INDIANAPOLIS — The Celtics tried to battle expectations throughout the east finals. That Indiana would struggle without Tyrese Haliburton, and that their chances in Game 1 ended with Jayson Tatum’s back-to-back misses down three. Jaylen Brown, the longest-tenured Celtic, prevented the latter when he charged Pascal Siakam, forced a turnover, hit a three to force overtime and changed the series. Boston’s players later cited their experience in believing they weren’t done.
On Monday, with Haliburton still out and the Bob Cousy and Larry Bird trophies in the building, a point Rick Carlisle hammered at Pacers practice on Sunday, the expectation to lift them and advance to the Finals loomed, but Indiana managed whatever doubt could’ve emerged on their end too. They had 97% chance to win Game 1 and came back to produce a 93% chance late in Game 3, and while those losses set up the insurmountable odds of an 0-3 deficit, the Pacers led again, 98-90, with six minutes remaining in Game 4, a 73% win probability.
“You can’t run away from that. It’s just how you process that and how you handle that,” Joe Mazzulla said the day before. You can sit there and say yes, we’re one win away, but we’re 48 minutes, 200 possessions, you gotta look at the details of that. That’s the obvious one you can’t ignore. You just gotta break it down further and further. You can’t have the expectation we’re gonna do it tomorrow. You have no idea what’s gonna happen. You have no idea what kind of game it’s gonna be … every game has taken on a life of its own. So we just have to stay prepared and understand what the details are, and be open-minded to take on whatever we need to take on.”
Yet Derrick White, who hit his famous put-back on this date to give Boston a chance to overcome that same 0-3 deficit, hit a game-winning three this time to down Indiana for good after ending up in another unexpected position late. A 12-4 Celtics rally tied the game while the Pacers never scored over the final 3:33. Brown made sure of it while blocking Andrew Nembhard in a tie game. He sized up the defense the other way, nearly lost the ball driving through a pair of Pacers and saw White standing in the corner. The Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals 45 seconds later — 105-102 winners through a Brown assist.
Brown’s mouth opened with rare vigor when Cedric Maxwell announced him East Finals MVP, later explaining that he never wins awards in reference to his All-NBA snub days prior. Tatum congratulated him, no less deserving given his enormous statistical output that grew more consistent into this round. His shooting struggles still existed though, and while Brown started Monday’s game with misses as well, his big moments bookended the series and his voice permeated throughout the playoff run. A role the Celtics gambled in someone filling last summer.
“We had some guys leave, so I wanted to make sure that void was filled,” Brown said. “Marcus Smart, one of my brothers, got traded. He was one of the voices of our team and when he wasn’t here, I wanted to make sure I stepped in and make sure that everybody felt me and everybody knew what the standard was, and we didn’t skip steps all season. I think we played the right way every single game, I held everybody accountable and this is the byproduct.”
Brown aided Tatum through some of his struggles earlier in the playoffs, mic’d up in Cleveland as he reminded Tatum that he’s big deuce and to come on. Midway through the series, he noticed Tatum find a rhythm, but called at the podium for Tatum to find an even greater rhythm. He, in turn, praised Tatum’s significant plays and role in the Game 3 comeback. Brown reminded Jrue Holiday to stay aggressive against Cleveland defensively, and told him he’d take over on Donovan Mitchell if Holiday grew tired. He asked for defensive assignments like that all year. He even talked to himself before his three that game-saving three last week: if I get this shot, it’s going in.
Boston’s stars often deferred vocally in the past to the veteran Smart, a natural talker in Grant Williams, a coach who set the tone in Ime Udoka and a veteran in Al Horford, who Brown nominated as captain during Udoka’s ill-fated effort to find one in 2022. Two years later, Mazzulla didn’t name one, but Brown sounded like one all year, beginning 10 months ago when Brown used his extension press conference as a way to publicly demand Boston return to a defensive identity. Brown and Tatum both shared a desire to make the NBA All-Defensive team and while neither came particularly close, the impact showed in Boston’s defensive stands to win playoff games. He expressed regret over not making that team on Monday, rather than mentioning All-NBA.
“Everyone on the team has a leadership responsibility,” Mazzulla said. “Each guy does it in different ways, and those ways can change throughout their careers … Jaylen leads in many different ways, just his ability to buy into defense, communication, rebounding, doing other thing beside scoring … being a well-rounded player in his communication … communication is really important. I didn’t have a conversation with him per se, but we talk every day about the importance of communicating, whether it’s during a game (or) during a timeout, how we communicate with each other is extremely important just because of the things we’re doing on the defensive end and how we try to attack guys on the offensive end and really just using his experience.”
That experience included the east finals loss he wore one year ago. While White celebrated his anniversary with the make, Brown got ahead of his bad memories with the feed, nearly stumbling into the kind of turnover he committed in Game 7 against the Heat last year before unloading the pass to White wide open in the corner. Brown stayed overtime at practices, shootarounds and other team settings to walk through drills he helped create alongside Boston’s assistants. All focused on playmaking, reads and playing to advantages. One of the largest questions entering the Celtics’ season with a new-look roster involved how Brown would stay involved.
After early stumbles, it never became a concern, as Boston’s offense naturally directed the ball to a mismatch, often covering Brown. The same for the lost voices from the 2022 Finals run. What Boston needed, the team revealed in part on Monday, was time, conversations and communication about what they needed to be. The same open accountability that defined the 2022 run appears more situated behind closed doors under Mazzulla, who told the Celtics to stop feeling sorry for themselves while trailing in Game 3, but with the microphone on, it can slip out for public consumption, the latest example Brown setting Tatum up for a mismatch and screaming take his ass while Aaron Nesmith tried to guard Tatum.
Jaylen Brown to Tatum when Nesmith was guarding him:
“Take his ass”
I’m crying 😭
— CelticsUnite (@CelticsUnite18) May 24, 2024
That’s how Brown and Tatum made it work despite past doubts. It’s an imperfect pairing and criticism doesn’t always sounded welcomed on Tatum’s end, but it slowly helped get Tatum going to a point where he put the east finals MVP recognition in some doubt early on Monday by making the Game 3-winning pass behind his back to Horford.
The Boston contingent of the nine-person voting panel leaned Brown, while Tatum worked within 5-4. The award that commonly goes to a team’s best player often needs something dramatic to happen to shake up the winner. Brown created that earthquake by giving Boston 10 days off before Game 1 of the Finals in an east finals that could be 3-1 in favor of Indiana without him right now.
“We all respect each other and that comes from trust,” Tatum said when asked about Brown’s voice. “We see the work that everybody puts in every single day and the growth from whenever your first year here was until now … we have that environment where everybody has a voice from the top guy to the last one on the bench. We’re all in this together. If you need to encourage somebody, do so, if you see something that we’re doing wrong, it’s your job to speak up.”
