7 takeaways as Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum combine for 61 in Celtics win over Pacers
The Celtics' star power and depth both shined in a chaotic win.
The Celtics won an entertaining-but-odd game against the Pacers in a 142-138 shootout on Thursday, claiming their first game back from the All-Star break.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both struggled a bit in their return to the floor. Tatum made his first 3-pointer but missed his next seven shots and finished the first half 1-for-8. Brown, meanwhile, put together a solid game but missed two of three free throws in a key spot late in regulation, and he threw away a pass on a 2-on-1 fast break in the final minute that could have given the Celtics a crucial lead in the closing seconds.
Still, both had excellent moments and were able to give enough to get the Celtics off to a good start. Tatum flirted with a triple-double, tallying 31 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, and he shot 4-for-5 from the free-throw line in overtime. His put-back layup with 15 seconds remaining pushed the Celtics’ advantage to four and essentially iced the game.
“A good stat line but really not a really good game,” Tatum said afterward. “For one, glad we won, and just tried to make plays on both ends, just so we could win and everybody feel better about themselves.”
Brown, meanwhile, tallied 30 points and 11 rebounds. The Celtics’ depth was crucial against a red-hot Pacers team, but in their first game back after tearing up the All-Star Game, the Celtics’ two stars dropped 30 apiece for the ninth time this season — a reminder that for all of the talent up and down the roster, the NBA’s best team will go as far as the NBA’s best duo carries them.
2. Brown debuted his new mask, and he looked relatively uninhibited — driving hard to the rim on multiple occasions, including an aggressive finish through contact against Myles Turner in transition early.
Brown said the mask is thick, which makes him feel protected.
“It’s just some things that I have to adjust and adapt to, but I will,” Brown said. “Today was the first real game with it on, I think it went fine. But it will definitely take some getting used to and some adjustments and being able to adapt to it.”
He expects to wear the mask for 4-6 weeks.
“I think a week has already went by from All-Star, so we’re going to get real acquitted with each other after this duration,” Brown said.
3. If Joe Mazzulla is hoping to limit Tatum and Brown’s minutes as the schedule gets closer to the playoffs, he isn’t off to a great start. The two stars both played more than 42 minutes on Thursday, and while the overtime period played a factor, they both were over 37 minutes before the extra five minutes began.
“Nothing like a 41-minute overtime night straight from the break,” Tatum said with a smile. “I’ll take it though. Good win.”
Derrick White, meanwhile, didn’t play in the final six minutes of regulation or during the overtime period. The Celtics’ rotations will be fascinating over the next few weeks. Mazzulla has his work cut out for him as a fully healthy Celtics team tries to become a cohesive unit.
4. The Celtics mashed the Pacers on the offensive glass, pulling down 20 offensive rebounds to Indiana’s 10. They outscored the Pacers 22-13 on second-chance points — part of a 60-44 advantage on points in the paint.
Part of the reason for the Celtics’ success on the glass was their double-big lineup, which has only played 71 possessions due to injuries after annihilating opponents last season. This year, that group has been outscored by 5.6 points per 100 possessions in its very limited sample size, and it gave up a run to the Pacers at the start of the third quarter that closed the gap. An important point of emphasis over the next few weeks will be re-establishing the two-way dominance of the Smart-Brown-Tatum-Horford-Williams lineup.
5. Thursday’s game got chippy on multiple occasions. Smart picked up a technical after he drove through Tyrese Haliburton for a layup and flexed at the skinnier guard just two possessions after Haliburton took exception to an aggressive post-up by Smart (Smart and Haliburton were fine after the game).
Tatum, meanwhile, outwrestled Benedict Mathurin for a jump ball that extended long after the whistle.
“The refs telling us to let go, Mathurin saying he wasn’t letting go, I for sure wasn’t letting the ball go,” Tatum said. “Those plays can be big. That gives you momentum. The team sees, whether it’s the best player, the youngest player, the oldest player diving on the floor, going for the ball, you come up with that ball, the team feeds off that energy, right? You could see everyone was excited and hyped.
“I thought that was kind of one of the big moments of the game. That was very important to me. I was not letting go of that basketball.”
Mathurin later fouled out on a Smart 3-pointer and picked up a technical in the process, giving the Celtics a crucial four-point possession in overtime.
“I like those games,” Brown said. “I like those moments. Other team was talking a little bit, those are young guys but hungry. I thought we answered the challenge, and found a way to win the game.”
Brown isn’t alone — randomly chippy regular-season games are a lot of fun, and Thursday’s contest was a nice contrast to Sunday’s All-Star Game.
6. Malcolm Brogdon finished with 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting with five rebounds and seven assists in a return to Indiana, where he spent three seasons. He and Derrick White were a combined 8-for-12 from 3-point range.
The Celtics got eight 3-pointers and 41 points from a duo of bench guards on a night when their All-Star duo scored 61, which underscores the talent on the roster (and might hint at how the Celtics can buy more minutes for Tatum and Brown on the bench).
7. Sam Hauser became the first Celtics player who isn’t a center or power forward to record three blocks in 15 minutes or fewer, per Celtics in-house reporter Taylor Snow. Hauser also hit both of his 3-point attempts and finished with eight points.
“Sam is getting those, [so] there’s no excuse for anybody else,” Brown said. “I bet you, if Sam is bringing that energy to the floor, a lot of times we’re going to be winning those games. So we just have to match that energy as a unit.”
The Celtics travel to Philadelphia to face the 76ers at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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