Brown carries C’s to scrappy win
Over their recent slide in which the Celtics have lost five of eight games, Joe Mazzulla has been preaching about the margins that decide the outcome of games. By his own admittance, the coach has been pissed off that his team hasn’t learned the importance of rebounding, and not giving up second-chance points, during critical moments.
For one night, the Celtics flipped the script. And it was Grant Williams, who desperately needed a good moment after falling out of the rotation lately, who came up big when they needed him the most.
The Celtics led by two in the closing seconds as they fended off a late Timberwolves rally when Marcus Smart put up a wideopen 3-pointer that missed. But Williams was where he needed to be and corralled the rebound. The C’s couldn’t call a timeout as Williams wrestled with defenders with the ball and they had to settle for a jump ball, but Williams won the tip over Rudy Gobert, and a pair of free throws from Jayson Tatum sealed the win.
“Big-time play,” Mazzulla told reporters in Minnesota. “As I said before, we have a deep team. We have the ability to play different ways. Grant’s humility and professionalism to be ready to play and make a play like that is the reason we have a chance to be a good team. That was a big-time play.”
It wasn’t pretty in Minnesota. The Celtics shot poorly from deep. They got beaten up in a choppy game, including a scary moment when Tatum fell hard to the ground. But the Celtics relied on their defense, responded from one of their worst losses of the season on Monday in Houston and scrapped their way to a much-needed 104-102 victory over Anthony Edwards and the upstart, feisty Timberwolves.
“We just stayed the course,” Jaylen Brown told NBC Sports Boston. “I think defensively tonight we won the game. Keeping them (at 102 points), I think that was the key. We didn’t shoot the ball great, but our defense is what kept us in the game.”
Tatum scored just 22 points — 14 of them coming at the free-throw line — and went 0-for-8 from 3-point range, but it was Brown who carried the Celtics with 35 points, which included five 3-pointers, as he made big shots down the stretch to hold off the Timberwolves. The Celtics led by 14 in the second half but kept their poise and never gave up the lead.
Brown may have been sparked by an incident in the second quarter. The Celtics star — who has been wearing a face mask since suffering a facial fracture last month — was inadvertently elbowed in the face by Gobert. He took exception, going face-to-face with the Minnesota big man and drawing a technical. But it seemed to fire him up.
“I felt like Gobert was being a little reckless,” Brown said to NBC. “I already have a broken cheekbone from J.T., so when I got hit in the face, I reacted. But I’m just glad we got the win.”
The Celtics led by just six heading into the fourth after holding a double-digit lead, but Brown scored 15 of his 35 points in the final period to hold off the Wolves. He got some help from Al Horford and Smart, who also made some big shots down the stretch.
The C’s found a way to win, and they improved in the margins Mazzulla was concerned about on Monday. But he wasn’t completely satisfied. It was a step in the right direction, but Boston still has plenty of room for improvement over the final dozen games.
“Just because we won doesn’t mean I feel that much better,” Mazzulla told reporters. “I thought we fouled too much in the third quarter, and we gave up some timely offensive rebounds. I thought our physicality and competitive nature was about a 10, and we just have to continue to execute the margins in clutch situations. … We just have to have timely execution on those margins.”
Other takeaways from the win:
— Mazzulla put an interesting lineup on the floor midway through the first quarter. Usually, either Tatum or Brown play the entire first quarter, with one of them playing with the second unit. But with 4:35 to go in the first, neither star was on the court. Instead, it was a combination of Malcolm Brogdon, Derrick White, Williams, Sam Hauser and Horford, before Blake Griffin replaced Horford. The experiment only lasted one minute, 50 seconds, so it wasn’t a deep look, but it was certainly interesting as Mazzulla tests out different lineups.
It was notable that Williams — whose minutes have been down over the last few weeks — played in the first quarter, as he and Brogdon were the first players off the bench. He played 26 minutes and was in the closing lineup.
— Griffin produced another strong stretch in the first half that helped the Celtics build a double-digit lead. The veteran threw down a dunk and did the little things as he usually does, including drawing a pair of charges in the span of a minute. He’s now tied for the team lead in charges drawn this season with White at 13, while playing nearly 1,500 fewer minutes.
— Tatum had a brief, scary moment in the third quarter. After throwing down a one-handed dunk on Gobert, his legs tangled with the big man and he fell hard to the court without a chance to brace himself as he landed on his side. But after a few moments of staying on the ground, he got up. Gobert was issued with a Flagrant 1 foul and Tatum took the free throw.