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Jaylen Brown, Celtics hold off James Harden, Clippers late to claim rare clutch win: 8 takeaways
The Celtics held off a spirited push from James Harden and the Clippers in the fourth quarter for a hard-fought 121-118 victory.
The Celtics got big performances from a number of key contributors including Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard on Sunday, holding off a spirited push from James Harden and the Clippers in the fourth quarter for a hard-fought 121-118 victory.
Here are the takeaways.
The Celtics got a clutch win (barely)
The Celtics have one of the NBA’s worst teams in the clutch, and they allowed what should have been a much more comfortable win in the closing seconds turn into a nail biter.
The lion’s share of the credit belongs to Harden, who struggled mightily in the first half and didn’t get a ton of easy field goals in the second either (more on that in a minute). Harden scored 18 of his 37 points in the fourth, and all 18 came in the final 4:20. Harden buried three 3-pointers as well as three free throws after a semi-questionable 3-point foul call against Jordan Walsh, and his final made 3-pointer trimmed the Celtics’ lead to one with three seconds left.
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A couple of things then worked in the Celtics’ favor.
First, both Derrick White and Pritchard made clutch 3-pointers in the final seconds, which kept the Clippers at an arm’s length.
Second, Pritchard made a brilliant play with 14 seconds remaining, breaking through the Clippers’ full-court press with his head up and finding Jaylen Brown under the basket for a dunk that gave the Celtics a five-point lead.
And finally, the Celtics really got away with one on the last play of the game — after Pritchard made his free throws, the Clippers were forced to try one final desperation play. Kris Dunn launched a pass the length of the court to Ivica Zubac, and Walsh lost Harden, who appeared to trick the Celtics into thinking he wouldn’t be involved. Zubac found a streaking Harden on the other end, but Harden’s shot hit the rim and the backboard before bouncing threateningly — but harmlessly — out to give the Celtics the win.
Jaylen Brown was excellent
On an afternoon when the Celtics really needed someone to don a cape and pull them out of their clutch-time woes, Brown was up for the challenge.
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Brown scored 13 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, and while his overall totals weren’t particularly efficient (33 points on 33 shots, 1-for-7 from three, 4-for-7 from the free-throw line), he continued to absolutely demolish teams from the mid-range. Brown is carving himself out a place among former Celtics like Isaiah Thomas and Paul Pierce as elite at finding the spot he wants to get to by using his body and a bag of tricks, and then scoring from it even though the defense knows where he wants to be.
Crucially, Brown also played impressive defense and pulled down 13 rebounds.
“The only thing he cares about is winning,” Joe Mazzulla said afterward. “He’s finding a great balance of putting us in position to win, empowering his teammates, and doing what he needs to do in games for us to give us a shot. So 13 in the fourth quarter and at the same time, playing defense, getting steals — all he cares about is winning and going about it the right way, and that’s a credit to him.”
Brown — who was a spot-up shooter his rookie year and came off the bench in his second season before growing into his current superstar status — quite correctly pointed out that he has played a number of roles throughout his career.
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“I’ve been a lockdown defender and scorer and catch-and-shoot guy, come off the bench,” he said. “I feel like I’m an all-around player. This year is more of a challenge of your endurance. That’s it.”
Derrick White was, too
The first 13 games of the season haven’t been the smoothest transition for White into a bigger role, but Sunday’s game was an encouraging glimpse into what the Celtics hope to get from White. He finished with 22 points on 7-for-17 shooting while flirting with a triple-double (seven rebounds and nine assists), and he blocked a pair of shots. Importantly, he was also 4-for-8 from behind the arc.
White was particularly good in the pick-and-roll, which is huge for a Celtics team that leans heavily on Brown’s ability to create offense for himself. One of the best things about Jayson Tatum as a superstar is his ability to be both a shot creator and a facilitator, and White picking up the slack is a massive contribution. White found Neemias Queta three times and Luka Garza once rolling to the basket, and he assisted on three of Pritchard’s threes as well as one by Baylor Scheierman – all of which were high-value, high-impact assists.
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It can be easy to forget that the season is still extremely young. If White can fully acclimate himself to everything the Celtics need from him over the next few weeks, brighter times may lie ahead.
Payton Pritchard got hot (again)
The same can be said of Pritchard, whose numbers are inching tantalizingly upward over the last week.
The flammable guard had his best game of the season on Sunday, scoring 30 points on 10-for-16 shooting, which included eight 3-pointers on 13 attempts. In the third quarter, Pritchard got particularly hot with 14 points and four triples in the first four minutes of the quarter as the Celtics swelled their lead as high as 24 before the Clippers began to slowly, inexorably walk it back down.
When Pritchard makes 3-pointers, the Celtics’ offense — naturally — becomes a lot more dangerous, and the Clippers began overreacting to Pritchard’s gravity. White sprang free for a layup when the Clippers overpursued Pritchard around a screen, and his 3-pointers allowed the Celtics to briefly put some real distance behind themselves.
Pritchard is now shooting 47.6 percent from three in his last five games, even with 1-for-6 and 1-for-5 performances sandwiched in the middle.
“It’s inevitable,” Mazzulla said of Pritchard and White’s recent surge. “They work too hard and they’re too good of players. They’ll go up, they’ll go down, but at the end of day, they’ll make plays, and we’ve just got to execute as a team.”
Jordan Walsh defended James Harden well
While Harden went off in the fourth quarter, only one of his nine field goals in the game came when Walsh defended him from the start of the possession (a late layup when he scooted by the 21-year-old and finished at the rim). Harden also made a 3-pointer early against a contest by Walsh, but Walsh had to range over from his own defensive assignment after getting switched off Harden to make that happen.
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Harden, like a number of other stars in the last couple of weeks, struggled against Walsh length, athleticism, activity and defensive IQ. While the Clippers star did draw several trips to the free-throw line against Walsh (including three important free throws late that officials reviewed and cleared for a flagrant foul in a dicey moment), Walsh drew praise, albeit of a somewhat measured sort, from Mazzulla.
“It’s just Jordan’s ability to stay disciplined throughout the entire thing – he’s just showing a true mindset into taking that on and having the professionalism and the toughness to do that every night,” Mazzulla said. “So we don’t tell him anything because of all the other stuff he’s done. He had six defensive rebounds, two offensive, and he’s doing more than just guarding the team’s best player. …
“So you pat him on the back and tell him to get better.”
Derrick Jones Jr. got hurt, and it didn’t look good.
The Clippers have had more than their fair share of injuries over the years, and this season is no exception. Kawhi Leonard sat out his seventh straight game as he deals with an ankle injury, and Bradley Beal was recently ruled out for the season after fracturing his left hip.
Then, in the second quarter of Sunday’s game, the Clippers might have picked up a new one: Derrick Jones Jr., who appeared to get badly hurt in a freak accident. As Brown pursued a loose ball, he fell to the ground and reached out to try to grab it. As he stretched, however, he landed awkwardly on Jones’ leg, and the forward twisted away. Immediately, Jones crumpled to the floor in obvious pain, and after a timeout, he was helped to the locker room apparently unable to put any weight on his leg.
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The Clippers didn’t immediately announce anything, but the sequence was concerning. Here’s hoping Jones is okay.
A very Joe Mazzulla take on “fun“
After the game, a young reporter from Sports Illustrated Kids asked Mazzulla how he balances pushing players to improve while keeping things fun.
Mazzulla admitted he struggles with that.
“I think fun is a cop out sometimes,” he said. “When things aren’t going well, everybody likes to say, ‘Well, let’s just have fun.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ I think you have to define what fun looks like as a team, and then you kind of have to go after that.
“But that phrase can be a cop out sometimes, so as you get older, kid, don’t use it. Say ‘I just want to have fun,’ it’s like, well, what does that mean? So, you’ve just got to define that. It’s a good question. I struggle with that.”
If you predicted that Mazzulla would tell a child reporter that “fun” is a cop-out concept, congratulations: You were absolutely correct.
What’s next
The Celtics face the Nets on Tuesday in Brooklyn before returning to TD Garden to face the Nets again as part of the NBA Cup group play. They will get a visit from the Magic next Sunday.
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