The movie theater goes dark. The din of semi-private conversations dulls as everyone’s eyes adjust to the room. Suddenly the screen blares green.
“The following preview has been approved for all audiences in Boston by the Celtics fans sick of watching .500 basketball.”
[slow motion walking, pan up to reveal Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown side by side]
(Narrator) “IN A WORLD WHERE NO ONE BELIEVED…”
[Kendrick Perkins “you gotta split these two up”]
“TWO YOUNG WINGS TOOK IT UPON THEMSELVES…”
[Brown: It's time to start growing up, maturing, everybody being on one accord and playing some good basketball.]
“TO MAKE THE NBA…”
[Tatum: “There's not many players in the league like JB”]
“GREEN. WITH. ENVY!!”
[explosions fill the screen. Smash cuts of Tatum and Brown burying 3-pointers and driving to the rim against the Pacers fill the screen to hard-blaring guitar music. Scene fades to black with white lettering in the center: Coming in 2022?]
Now THAT'S a movie Celtics fans want to see.
On Wednesday night in Indianapolis, the Celtics' two young pillars gave Celtics fans a preview of what could be. For one night, the general NBA discourse can ignore these two rising stars and focus on Damian Lillard’s surgery or Ben Simmons trade rumors.
There hasn’t been much to be happy about for a team that boasted two All-Stars last season and, if some things break right over the next couple of weeks, could do it again. Tatum and Brown have always played with some connective tissue on the team who had first dibs on shots. This year, they're off on their own.
It’s been a rocky road filled with injuries and protocols, but finally, for once this season, Celtics fans caught a glimpse of what could be.
“It’s great. I mean, it’s dope,” Brown said. “We need to score, we need to keep playing defense. Obviously I want Jayson to reach his potential and get everything out of his game that he wants to get out of it, so to see him going is great. It inspires me, so we just got to keep getting better, keep improving, keep playing off each other, and making the best of what we have.”
What they have has been questioned a lot recently. While that thought process is riddled with impatience, the Jays have also not done much to make it go away. Ime Udoka, a rookie coach, probably banked on more of this one-two punch than he’s gotten, but for once he finally got a taste of how much lighter his workload can be.
“Obviously it makes everything a lot easier. We’re looking for that as a regular thing, obviously,” Udoka said. “Having two guys in attack mode is hard to stop, but what I liked was the ball movement. … They scored naturally, didn’t force much and got everybody involved. When those two are rolling and on the same page we’re going to have a good offensive night.”
Tatum and Brown had it cooking at all three levels. They opened the game a combined 8-9 from deep (and finished 11-20), but they found their way to the hoop and were also able to spin their way into the middle of the floor for good looks.
Tatum played through contact and finished at the rim. Brown danced along the perimeter and turned corners to get easy shots. And most importantly, they did it all within the flow of the offense.
“We’ve added to the package utilizing those two,” Udoka said. “What I really loved was defensively we got stops and ran, and took advantage of the cross-matchups in transition - got to the basket or hit pull-up threes, and that was the message, limit them to one shot, get out and play with some pace, and if we don’t have it, we know what we are going for. … Loved the ball movement, loved the body movement. A mix of isolation, pick-and-roll and on-ball actions, and that’s where we’re going to be at our best offensively.”
We are at the halfway point of the season, and the Boston Celtics are a .500 team. But the continuity of regular lineups is only just starting. Getting Tatum and Brown to play off one another is still a new thing for Udoka. Putting them in actions to take advantage of their abilities and the pressure that puts onto defenses is something we’ve barely seen yet.
For one night, against a Pacers team that is certainly on the verge of being stripped down and sold off, Celtics fans got a preview of what could be.
Like any preview that looks good, the full movie can still suck, we still don’t know what the final version of this will look like. The Philadelphia 76ers are not the Pacers, regardless of their drama. The Chicago Bulls are even better.
The preview looked great. It whets our appetites for the feature presentation. It’s up to these guys to continue sticking to the script.
