CLEVELAND — The Celtics were bound to face their first clutch game of the playoffs at some point, and it finally happened in Game 4 against the Cavaliers on Monday. That’s right: All eight of the Celtics’ playoff games before Monday finished in blowout fashion without much drama at the final buzzer.
But the shorthanded Cavs gave the Celtics a scare late in the fourth quarter. Even though the C’s built up a 15-point lead, the pesky Cavs put together a spirited comeback attempt. The league defines clutch games where it’s at least within five points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime. So that’s where the C’s found themselves up five at multiple points against the Cavs.
Now, remember, even though the C’s were strong in the clutch during the regular season, they’ve been criticized for their execution in close playoff games in past seasons. So with this being the first clutch game of the playoffs, it was an important moment for the title contenders. Well, Boston executed its way to the 109-102 Game 4 win Monday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to take the 3-1 lead over the Cavs.
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“Defensive end,” Jayson Tatum said of the clutch. “We hung our hat tonight on the defensive end. We made timely shots and even the ones that we didn’t necessarily make, some of those kickout 3s, just good execution. Sometimes you don’t make shots, but how connected we were on the defensive end, when we had to get stops, we did.”
There were multiple moments where the C’s came up big, like Jaylen Brown’s 3-pointer to push the lead to eight points with 1:09 left to go. Or the defensive stops they strung together. The clutch-time minutes weren’t all perfect, but it was enough for the C’s to get the victory and 3-1 series lead.
Now, one clutch win where it barely qualified — the Cavs never got it closer than a five-point game — isn’t the end-all, be-all finish. But ultimately, it is a playoff win for a Celtics team looking to stack together 16 of those over the next several weeks. The C’s maintained their poise and grit, and that was enough to send the Cavs fans to the exits.
So there will also be some more tribulations down the line. But for now, the Celtics can say a job well done as they did what they needed to do. And now, they have a chance to become the first team to advance to the conference finals by winning Game 5, which is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at TD Garden.
“Rebounding — I think that’s the key,” Brown said of what he liked in the clutch. “You see a lot of times, especially in these games, teams get up shots and just rebound after rebound after rebound and stuff like that. We allowed them to get one shot. Whether it was a make or miss, they only got one shot, and then we played it from there.”
