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Boston forward Jayson Tatum celebrates a 3-pointer as the Celtics take on the Jazz at the Garden on Friday in Boston. The Celtics won 122-114. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
Less than 24 hours after one of their season wins, the Celtics could have made excuses.
Travel issues kept the Celtics in Milwaukee an extra night after their win over the Bucks, and they didn’t land in Boston for six hours until their game against the Jazz tipped off. The visitors’ best players – including star Laurie Markkan – were out. The Celtics’ best frontcourt players, Al Horford and Robert Williams, are also missing from the lineup.
The Celtics have suffered a baffling streak of losses to inferior opponents all season and up until week one. Friday’s matchup — the second night of a back-to-back — had the makings of another.
But coach Joe Mazzula wants his team to learn from their past mistakes and, just as they did after Tuesday’s crushing loss to the Wizards, emphasized responding to a win as much as a loss. Mazula said Thursday’s big win over the Bucs wouldn’t have mattered without a similar effort a night later.
They heard the message. The Celtics were far from their best this season, but it didn’t matter as they held on for a 122-114 victory over the Jazz.
Mazula said, “I don’t feel sorry for ourselves; “We understood that it was circumstances out of our control and I thought we did everything we had to do to win the game,” he said. “Today was not about killing and it was about what we had to do to win.
“In the last 48 hours, our guys have shown different emotions and a mindset to manage different things that the league has to offer, so we have to work to continue that.”
Jayson Tatum scored 39 points on another efficient night — he went 12-for-17 shooting and had no turnovers — and said he shouldn’t have even played while nursing a left hip contusion. Tatum probably would have played, but the nature of their flight — and the attention Mazzula responded well to in the win — gave him more motivation to settle.
“We saw it as a challenge,” Tatum said. But we were talking on the plane, we were all in this together. We want to go out with the boys and play and find out. And it was fun. Whatever the past 24 hours have been, it’s been fun getting to know him. It was rewarding. …
“We could make excuses for everything that happened today. But it brought us closer together, didn’t it? Everyone said, ‘It’s not going to be perfect, but we’re going to find a way to win this game.’ “
Marcus Smart said the flight conditions were “weird”. The Celtics took their flight from Milwaukee without a pilot, forcing them to return to their hotel. They were in their rooms at 2 a.m., but Smart said the adrenaline was so high that some players had trouble sleeping.
It was a unique experience. Some players have never flown and played on the same day until Friday.
“That’s just part of it,” Smart said. “It was definitely tough but this is one of those games where you go out and it doesn’t matter and you have to fight through the game.”
After a blitzing first half from both teams, the Celtics found some separation in the second half.
They opened up an 11-point lead early in the third quarter before suffering some empty offensive possessions and a defensive slide. Johnny Juzang made a 3-pointer and Ochai Agbaji’s transition dunk capped a 7-0 Jazz run that cut Boston’s lead to four.
That forced Mazula to call a timeout, and it looked like he got the message. Malcolm Broddon hit a back-to-back triple as time expired, Grant Williams made another layup for a 9-0 run, and Brogdon made it four on a 12-2 run. The Celtics’ interior defense continued to give the Jazz easy buckets — Utah finished with 68 points in the paint — but they regained a double-digit lead and ended the quarter on a 21-10 run.
The Jazz never threatened again and got within eight in the fourth quarter, though some questionable officiating seemed to upset the Celtics. Blake Griffin and Tatum were each assessed technical fouls to cut Utah’s lead to 11 with 4:32 left.
But Tatum hit a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock, and then the C’s committed an offensive foul on Jazz guard Chris Dunn. Griffin then took the ball away from Dan, which angered him, and he was quickly kicked off the court as the Celtics went on to clinch the victory by picking up two tackles.
It may have taken some unexpected turns, but it was the response the Celtics were hoping for.
“I knew what I was going to get tonight, I trusted our guys,” Mazzula said. “And I knew we were going to be very competitive, I knew we were going to put ourselves in the position to win the game. I could tell from our guys because we’ve been in situations where we didn’t respond before, and I knew our team was ready to do it. … We did everything we had to do to win the game.
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