’s leading scorer with 27, but it was a balanced offensive attack as all five starters racked up at least 14 points.
Next up, the Celtics host the up-and-coming Orlando Magic on Friday, December 15 at 7:30 p.m. EST in TD Garden.
