Since adding James Harden at the trade deadline, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the hottest teams in basketball. But that didn’t matter for the Boston Celtics.
They walked into Rocket Arena, went up big in the second quarter, and fended off every single run the Cavs made in the second half.
But how did they do it?
1. Jaylen Brown was dominant
Right when the Celtics’ offense went cold, Jaylen Brown was there to heat them back up. He made timely plays all night long, closing every door the Cavaliers tried to open.
With just over nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers cut what was once a 21-point Celtics lead down to 12. They were on the brink of a comeback. So, Brown put a stop to it.
First, it was an iso bucket over Dean Wade.
Then, Keon Ellis tried to get in front of him.
So, the Cavaliers had to start sending extra bodies his way.
Brown could have forced the issue. He could have pulled up over two players and trusted his own shot. But he didn’t. Instead, he turned into a playmaker.
When he tried to drive past Jaylon Tyson later in the quarter, Thomas Bryant helped over, and Ellis sank in from the perimeter, too. Cleveland had three guys marking Brown.
He threw a simple pass out to Sam Hauser at the top of the key, who nailed the three.
Then, in the pick-and-roll with Luka Garza, Evan Mobley stepped up to apply pressure to Brown. So, Brown made the easy dump-off pass to Garza, who made the floater.
Time and time again, Brown made the right play. There were very few bells and whistles to his game on Sunday afternoon. He just played smart basketball.
His best highlight was a pass. Late in the game, with Cleveland trying to make yet another comeback, he threw a baseline, cross-court, bounce pass to a waiting Baylor Scheierman in the opposite corner.
Scheierman nailed the three in front of the Cavs’ bench, where Max Strus was talking trash (before being silenced).
2. Payton Pritchard’s calming presence
Speaking of responses, the Celtics could have been in for a world of pain if it weren’t for Payton Pritchard’s calming presence in the fourth quarter.
With 5:01 to play, Donovan Mitchell nailed a floater to bring the Cavs within eight points. Pritchard responded with two straight iso buckets in the mid-range.
The first was a spinning, turnaround middy over Tyson, who he put on skates.
On the second, he got Harden switched onto him and went to work. He crossed over, pulled up, and drained a triple in Harden’s face, letting out a ‘Let’s Go’ scream while running back on defense.
Then, with just under two minutes to go, Pritchard got double-teamed by Harden and Mobley at the halfway line. Somehow, he managed to squeak out a pass to Neemias Queta, who was waiting in the middle of the floor.
Queta kicked the ball out to a wide-open Tatum, who drained the three, putting Boston back up by 14.
(Unfortunately, the clip cuts off Pritchard’s pass, but it was a beauty.)
Like Brown, Pritchard turned his own isolation success into easy buckets for his teammates. He single-handedly changed the way Cleveland was defending.
3. Jayson Tatum’s first quarter
Though he slowed down as the game went on, including taking some ill-advised threes, Jayson Tatum looked great to start this game.
In his season debut against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night, Tatum got off to a slow start. That was not the case on Sunday afternoon. He did a little bit of everything.
Tatum found success with