Celtics show championship poise after holding off Timberwolves

Check out NBA.com’s “lead tracker” from the Boston Celtics’ 107-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

What stands out to you?

The title of this one would possibly’ve given it away, however if you happen to pointed to the inverted peaks and valleys, you’ve obtained the appropriate concept.

Boston’s second half consisted of constructing leads after which warding off the inevitable responses that the Timberwolves made. Positive, you possibly can complain that they continued to permit the guests to get again into it, however that’s basketball. It’s a recreation of runs, in spite of everything.

The true check is how a staff will reply when issues cease going their manner, and the Cs did an excellent job of that on Sunday.

Minnesota would work to chop the differential down to at least one or two possessions, simply to lookup on the scoreboard and see that they had been again down by double digits.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla credited his staff’s poise and physicality because the traits that allowed them to bend with out breaking in opposition to one in all final season’s Western Convention finalists.

“Yeah, you simply have to have the poise and the physicality. I imply, they check you each possession on each ends of the ground with their physicality and their rim safety and their ball stress,” Mazzulla stated after his staff was up by as many 19 factors. “After which they obtained dynamic guys that may rating at any time. So, they’re going to undergo runs. It’s only a matter of the way you deal with them, and I assumed our guys dealt with it effectively with the physicality on offense and our connectivity and our poise defensively.”

We obtained an excellent take a look at the “bend don’t break” Celtics originally of the third quarter. They’d simply watched the Wolves rip off a 9-0 run to shut the primary half, chopping their result in three factors on the break. Luckily, they got here out of the gates with hearth on the defensive finish. By the point Minnesota had scored their first subject purpose of the half, Boston had already blocked three pictures and had ballooned the lead as much as 15 factors. The 2 groups went forwards and backwards for the rest of the quarter, however the lead was 11 heading into the fourth.

The Timberwolves pushed once more. They managed to chop the deficit down to 5 after the primary minute and a half of the ultimate body. That is the place Boston’s physicality got here into play. They began to work the ball inside, concentrating on guard Nickiel Alexander-Walker within the paint, possession after possession. Each Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown used their power and dimension to pin Alexander-Walker low and get straightforward seems to assist push the lead again to 2 possessions.

“I say it on a regular basis: ‘How will we reply? How will we stand up to what they’re attempting to do?’” stated Tatum. “It’s all the time by a collective effort on each ends of the ground and guys discovering methods to make a play on each ends.”

Each ends had been important to Boston’s “remaining act” of this win.

Minnesota’s remaining run was met by a pair of large threes from Brown and Derrick White and a well-connected defensive stand by Boston on the ultimate possession.

Take a look at these rotations.

Each Tatum and Jrue Vacation did an amazing job of closing out three-point shooters, preserving Minnesota from even getting a shot off (Naz Reid’s try was deemed late).

Positive, it wasn’t an ideal win. There have been lapses all through the night time that led to the Timberwolves getting again into this recreation over and over, however the Celtics didn’t let something get out of hand. They responded like champions each single time issues obtained tense.