Celtics Ride Jaylen Brown Hot Start to Win Over Timberwolves

BOSTON — Jaylen Brown played the entire first quarter in Sunday’s win over the Timberwolves, a regular occurrence in years past that stood out as a change this time.

Jayson Tatum checked out eight minutes into the game, and while Brown already provided all of his scoring in the quarter, the rotation established a new offensive hierarchy and flow for the rest of the night. Brown closed 4-of-7 in the fourth quarter, Tatum deferring with three attempts. The Celtics escaped, 107-105.

Joe Mazzulla flipped his first quarter substitution pattern for almost the entirety of this season, playing Tatum throughout first quarters while Brown checks out early to allow Tatum to sustain faster starts. In previous seasons, Brown’s aggressiveness sparked Boston’s offense, Tatum often exiting after establishing a limited offensive foundation and playing catch-up after.

On Sunday, Tatum still managed 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists in his former role. He has played the whole first in all but two games this year, Sunday and the third game of the season in Detroit. Against the Hawks on Nov. 12, they both played for the first 12 minutes of the eventual loss.

“It’s a credit to their flexibility,” Mazzulla said. “We’re able to go to different lineups, do different things, and so, for the most part, we try to keep the consistency, but at the end of the day, you just gotta be malleable and just take on what the game calls for. They both do a great job of being flexible in that.”

Brown poured in five straight threes in four minutes to build an early nine-point lead and made the decision for Mazzulla. From there, Boston limited the three-point attempts Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and other Wolves could create. They inflicted foul trouble on Jaden McDaniels. They limited the damage Minnesota could do inside (13-22 FG inside first half) while creating their own extra opportunities on offense, following their missed three-pointers. Brown capped the first by finding Jrue Holiday for a layup and Payton Pritchard for three, flashing play-making missing alongside his scoring when he used to initiate to begin games.

The early seat left Tatum without a three-point attempt until the second quarter, where Pritchard found him quickly after his rebound for a second-chance three. That was the risk in going away from the usual rotation, Tatum having one of his worst shooting nights as an NBA player in Washington on Friday, finishing 0-for-10 from behind the line. He joked that he spent the day off on Saturday playing with his son Deuce, not thinking much about the drought.

Before Brown returned, Tatum hit another three and finished a driving layup. Brown grabbed an offensive rebound when they reunited and fed Derrick White for three before Tatum hit McDaniels with his third foul. Brown followed with more free throws and Boston led by 12 in the second.

“It’s been different,” Brown said. “Usually I’m the guy that’s setting the tone, getting the team off to a good start playing in the first quarter. This year, Joe wanted to switch it up and whatever the team needs. I’m not tripping, I’ll just adjust. It’s a long season. We want everybody to feel good, we want everyone to feel confident, because what matters most is when we figuring it out going into the playoffs.”

Before taking a step back on Sunday, Tatum led the NBA with 10.9 points per game in the first quarter, starting his nights by shooting 53.2% from the field and 44.8% from three. For every opening turnover, he’s dishing two assists. Brown took a step back to 5.8 PPG in just under eight minutes after averaging 7.2 PPG in 9.6 minutes per first quarter last year. He played that opener role for the past four seasons.

Mazzulla flipped it this year, and it’s led to better Tatum results, including a significant increase in scoring over last year at similar efficiency and volume while keeping him on the floor longer. Last year, he shot well in the first before getting called off the floor, averaging only 6.8 PPG. Some of the trend stemmed from an early injury to Brown where Mazzulla had to extend Tatum’s strong starts to games. Now, they’re not cutting off his early momentum. Sunday showed they won’t force that when Brown starts strong, even if it led to a 8-for-21 Tatum night and a more forceful approach by Brown over Tatum’s more pass-heavy offensive routine.

Minnesota still cut a 19-point second half deficit to two with seven seconds remaining and Reid narrowly missed a solid look at the win, releasing it off his fingertips 0.1 seconds too late and missing left. Familiar struggles continued through a hot shooting night that cooled later, whether defensive rebounding, containing the Wolves’ transition attack and downhill driving lanes. McDaniels back cut Boston twice in crunch time while Brown and Tatum fouled four times each. Xavier Tillman Sr. played center off the bench and did the same, Neemias Queta receiving a DNP-CD with Luke Kornet out after several games where he struggled defensively.

Brown played the first half of the third quarter, returning to his usual role, then Tatum deferred to Brown in the fourth, who hit a pair of mid-rangers and a layup to keep Boston ahead by eight. Brown soon buried a long three with a two-point lead to save the game. Brown tried the same two possessions later and missed, but picked up Edwards long enough out of timeout the other way to prevent Minnesota from getting a shot off before the buzzer. The Celtics sustained that late Edwards charge and Julius Randle’s parade to the free throw line after a full third quarter from Tatum where he scored 11 points on 3-of-7 three-point shooting.

Boston built as fluid of a rotation between its two stars as ever by haking up what worked all season prior.

“If you’re gonna ask me if we’re gonna be up (9) I would take that in the first quarter against a team like that,” Mazzulla said. “But do you have to fight to have a rhythm for others? Yeah … I think Jaylen recognized that. He was like, hey, I think he passed up another (shot) that went to him, and he was like I gotta make sure we get our rhythm back as a team. So it’s great to have guys like him that you can do that.”