It wasn’t Havlicek in ‘65, Bird in ‘87, or Henderson in ‘84, but as Celtics’ playoff steals go, Jrue Holiday’s was pretty special.
On Saturday night, the Celtics won a game they probably wouldn’t have last year. Holiday, who wasn’t on the roster a year ago, made the steal to seal the win. While he wasn’t the only reason they won, it’s not a coincidence either.
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The Celtics trailed for 199 laps in Speedwaytown, but erased an 18-point deficit on the road and were leading by one after Jayson Tatum missed a driving layup with 10 seconds left. Andrew Nembhard, who had 32 points in the game, got the rebound and was racing up the floor for a possible game-winning shot. Nembhard and Holiday collided first, knocking Holiday backward. If he’d fallen, the Pacers guard would have had a clear driving lane, but Holiday got his left and down to steady himself.
Holiday popped back up and tapped the ball away from a surprised Nembhard. The Celtics guard then took off up the floor where he was fouled by Pascal Siakam.
“He’s a right-handed driver and he’s been very, very aggressive all night,” Holiday said. “I just made a play. I just jumped his right hand and got a steal..”
The play and the two free throws that followed sealed a 114-111 win and put Boston ahead 3-0 in the series.
A team has to have a pretty rich history to have a pantheon of playoff steals better than that one, but this is the Celtics, who had these three:
- April 15, 1965 — The most famous steal is probably No. 3 in terms of most significant. The Celtics were already leading when John Havlicek stepped in front of Hal Greer’s inbound pass and tipped it to Sam Jones, who dribbled out the clock. But Johnny Most’s leather-tongued call of: “Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones! Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over! It’s all over! Johnny Havlicek is being mobbed by the fans! It’s all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!” helped make a great play into a legendary one.
- May 31, 1984 — With 13 seconds left, the Celtics were down two to the Lakers in Game 2 of the 1984 Finals after losing Game 1 at the Boston Garden. But Gerald Henderson darted in to steal a lazy James Worthy pass in the backcourt and laid it in to tie the game. The Celtics won in overtime and went on to win the and banner No. 15. Because Henderson wasn’t as famous as Havlicek or Bird, it doesn’t get the same status. But that was probably the biggest of the three.
- May 27, 1987 — Holiday’s steal was almost exactly 37 years from Larry Bird’s famous steal and happened almost exactly 100 miles from Bird’s famous hometown. The Celtics trailed the Pistons by a point with under 10 seconds left in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but Bird stole the inbounds pass from Isiah Thomas and hit Dennis Johnson cutting to the basket for the game-winner.
All three of those steals picked off future Hall of Famers, while Holiday picked off Nembhard. Despite his big night on Saturday, Nembhard’s future enshrinement in Springfield is not yet imminent. Those three steals also came in series which proved to be tighter and tougher than this one is likely to be.
But what makes Holiday’s moment measure up just underneath the Big Three steals was his day leading up to it. Holiday spent most of the morning and after ill. Sick enough to miss shootaround earlier in the day and for the Celtics to list him as questionable before game time. His status wasn’t as iffy in his own mind as it was on the injury report.
“It’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals,” Holiday said. “I wasn’t going to miss this game.”
Pacers fans might wish he hadn’t returned. In the fourth quarter, Holiday was making Indiana fans ill. He had nine of his 14 points in the final frame. It was his stutter-step, lefty lay-up, and-1 that gave the Celtics, the one-point lead with 38.9 seconds left that his steal helped seal.
“Jrue is different. Nothing really else to say,” Jaylen Brown said and then repeated. “Jrue is just different.”
It would have been a bad game to lose and the Celtics nearly did. They played some pretty sloppy transition defense at points. They flung too many 3s on critical possessions and they fell behind by 18 points and nearly lost to a Pacers team missing Tyrese Haliburton, its best player. But they didn’t lose. Holiday was added this year to give the Celtics an elite defender to replace Marcus Smart and a mature guard, who’d won a title before.
Saturday was the perfect encapsulation of how well it has worked out.
“I’m glad we got him. Jrue’s a helluva competitor. Obviously, he’s won a championship,” Jayson Tatum told ABC on the postgame. “He was sick this morning. He wasn’t even able to come to shoot around. So for him to come out here and put it all on the line for us and make a big play to win the game.”
Tatum paused for a second and then said.
“We’ve got a helluva team.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
