CLEVELAND — Jaylen Brown grabbed a few of his teammates by the shoulder throughout pregame layup traces Saturday evening. In a tied collection, he acknowledged the Boston Celtics didn’t have room for one more dud. Make or miss in Sport 3, Brown informed Derrick White, the Celtics wanted to lock up.
Jaylen Brown imploring his teammates to lock up on D tonight pic.twitter.com/FmsLmAOZWF
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) Could 12, 2024
Brown didn’t simply ship a motivational message to White. Ticked off about how the Celtics defended throughout a Sport 2 loss, Brown aimed to rev up his teammates. He mentioned he needed to talk life into his group.
“He simply went round to everyone,” White informed The Athletic. “Simply encouraging us and difficult us.”
Whereas sitting at his locker after the Celtics used a 106-93 street win to take a 2-1 collection lead, Al Horford mentioned Brown understood the duty forward. The Boston gamers talked amongst themselves concerning the crowd they’d encounter in Cleveland and the power they would wish to beat it. Brown, vocal about how his group couldn’t settle for one other poor defensive effort, ready himself to satisfy the second. In varied conversations, he steeled his teammates to do the identical.
“He simply stored reminding us,” Horford mentioned. “He did an awesome job setting the tone.”
Brown scored 28 factors on 13-for-17 capturing. When the Cavaliers reduce a 23-point deficit to 9 factors early within the fourth quarter, he made all 4 of his pictures over the ultimate 9:10 to make sure they by no means pulled any nearer. After he implored his teammates to select up the defensive depth, his constant manufacturing on each ends helped them overcome Donovan Mitchell’s large first half and the tense moments that adopted Cleveland’s fourth-quarter cost. By way of all of the ups and downs of the sport, the Celtics confirmed the resiliency and focus they might want to survive within the playoffs, similar to Brown demanded of them.
“I feel it was only a problem,” White mentioned. “Clearly myself, Jrue (Vacation), JB, JT (Jayson Tatum), we’ve gotta have the ability to do it on each ends. That’s what we delight ourselves on. On taking part in like that. Simply that little problem, it makes you wish to compete a bit of bit extra.”
Although nonetheless early in a second-round collection with the Cavaliers, the Celtics appeared to really feel the strain to protect their nice season. To take action, they believed they wanted to stay as much as their normal commonplace once more, which they didn’t do in Sport 2. The search began nicely earlier than Sport 3 began. At shootaround, Brown and Jrue Vacation made it clear the Celtics would concentrate on bringing a sharper edge to Sport 3. They believed their group lacked the suitable depth throughout a Sport 2 loss at TD Backyard. Particularly for a postseason recreation, Brown and Vacation thought the Celtics didn’t compete with sufficient drive in that recreation.
“It’s playoffs,” Brown mentioned. “We’ve received to convey the combat. It wasn’t sufficient power, wasn’t sufficient effort.”
“We will’t have that,” mentioned Vacation.
The Celtics didn’t lack hearth in Sport 3. Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell rode a first-half heater with six 3-pointers earlier than the tip of the second quarter, however Boston nonetheless solely gave up 48 factors on 38.6-percent capturing to take a 57-48 lead into the half. Throughout halftime, Vacation mentioned Brown informed the Celtics the sport wasn’t over but. They need to have recognized that from expertise. In early March, Boston held a 22-point fourth-quarter lead in Cleveland earlier than cratering over the ultimate 9 minutes.
On Saturday, it took 1:47 for the Celtics to attain the primary eight factors of the third quarter. An open Brown layup from White pushed the Boston benefit to 65-48 and satisfied the Cavaliers to take a timeout. Even after the timeout, the Celtics continued to surge. They drilled a pair of 3-pointers shortly afterward to increase their run to 14-0 and their result in 71-48. Even with Mitchell sinking off-the-dribble jumpers as in the event that they had been layups, the Celtics had been in a position to maintain down the Cleveland offense.
“Donovan was robust,” Brown mentioned. “I really feel like he had an distinctive first half and made some robust baskets off the dribble. A few of that stuff might be discouraging as a result of he’s an awesome participant. However we simply stayed with it over the course. We had been in a position to preserve everyone else out of it and discover a technique to win.”
As a lot as anybody, Brown appears to worth the chance the Celtics maintain this season. Although his urgency hit a brand new degree after the Sport 2 defeat, it started effervescent up earlier than the season started. The sensation of a crushing Jap Convention Finals loss to Miami final season, and his half in it, drove him to work more durable than ever over the summer time. At a press convention for the signing of his huge contract extension in July, when he might have been most relaxed, he used the chance to state the Celtics wanted to hold their hats on the defensive finish of the court docket. Months earlier than coaching camp, he was already busy establishing an perspective for his group.
“He’s been doing all of it yr,” White mentioned. “Simply taking over the problem. After which clearly, how he performs, it’s simple to observe a man like that.”
Brown has additionally proven his improvement in different areas.
“Simply his selecting and selecting spots very well,” Joe Mazzulla mentioned. “Picks and chooses his spots, picks and chooses his matchup, picks and chooses his shot choice and performs with a way of poise. I believed a few these kick-outs that he had on the finish of the third or the start of the fourth had been huge for us. And top-of-the-line issues he’s doing is even when he scores two, 3 times in a row, the subsequent play is the fitting play. It’s not a play for him, it’s a play to make the fitting one. And I feel that’s an enormous progress for these guys is their capacity to do this.”
After failing to shut the door within the third quarter after they had an opportunity to take action, the Celtics wanted to combat off one final Cavaliers run within the fourth. Mazzulla known as timeout after an Evan Mobley putback reduce the Boston result in 84-75 with 10:29 left. In entrance of a rowdy Cleveland crowd, White mentioned the Celtics gamers simply wanted to breathe.
“JB says it on a regular basis: ‘Simply breathe,’” White mentioned. “We had been on the identical place we had been at halftime. So it’s not like that they had made any floor up. And other people simply made huge performs. (Payton Pritchard) hit a big-time shot and we simply made the performs that we wanted to make.”
One minute after Mazzulla’s timeout, Brown drove previous Caris LeVert and completed a reverse left-handed layup. Over the remainder of the fourth quarter, Brown racked up six extra factors and one help. With barely greater than three minutes left, he calmly evaded a Max Strus closeout earlier than canning a one-legged 14-footer on the shot clock buzzer. The bucket gave Boston a 102-89 lead.
With it, Brown all however completed what he began by winding up his Celtics teammates. After the slippage of Sport 2, he wouldn’t settle for one other subpar effort from his group. With an actual likelihood to win his first championship, he needs to do no matter it takes to paved the way.
“I feel that’s what we want,” Brown mentioned, “I feel we simply want everyone to be on the identical web page and everyone to come back out with the fitting effort. That’s 85 % of the battle proper there. We come out, we play laborious after which we’re on the identical web page and the remaining will handle itself. We received sufficient expertise within the locker room to beat groups. But when we’re not on the identical web page and we’re not taking part in laborious, these are after we get ourselves in bother.
“So ensuring, earlier than the sport, at movie and shootaround, speaking to everyone, touching everyone, letting everyone know that, ‘Hey, we’re not right here to mess around.’ We didn’t come to Cleveland for the climate, so let’s go.”
(Picture: Jason Miller / Getty Photos)
