Postgame

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Taylor Snow

The Boston Celtics finally found themselves in their first crunch-time situation of the postseason Monday night, and they passed the test.

Despite allowing the Cleveland Cavaliers to cut a 15-point deficit down to five in the fourth quarter, Boston managed to maintain a two-possession lead to the final buzzer of Game 4, capturing a 109-102 win at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse to take a 3-1 series advantage.

For the Celtics, it was the first game of their playoff run in which fewer than 10 points decided the final score, and it was their first win by fewer than 13. It was also the first time they had found themselves in a clutch scenario (when the score is within five points during the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime) since a 101-100 win over the Sacramento Kings on April 5.

“It’s been a while since we had a grind-it-out, tough, back-and-forth, fight-it-out game,” said Jrue Holiday. “So it felt good to really just get out there and execute and know that any type of game we play, we can execute and get the win.”

Cleveland made things tough on Boston despite dealing with the last-minute absence of Donovan Mitchell, who was ruled out before tip-off with a calf strain.

Darius Garland stepped up to help fill his backcourt mate’s scoring and playmaking voids with a 30-point, seven-assist effort. The Cavs also received a pair of 19-point performances from Caris LeVert and Evan Mobley, along with a 15-point, seven-rebound, seven-assist night from Max Strus.

However, the C’s countered with some masterful individual performances of their own. Jayson Tatum logged his second straight 33-point outing to go along with 11 rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Jaylen Brown added 27 points and eight rebounds. And Jrue Holiday chipped in with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.

When it came down to clutch time, that second group was more poised than the first. Especially Brown and Tatum, combining for nine of Boston’s 11 points in the final five minutes.

“Give credit to Cleveland,” said Brown. “They came out with great energy. They played fast, they played hard. They tried to speed us up, they tried to rattle us. And I think it worked in the first half. Then in the second half we imposed ourselves a little better and pulled away a little bit.”

Even though it’s easier on the heart to win in blowout fashion, Joe Mazzulla loves seeing his team grind it out in these crunch-time scenarios.

“I think it’s good to be in those situations,” Boston’s head coach said. “It takes what it takes, so however we have to win the game, we have to do it, so it was good to get reps playing different ways.”

That includes defensive reps. Sure, the team hit some big shots late in the game, but they made some even bigger stops.

“We hung our hat tonight on the defensive end,” said Tatum. “We made timely shots and even the ones that we didn't necessarily make, some of those kick-out threes, just good execution. Sometimes you don't make shots, but how connected we were on the defensive end – when we had to get stops, we did.”

The fact that this gritty win came on the road made it all the more impressive.

“It’s a tough environment, the crowd was great, but as a competitor, it’s really fun to be in an environment like that, win on the road,” said Tatum, whose Celtics came away with two wins in Cleveland, where the Cavs had gone 4-0 in the previous round. “Now it’s time to go back and play well in front of our fans and give them something to cheer for and try to get a win.”

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Celtics Pass First Playoff Clutch Test, Take 3-1 Lead Over Cavs

Marc D'Amico

Max Strus made two mistakes in one second of play, which set the Celtics up to slam the door closed on Game 4 with a 3-1 series lead.

With Cleveland trailing by only five points and with less than 90 seconds remaining in the contest, Strus misfired on a 3-pointer from the top of the arc on a shot that could have made it a one-possession game. Instead, Jaylen Brown rose up at the free-throw line to grab the rebound, all while Strus reached in and fouled him. That foul was the sixth of the night for Strus.

So all in a second of time, Strus missed the opportunity to make it a one-possession game, he fouled Brown to put Boston on the edge of the bonus, and he fouled himself out of the game. That last part looms large, given that Strus had drilled a game-high five 3-pointers to that point of the game.

Brown immediately followed up Strus’ blunders with a knockout triple of his own from the right wing. That’s where Jayson Tatum found him for a 3-pointer that pushed Boston ahead 105-97 with 69 seconds left on the clock and ostensibly ended the game for Cleveland.

So Strus made the big mistakes, and Brown drilled the big shot, all to help the Celtics take a commanding 3-1 series lead back to Boston.

Q4 1:09 - [BOS 105-97] Brown 3pt Shot: Made (27 PTS) Assist: Tatum (5 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 109, Cavaliers 102

Neither Jayson Tatum nor Jrue Holiday had been scoring the ball to their standards over the past few games. However, the duo got back on track with their best respective performances of the postseason Saturday night to help the Boston Celtics come through with a bounce-back win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tatum logged game-highs of 33 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists, while Holiday turned in 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and five assists.

Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown kept his hot stretch alive with 28 points on 13-of-17 shooting, and the C’s rolled to a 106-93 win at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse where they regained a 2-1 series lead while handing Cleveland its first home loss of the postseason.

Tatum hadn’t logged a 30-point effort since March 28. Opposing teams had been loading up on him defensively of late, forcing him to impact the game in other ways, which he’d been doing. But it was nice to finally have a high-volume scoring night while also leading the game in several other categories.

“He’s a really great player that gets taken advantage of because he’s been really good for a long time,” said head coach Joe Mazzulla. “We really appreciate him. I thought he played a great game on both ends of the floor.”

Brown encouraged Tatum during warmups to come out aggressive, and that’s exactly what he did. The All-NBA wing scored eight points in the opening four minutes of the game and 12 total in the first frame. He drove to the rack relentlessly, earning nine trips to the free-throw line, where he made each attempt.

Al Horford said after the game that it was only a matter of time before Tatum put forth one of his classic, dominant efforts.

“JT is a special player,” Horford said. “He always figures it out. He’s the last guy I worry about.”

Holiday also had a special night. He scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half, logging his highest-scoring game since Feb. 9 (20 points against Washington).

Scoring at high volume isn’t typically part of Holiday’s role on this team, but it’s what the Celtics needed out of him Saturday night, and he delivered at elite efficiency.

“Jrue was amazing tonight, and Jrue is kind of the glue that keeps us all together,” Tatum said. “He literally does everything that we need him to, sacrifices sometimes taking single-digit shots a couple games in a row. On a night where he can attack the mismatches, he can post up guys, he can obviously shoot the three. When he's being aggressive and in that great rhythm, it makes us that much better.”

When those two guys are both in a rhythm simultaneously, it makes the Celtics that much harder to beat. Add in Brown's performance, plus the bounce-back effort from the defense, and you've got a recipe for a convincing win.

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Tatum, Holiday Bounce Back on Offense, Help C’s Respond with Game 3 Win

The Cleveland Cavaliers cut what had been a 23-point deficit down to single digits partway through the fourth quarter of Game 3 Saturday night, to which Payton Pritchard responded with one of the biggest momentum-swinging shots of his career.

With 7:42 left in the game, Boston’s backup point guard confidently rose up from the Cavs’ logo and buried the triple to put the C’s up by 12 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

That long-range dagger kickstarted a 10-5 run, and Boston led by double digits for the remainder of the game en route to a 106-93 win to take a 2-1 series lead.

Q4 7:42 - [BOS 91-79] Pritchard 3pt Shot: Made (5 PTS)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 106, Cavaliers 93

BOSTON – A double-digit Game 1 win followed by a double-digit Game 2 defeat.

The Boston Celtics have been here before, and they know how to respond.

The vibe after Thursday night’s 118-94 Game 2 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers felt similar to that of two weeks ago when the C’s dropped the second game of their first-round matchup to the Miami Heat. Although this is a new series against a different team, Boston’s mindset heading into Game 3 will be the same as before: to channel the frustration of their loss into motivation for a bounce-back performance. And they're hoping for the same Game 3 result as before.

Such frustration was evident when Jaylen Brown took the podium and picked apart the team’s abnormally poor shooting and defensive performances. In the series-tying loss, Boston shot just 22.9 percent from 3-point range, nearly 16 percentage points lower than their postseason average, while on the other end allowing the opposition to score almost 16 points more than their postseason average.

“Obviously we didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight, but defensively it was an unacceptable performance, and I think that’s where I’m the most upset,” Brown said. “Defensively we gave up 118 points, and on top of that, we lost the rebound battle. So we didn’t help ourselves tonight.”

Brown went on to explain that there is only one way to counter a loss like this.

“You take it on the chin, you learn from it, and you come out and put your best foot forward for the next game," he said. "We need to be ready to respond.”

The Celtics have responded to almost every loss throughout the season, including their 104-84 bounce-back win over Miami in Game 3 of Round 1.

While they felt frustrated following their latest loss, they certainly did not feel demoralized.

“Nobody in there was defeated or deflated,” Jayson Tatum described of the scene inside the Celtics’ locker room. “I mean, you never want to lose, especially in the playoffs … But the world thinks we’re never supposed to lose; we’re supposed to win every game by 25. And it’s just not going to be like that all the time. So we don’t expect it to be easy. It’s a good team we’re playing in the second round of the playoffs. It’s going to be fun, the rest of this series, especially come Saturday. We’ve bounced back plenty of times. We lost what, 18 games this year? So I’d like to think that we responded pretty well the few times that we did lose.”

Part of the reason the Celtics have responded so well following their losses lies in their head coach’s philosophy of taking an even-keeled approach regardless of the result.

“You treat it the same way you would a win,” Joe Mazzulla said fresh off of the defeat. “You come in tomorrow, you watch film, and you get better for Game 3.”

Added the veteran Al Horford, “That's what we did the last time, and we have to understand we're going into Saturday into a hostile place. It's going to be a battle. We just have to make sure we're at our best. I'm confident that we'll be ready to go."

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C's Say They'll be Ready to Respond in Cleveland After Game 2 Loss

After dominating Cleveland in Game 1 of the East Semifinals, the Celtics got a taste of their own medicine in Game 2.

The Cavaliers blew open a 54-54 halftime tie with a 36-24 third-quarter advantage, riding a 16-point frame from Donovan Mitchell who came alive after scoring just six points in the first half.

Cleveland kept rolling into the final frame, going up by as many as 29 points before coming away with a 118-94 series-tying win.

Q2 8:30 - [BOS 37-33] Holiday Running Dunk Shot: Made (4 PTS) Assist: Tatum (4 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Cavaliers 118, Celtics 94

BOSTON – Jaylen Brown opened the second round of the playoffs just like he opened Round 1: in attack mode right from the opening tip.

The All-Star wing scored nine of Boston’s first 12 points and 15 overall in the opening 7:19 of Tuesday night’s matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, setting the tone for a 32-point personal outing as part of a 120-95 Celtics win.

Brown was aggressive just about every time he touched the ball, driving to the paint with force and creating scoring opportunities for both himself and his teammates. He shot 12-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, while also knocking down all four of his free-throw attempts.

“He was in a great mode tonight, a great rhythm,” said Jayson Tatum. “He was making timely plays when maybe they were about to go on a run, so he was hitting big shots.”

You could tell how much of a rhythm Brown was in when he knocked down his third triple of the night early in the fourth quarter and started backpedaling toward the other basket before the ball reached the net.

His being in an unstoppable zone forced Cleveland to put extra attention on his drives, which opened things up for the rest of the team. Many reaped the benefits, such as Derrick White, who scored 25 points while knocking down seven 3-pointers.

“He’s unbelievable,” White said of Brown. “Just the things he can do on the court are special. I think he just consistently wants to get better. He had it going, but he was also making the right read and creating stuff for myself and my teammates. So he was unreal tonight. Started the game big for us and just consistently made the right play. And then when he has it going, it’s fun to watch.”

Brown’s ability to consistently make the right play has been a somewhat under-the-radar improvement this season, and one which head coach Joe Mazzulla has appreciated.

“He takes a ton of pride in just growing as a player every year, every game, every day,” Mazzulla said. “He spends a lot of time on it. He’s not afraid to go after something that he knows he can improve on, which I think is huge for his growth mindset. He has evolved. His ability to pick and choose his spots, and when to play in transition; he had a couple of times when he scored in transition, and two plays later he slowed it down, went mid-pick-and-roll, and made the right play. Even if he scores six or eight in a row and he gets into the paint, it’s a pass the next one. So he’s grown as a player, and it’s helped us, and he’s playing big stretches for us. It’s important.”

It's also important for Brown to come out with that same mindset every game, especially in the playoffs when opponents are making constant defensive adjustments.

“I had it rolling tonight, but each and every game presents different challenges,” Brown said. “I'm excited for Game 2. Going to come out with the same mentality. But you gotta see how they might guard, might cover you. You just wanna come out and make the right plays, the right reads – that's all it is.”

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Brown Helps Set Tone for Round 2 with Explosive Game 1 Effort

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals was tight for all of eight minutes before Boston broke free from Cleveland for a blowout.

After being knotted 25-25 at the 4:06 mark of the first quarter, the Celtics went on a 15-6 run and never looked back. Jaylen Brown, who scored 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting during the opening frame, was one of the catalysts of the run, and the C’s rode his hot hand (32 points) all night.

The Celtics won every single quarter, leading by six points after one, by 10 at halftime, and by 15 after three, before cruising to a 120-95 win.