Celtics Answer Jaylen Brown’s Call, Winning Game 3 with Jayson Tatum

In a Game 3 victory in Cleveland that dropped the Cavaliers to 2-1 in the series, Jaylen Brown voiced his opinion, to which Jayson Tatum and the Celtics responded.

Cleveland — The appropriate night to wear the ESPN mic was Jaylen Brown. Brown talked to teammates during Game 3 with a humiliating Game 2 defeat behind them, Jayson Tatum’s postseason difficulties becoming worse, and a boisterous Cleveland atmosphere waiting for them. Veterans of the Celtics believed that communication needed to be better. Brown went first.

After a timeout, Brown told Tatum, “Tell them to quit toying with you.” “My name is Big Deuce. My name is Big Deuce. Come on, please.

Given Since Tatum was removed from the lead scoring position to start the postseason due to heightened focus and shooting difficulties, Brown has taken over. Brown has averaged 23.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 52.8% shooting from the field going into Saturday. In an attempt to ignite Boston’s defence and ignite Tatum, Brown stated at shootaround that both would occur simultaneously. Following a terrible performance in Game 2, Tatum and the team’s prospects could only get better by stacking stops, rushing, and producing more opportunities. They all responded there and prevailed 106-93.

Tatum shot 11 for 25, not quite breaking out of his shooting slump, but he attacked with greater conviction, going 9 for 17 from outside the arc and nine free throws in the process to score 33 points. In addition to his words of encouragement before the half, Brown continued to play well, scoring 28 points on 13 of 17 shots.

Jrue Holiday said that Boston had led 57-48 at the half and remarked, “I think J.B. just informed us it wasn’t over.” This year, we’ve been here before, leading 20 points in the fourth quarter before they rallied to win. Therefore, I believe we are aware of their squad composition, firepower, and exceptional scoring ability, yet we still felt the need to attack them straight away.

Two early Celtics advantages—two of Tatum’s pull-up threes and Isaac Okoro’s two early Cavaliers passes that sent him out of bounds—turned the tide for the Cavaliers during the Boston games. However, a lot of the Cavaliers’ early turnovers were unintentional, forcing Boston to use the half court as their execution zone.

They succeeded, with Tatum set up for a layup by Holiday going into the pocket and creating some post-up and passing possibilities in tandem with White. Boston played both their half and their few full court sets at a faster tempo. In the opening quarter, Tatum went 5-for-9 while Holiday added two lane shots and a three.

Holiday remarked, “I knew Donovan was going to be aggressive on one side of the ball.” There were other occasions when I considered that hitting him may make him more worn out by the third or fourth quarter, so I would postpone or do something else. Being a leader in that sense, Brown was pushing us to be aggressive, telling me to be aggressive, and threatening to switch onto Donovan if I became hostile.

Even so, Donovan Mitchell finished with 33 points in the first half and used pick-and-rolls, drop-off passes, and the odd ingenious handoff set to keep the Cavaliers within four points midway through the first quarter. However, their offensive performance was patchy, giving up on isolation setups and making few contributions from the second unit in response to Boston’s resurgent attack. Before Tatum put the Celtics ahead in the second quarter, Cleveland was kept close by a bailout play in which Dean Wade stopped a poor pass at midcourt and then flipped a pass to Max Strus for a corner three before the shot clock went off.

Midway through the second quarter, Mitchell’s back-to-back threes had the Cavs within three, but Kornet released Holiday entirely for a pull-up three that ignited a 5-0 surge that put Brown transition runs up by nine points. Tatum preserved the advantage by attacking the hoop on three different scoring plays to conclude the half and go all out on Cleveland to start the third.

After going on a 14-0 run, the Celtics largely continued to play with energy. Tatum made another inside three-point play. To get White a three, Brown swung a diagonal pass. Playing off White, Brown slid and finished at the hoop. In two minutes, Boston was up by seventeen. With a limp, Mobley left the court. The Cavaliers appeared finished.

Holiday claimed that Brown was “sharing his views and pouring out his expertise on the game.” He’s sitting there shouting at us, just being the leader that he is, and talking to us defensively, especially in the closing seconds, telling us to rebound the ball and not take threes.

JB Bickerstaff moved towards small ball and, thanks to Mitchell’s penetration and improved spacing, fell into a 15–4 lead. The Celtics missed two free throws and five consecutive attempts. The Celtics’ 23-point lead was sliced by nine points thanks to a Wade cutting finish, but Tatum rallied Boston once more. He drew two free throws, lobbed a pass to Kornet, dunked and sank a mid-range jumper to end the third quarter 13–12.

Because of his longevity as a top player, Mazzulla claimed that “he’s a really talented player that gets taken advantage of.” “I felt he played an excellent game on both sides of the court, and he is underappreciated.”

After Mobley returned, the Cavs cut that 15-point advantage to nine points, hitting him for two dunks that caused the Celtics to call a timeout 90 seconds into the fourth quarter. Right out of the break, Brown and Tatum drove to the hoop. LeVert then swapped scoring plays with them, and Pritchard pulled up for a three that would make it impossible for Cleveland to rally.

After pumping his fist in the direction of the bench, he turned to face defence and scurried back. Mitchell was still a threat to the Celtics, as he quickly scored a and-one through Brown’s defence. The play before, Mobley dunked on White, who responded with a three-pointer and a cutting layup following excellent ball movement. However, they were out of time, and Boston won the series 2-1 away from home.

Brown stated, “We need everyone to come out with the correct effort and everybody to be on the same page.” “That alone accounts for 85% of the fight. We show up, we play hard, and since we’re in agreement, the rest will work itself out. We have the quality in the locker room to defeat opponents, but we will run into problems if we don’t play with intensity and unity. Ensuring that before to the game, throughout filming and practice, we engage with everyone, make eye contact with them, and convey that we are serious about our work. Let’s go; we didn’t travel to Cleveland for the weather.

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