Boston Celtics
Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 25 points in what looked like a must-win game for Boston.
Jayson Tatum led Boston to victory in Game 3. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were outstanding in the fourth quarter as the Celtics pulled out a hard-fought Game 3 win to take a 2-1 lead over the 76ers.
Here are the takeaways.
Jayson Tatum came huge
After the game, reporter Christina Pink asked Tatum why he was there for big moments like Friday’s win.
Tatum took a moment to consider the question and smiled.
“I’ve been here before,” he said.
He certainly played a very important playoff game against the Sixers in a very hostile environment, whether “here” as in the playoffs, or “here” as in Wells Fargo Stadium.
So it probably wasn’t a surprise that when Kelly helped Aubrey Tatum to contain a shot by Nikola Vucevic, Tatum was able to get in a huge 3-pointer and bury it to extend the Celtics’ lead to one point, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise when — with the Celtics up by 3 and just 26 seconds remaining — Tatum stuck a dagger 3-pointer at the Sixers and pounded his chest with a big scream as he returned to the court. Celtics pool.
Tatum said that moment — his first playoff game on the road since his injury, and simply another meaningful game in the postseason — meant a lot.
“Just the environment, the circumstances of a 1-1 tie and knowing what’s at stake and just being in a position to close out the game as a competitor, as a basketball player, just seeing those emotions come out in those moments,” Tatum said.
Tatum finished with 25 points — no small feat in a battle as rocky as Friday’s game — and dished out seven assists to go along with four rebounds. After missing two momentum-changing 3-pointers in Game 2, he was 5-for-9 from deep in Game 3. The final three brought him more than 3,000 career playoff points.
Tatum had bigger games against the Sixers – 51 points flow In 2023, 7 come to mind – but these contests mean a lot to him after last year, perhaps even more so, as all the big games that came before prepared him for this one.
“We’ve been in that scenario over and over again,” Tatum said. “The times we’ve failed and the times we’ve succeeded. It’s all about just learning from past experiences and whether it’s the first play of the game or the crunch time, it’s just about making the right read and making the right play.”
Jaylen Brown was also ready
Brown’s contributions were not as late as Tatum’s, but they were just as influential.
From the 6:44 mark of the fourth to 3:14, Brown was responsible for all 10 Celtics points. He started by receiving a lazy pass from Therese Maxey. Brown urged Derrick White to follow him down the floor, and finally went to his teammate, and White finished off a layup in transition.
Brown then scored eight straight goals, including two incredibly contested shots inside the paint.
Tatum and Brown had remarkably similar games. Like Tatum, Brown finished with 25 points, and his stat line was 25-7-4 instead of 25-4-7. He was 9-for-16 instead of 9-for-17, and like Tatum, he made Celtics playoff history, passing Bill Russell and Robert Parish on the all-time playoff scoring list.
“All your preparation and stuff goes back to those moments,” Brown said. “Both teams are tired, your team is probably in a slump offensively, you have to know how to get a basket, you have to know how to create some momentum for your team, and I feel like I did enough to turn things around in our favor.”
For long stretches, the Celtics looked shaky. They haven’t been a great team all year. You would be right to be afraid of Teres Maxi. Nothing is guaranteed in Friday’s game.
But the Celtics are built for these moments.
“We’ve been through this before, so no moment is too big,” Brown said. “We’re just big players making big plays.”
Derek White’s rough night
On one hand, Derrick White had another brutal shooting performance — 3-for-12 from the floor, 1-for-8 from deep — and ran right at Adem Bona on the first play of the game, trying to navigate around the screen. White immediately collapsed to the ground holding his head and neck, and later confirmed that he had “stabbed” Bona, injuring his neck.
“It wasn’t great, but it was okay,” White said. “I wouldn’t say it’s over, but I was able to play there, so that’s good.”
White, on the other hand, was part of the reason VJ Edgecombe shot 5-for-17 from the floor, grabbing offensive rebounds late that led to both shots you can see above.
White’s shooting struggles are a bit disconcerting, but even on tough nights, he was instrumental throughout.
“I can say it 100 times: We need him, we need him, we need him,” Tatum said. “And that’s tough. As a basketball player, we’ve all been there where you don’t make shots at the rate you expect or want. Sometimes, you just don’t. But D-White is an unreal basketball player who still has his mark on the game.” […]
“Never turn down a shot, you know, the law of averages. It’ll start getting them down.”
Nikola Vucevic played extended minutes
Once again, Neemias Queta had difficulty staying on the ground, committing four quick fouls. Instead of letting Queta make a mistake, Mazzola scored for them in just under 13 minutes and let Nikola Vucevic take the lion’s share of the minutes.
Vucevic was a mixed bag. He made three 3-pointers and scored 11 points, but he turned the ball over four times, and made several big mistakes on the defensive end – helping players at the wrong time, and committing five fouls himself.
Queta’s inability to stay on the floor has now become a recurring problem in this series and it could have been much more costly on Friday.
“When you get a win and you’re able to help the team, it’s always fun,” Vucevic said. “That’s what you want to do as a professional athlete, to be in those moments, to be in big games, to be able to provide help for your teammates. It was a good win and we move on to the next one.”
The Celtics turned the ball over a lot
Despite the Celtics’ obsession with margins, they were actually pretty good in the regular season when they turned the ball over a lot — they finished 15-5 when they turned the ball over 15 or more times.
However, Friday’s 17 turnovers were sloppy and uncharacteristic, and seemed like an indication that the Celtics were a bit shaken by their Game 2 loss.
“We made some mistakes,” Mazzola said. “That’s going to happen in the game, but I liked the mentality that we had — competitiveness and teamwork. I thought there was great communication, great body language, great teamwork, just things that can help you get through things, especially when you’re playing on the road.”
Payton Pritchard had a big shot as well
As long as we’re talking about the big-scoring Celtics, we shouldn’t forget Pritchard, who hit a 3-pointer, causing broadcaster Eric Collins to shout, “Oh, he’s a killer!”
There may not be a better player in the league to throw the ball to at the end of the shot clock. Pritchard excels at creating his shots quickly, and also excels in late-game situations.
“Game 7” feel.
The Celtics have been quite open about how important Friday’s game is.
“This was like a Game 7 for us,” Brown said. “Even though this is a long series, we definitely wanted to come back and respond after one loss at home. We can’t lose two games in a row in the playoffs. It’s tough. So this was a big win for us.”
One of Mazzulla’s favorite themes during the postseason is that the series will be tough. Like hard times in life, you can’t avoid them – you simply have to go through them, and you have to accept that what happens will happen.
“The series will have a life of its own,” Mazzola said Friday. “You just have to sit in it. You can’t rush it to be over. You can’t expect it to be over. You can’t go into a playoff series with levels of expectation. You just have to go in and settle in, and that’s physically, mentally and emotionally, you have to settle into it.”
“I think guys are great at it, to the point where that’s what you sign up for. I mean, they push us. We have to push them.”
What’s next
The Celtics will look for a big win in Game 4 and take a 3-1 lead on Sunday at 7 p.m. The series returns to Boston for Game 5 on Tuesday.
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