Jaylen Brown leads Celtics over Wizards in NBA Cup: 6 takeaways

November 23, 2024 Vaseline blog 0

Jaylen Brown leads Celtics over Wizards in NBA Cup: 6 takeaways

Celtics

Brown carried the load offensively as Jayson Tatum struggled to find his rhythm.

Jaylen Brown carried the load for an ice cold Celtics offense Saturday. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

Jaylen Brown and the Celtics won a big game (at least by Emirates NBA Cup standards) on Friday, pulling away down the stretch for a 108-96 victory that could have important implications.

Here are the takeaways.

Jaylen Brown grinded out a big evening.

The normally 3-point happy Celtics were a catastrophic 11-for-46 (23.9 percent) from behind the arc on Friday, and Jayson Tatum was way off as well.

That put the onus on Jaylen Brown’s capable shoulders, and while he wasn’t particularly efficient either (11-for-27 overall, 3-for-13 from three), he scored a game-high 31 points, adding 11 rebounds and five assists. Late in the game, Brown was part of an important stretch when the Celtics pulled away, as he and Tatum scored six consecutive field goals for the Celtics inside the arc.

“You’ve got to find other ways to win — on the glass, scoring in transition, defending at a high level, keeping a team under 100,” Brown said. “We figured it out, and we’re still figuring it out as a team.

“It’s a new season, but all of this is adding to our learning process, and it’s great to be able to win games and learn at the same time.”

When the Celtics can’t get their 3-point shot working, having a player like Brown who seems to prefer to operate in the paint is crucial. Brown hoisted a couple of 3-pointers that looked less than advisable, but Joe Mazzulla often likes to talk about doing what the game requires, and Brown gave the Celtics precisely what they needed on an ice cold evening.

“I feel like we shot too many threes,” Brown said afterward. “I definitely feel like I shot too many threes. I settled too much, but it’s learning. As we adjust with different lineups and stuff like that, teams are playing different ways, and I’ll adjust.”

What does this mean for the NBA Cup?

Curiosity over the implications for the NBA’s in-season tournament saved what was otherwise a very ugly game.

The Wizards did give the Celtics a bit of a boost down the stretch by trying to foul and extend the game, which allowed Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum to increase the lead to 10. With 10 seconds left, Wizards coach Brian Keefe called timeout, which stopped the action and signaled that all bets were off and everyone was chasing point differential.

Unfortunately for Keefe and the Wizards, extending the game did not work in favor of the NBA’s worst defense — perhaps predictably, it worked in favor of the defending champions. The Celtics won by 12, which raised their point differential to +15 in their group.

That sets the table nicely for the Celtics, who got a big boost from the Bulls. Chicago pulled out a 14-point win over the Hawks, who have the head-to-head against the Celtics after upsetting them earlier this month.

If the Celtics take care of business against the Bulls — and if the Cavaliers can beat the Hawks — the Celtics will advance to the knock-out round.

If the Hawks beat the Cavaliers, the Celtics will probably need a very large win over the Bulls to advance, which is the same scenario they were in last season against the same team. If Billy Donovan wants revenge on Joe Mazzulla for last season’s Hack-A-Drummond tactic, he has a chance to play spoiler.

Luke Kornet helped keep the Celtics alive in the first half.

After a DNP-CD against the Cavaliers on Tuesday, Kornet had a nice first half off the bench with six points and a notable impact defensively. Kornet caught an alley-oop without looking at the rim and threw it down behind his head and put together a better defensive outing than Neemias Queta, who started the first half (but not the second).

Kornet also had a funny moment — at one point late in the second quarter, Kornet found himself isolated against Wizards rookie Carlton Carrington. Carrington pump faked and jabbed at Kornet, but in the process, he shuffled his pivot foot and was whistled for a trip.

Kornet, who wobbled backward on one of the jab steps, pumped his fist and jogged back grinning — clearly aware that if Carrington hadn’t traveled, Kornet might have ended up on a highlight reel.

Kornet finished with six points, six rebounds, an assist, a block and a big steal down the stretch.

Xavier Tillman got some minutes.

Tillman has been well outside the Celtics’ rotation for several weeks, playing in just five of the Celtics’ 10 games in November prior to Friday for a total of about 20 minutes.

On Friday, however, he played roughly nine minutes and injected some energy, particularly on the defensive end. Tillman missed both of his shot attempts, but he blocked two shots and grabbed a pair of rebounds.

“He’s been working hard,” Mazzulla said. “I felt like the game needed something different, and those guys were always ready. We wanted to do a little bit more switching, and the last time we played them, we played him and Luke together, and he did some great things on the defensive end, especially in the (Jonas) Valanciunas’s minutes.

“I just kind of wanted to win those minutes in the fourth quarter, and it’s a credit to him just kind of working hard, being ready, and I think he gave us some good stuff.”

Jayson Tatum was way off.

After putting together a monstrous performance against the Cavaliers, Tatum couldn’t find the range on Friday, finishing with 16 points on 6-for-19 shooting. He never stopped shooting, but he never broke through and finished 0-for-10 from behind the arc, and he had a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers.

Perhaps Tatum’s worst two shots were a pair of very deep 3-pointers that weren’t particularly close and didn’t really make sense within his personal flow of the game.

Tatum did make a couple of turnaround jumpers in the fourth quarter, and he finished with nine rebounds and eight assists. The assists could have been higher if the Celtics hadn’t been ice cold as a team from 3-point range — he created a number of opportunities that his teammates clanked off the rim.

Still, on a night when the Celtics had a prime opportunity to win by quite a bit to give themselves a better shot at advancing in the Emirates NBA Cup, their MVP candidate did not look like himself.

Joe Mazzulla got a technical (and claims it was strategic).

Late in the third quarter, Brown drove into the paint, pump-faked and missed a layup but appeared to be fouled on the play. The officials didn’t call the foul and play continued, but Mazzulla went wild on the sideline, earning a technical from Ed Malloy.

“It changed the energy in the arena,” Mazzulla said, when a reporter asked him about it. “Did you feel that?”

The reporter did.

“I think it was just manipulating the environment,” Mazzulla said. “I thought it’s kind of what the environment needed at the time. You just have to make those calls from time to time. Really, I thought the team was playing pretty good — it wasn’t like I needed to do that — but I felt like it was a way to manipulate the environment.

So what did Mazzulla want?

“Just noise, chaos, energy, anxiety—a little bit of everything,” Mazzulla said. “Yeah, trying to win there. I didn’t really start thinking about it until they fouled us and we had a chance to get the two-for-one back, and we were just kind of going from there. “I just tried to take advantage of that.”

We’re not entirely sure we buy that Mazzulla was playing 3D chess to that degree.

“I think it was an obvious foul that they missed,” Brown said. “I don’t know what that was, but we didn’t have a lot of energy tonight. I thought it was kind of clear. Maybe it was just yesterday, you know, a long day. We came in a little bit flat, so we definitely needed to find different ways to put a pep in our step.

“I guess Joe getting the tech kind of helped or hurt, but we just needed to be better, and I think that was the start.”

Bill Nye was in the building.

The Wizards might not have a good basketball team, but they did have a pretty cool celebrity row on Friday.

Brown got to meet him afterwards, which was a big moment for the Celtics’ star.

“I can’t remember what made me even tweet that,” Brown said. “I think I was just thinking about the educational experience, and it just crossed my mind. I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to meet this guy.’ His contributions to STEM and STEAM have been amazing and made learning fun.

“Growing up, I used to be excited when the teacher would say, ‘We’re watching Bill Nye today.’ Looking back on it, to be able to shake his hand for helping me in my educational journey, it was pretty cool tonight.”

Brown said he didn’t know Nye was going to be in attendance.

“What an honor,” Brown said. “I was definitely excited to meet him, and it was pretty cool to just shake his hand.”

Three games in four nights

Friday’s game was the first in a three-games-in-four-nights stretch for the Celtics, who now face the Minnesota Timberwolves in Boston on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm

The Clippers will be in town on Monday evening at 7:30 pm