BOSTON — It was not the prettiest game in the world, but the Boston Celtics held on for their third-straight win by outlasting the Brooklyn Nets in overtime.
The first quarter was a bit sloppy for the Celtics, which made for a back-and-forth start to the game. The Nets closed the first on a 7-2 run to take a five point lead into the second. Things got no better for Boston, and the second quarter followed pretty much the same path as the first, leading to a 61-56 Nets halftime lead. The Nets were still asserting some level of control when Sam Hauser made a diving hustle play to save a possession and wake the building up. He hit a pair of 3s to trigger a 14-5 close to the third and give Boston a four-point lead. Paul George helped the Celtics hold onto the lead and it looked like Jayson Tatum closed the door, but an ill-advised late foul, missed free throws, and a Nets three sent it to overtime. Luckily, Tatum drilled the buzzer-beater for a 125-124 win.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Jayson Tatum got the ball last: Mikel Brown Jr. made a rookie mistake by going for a layup, up one, in the closing seconds of overtime, instead of running out the clock and getting fouled. He missed, the Celtics, got the rebound, and Tatum got the chance to do this:
Tatum got to the line… a LOT: Tatum was 18-22 from the free throw line. The Nets were 17-22. He earned all of them, too. There were no cheap calls. Tatum was forcing the issue, getting downhill all night long. Both the amount of makes and attempts were career-highs.
Paul George finished strong: He played the whole fourth quarter, putting up nine points and three assists and carrying the Celtics through some non-Tatum minutes. The story of this game was about to be a massively impressive performance from 36-year-old George on a back-to-back. The Tatum shot changed that, but it doesn’t change what George did.
“I feel great,” he said after the game. “I think, knock on wood, those days are behind me. I’ve been feeling really good health-wise. But the main goal is to get to the end of the year and be healthy at the end of the year, so whatever it is, approach, I’m ready for. Whether it is playing back-to-backs, whether it’s being smart approaching back-to-backs, we’ll get to that when the time is there. But I feel good. I feel good out there, and yeah, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.”
I get the feeling George has earned a couple of days off.
Sam Hauser woke the building up: His diving hustle play (and Baylor Scheierman’s) late in the third quarter ignited a sleepy crowd and got the Garden going again. He then started hitting from three to help the Celtics extend, and hold on to their lead.
This felt like a classic back-to-back struggle that needed something, somehow, to get the juices flowing, and that was the play.
Jordan Walsh found his offense: My analysis of the first three games of the season have all included some level of “Walsh has been great on defense, but he needs to start hitting threes and finding his way offensively.” Well, he broke through in this one with 15 points on 5-8 shooting, including 3-5 from three. At one point in the third quarter, he had half of Boston’s made threes.
WHAT WENT WRONG
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy: This looked very much like a team that is still figuring each other out playing on a back-to-back.
“We weren’t playing well, obviously, but we were staying with it,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We had the game won, went to overtime, and then had to win it again. So we’ll learn from that.”
COLD shooting: They were 2-16 from 3 at halftime. The Nets were 6-17, which is only 35%, but compared to 12.5%, it was enough to drive Boston crazy. And that confidence carried to the fourth quarter, where the Nets couldn’t miss.
Bad mistakes: Neemias Queta’s foul with four seconds left, Boston up four, and the team in the penalty was a bad mistake. He reached in trying to poke a rebound free after Tatum missed a free throw instead of retreating and letting the Nets run out the clock with a desperation heave, which opened the door to a disaster sequence. Julius Randle made one free throw and missed the second on purpose, Mitchell Robinson was fouled but missed both free throws, and then Brown Jr. tied the game with a three to send it to OT. Like Mazzulla said, the game was won, and then they blew it, so they had to go win it again.
No one stopped Nolan Traore: Let’s look at his first quarter
He finally missed a couple after that, but he was the biggest reason the Nets were able to take an early lead. He finished with 15 points, but nine came in the first quarter.
Michael Porter Jr. can’t miss against Boston: The Celtics simply can’t figure out how to guard MPJ coming around screens and handoffs. He was 6-12 from three on the same kinds of plays that killed the Celtics last season.
Mo Wagner revenge game, part a million: He played for the Celtics for, like, five minutes six years ago, but it feels like he has a huge game every time he comes back to Boston. His 15 points helped fuel a 52-27 bench points advantage.
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