BOSTON — The Celtics, through two games, are not only perfect on the season, but also in clutch games. Closing games hasn’t been a guarantee for this iteration of the Celtics as they’ve seen their offense stagnate as they’re left looking for one more bucket. Look no further than last year’s playoffs.
But through two games, against the Knicks and Heat, the Celtics are 2-0. Perhaps the exciting part for Celtics fans, too, is that coach Joe Mazzulla believes they can be even better. And while the C’s performed well in these clutch games, Mazzulla tempered expectations when talking about the fourth.
“Listen, it’s only Game 2, so I’m sure we all won’t play perfect fourth quarter basketball,” Mazzulla said. “Tonight we were intentional and we knew what we can play with the sense of poise, we attacked the right matchups, we got to our spots.
“We still didn’t play great fourth-quarter basketball. But for Game 2 of what we’re trying to get to, it’s a good start. But we got a long way to go.”
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Regardless, the Celtics have displayed poise through two games. In New York, Kristaps Porzingis’ heroics were vital to defeat his former team. In the 119-111 win over the Heat on Friday, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown combined to score 26 in the final quarter to pull away. When the Heat looked to make a comeback, the Celtics executed their way to a win over a hated East rival.
That’s a big part of the Celtics’ advantage this season: Their ability to rely on different outlets to close out the game. Jayson Tatum is a huge part of the equation, but they haven’t needed to solely rely on their All-Star in the fourth. The ball has found its way to whoever can make plays — it just so happened to be Brown and White on Friday.
“Last year is last year,” Brown said. “I think we’ve grown. We got a lot of players that can make poised decisions down the line and we just got to continue to keep that up. I think it’s only two games in and we still got a lot of work to do and so I’m looking forward to doing that.”
The Celtics, of course, will take that hot start when it comes to clutch games. As Mazzulla mentioned, they haven’t been perfect. But it’s always a positive to tinker with lineups and chemistry while still picking up wins. The Celtics’ best player in Tatum put up nine points in fourth quarters through two games, and they still came away with wins.
It’s still early this season as the Celtics will build chemistry with this new core. But the crunch-time has been a pleasant experience for the C’s thus far. Luck goes into close-game numbers, but the execution has been crisp. And the Celtics believe they’ll only get better from here.
“It shows the depth of our team,” Tatum said. “We’ve got a really, really talented team, guys that can make shots, make plays, so this was a really great team win and we figured it out, and it felt good to win this way.”
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