The fourth quarter begins in Cleveland. THE Celtics are already in front and as they begin this last act with a 6-0, they are 22 points ahead with nine minutes to go. On their momentum from the demonstration against the Warriors on Sunday and with a series of 11 consecutive victories behind them, they seem impossible to stop.
But in these last nine minutes, everything will collapse. The Cavaliers, who did not have Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus or Evan Mobley at that time, passed a 34-13 and ended up winning! How could the league leaders have suffered such a decline?
“I think we are a much better team than what we showed in this match”, comments Jaylen Brown. “It’s a defeat which can be explained by our mentality. We had the match in hand, we were comfortable so it was more a question of state of mind than systems. We must be more disciplined, more combative. We weren't. We were too relaxed, we didn't pay attention to the ball, we weren't intentional in attack. »
Jaylen Brown doesn't want to move on so quickly
The guard/winger adds that the Celtics left offensive rebounds to the Cavaliers (8 exactly) throughout the match, converted into 14 points on a second chance and Joe Mazzulla makes the same observation. But in these fatal nine minutes, it was above all Dean Wade, with his 20 points, and the clumsiness of Boston (6/19 shooting, no winning shot) which made the difference.
” It is sad. I think it was my fault.”explains Jayson Tatum on his last attempt against Darius Garland, first whistled, then not, after a “challenge”. “But we always say that we don't lose a match on the last action. There were a lot of things that didn't go well in the last quarter, and that put us in this situation. »
This poorly negotiated turn therefore led to a defeat, which broke the great series of 11 consecutive victories, but for 39 minutes, everything was going well for the Celtics. Isn't it just a simple accident, as can happen during the regular season?
” It counts “, replies Jaylen Brown who does not intend to forget this setback so quickly. “Whether or not everyone wants to throw it out the window, we're going to look at the footage and correct some things. Because it matters: habits, mentality, everything counts. We cannot waste time or possessions, whatever the match. So we need to watch this closely because this match was important. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Jayson Tatum | 57 | 35.7 | 47.8 | 36.9 | 82.9 | 0.8 | 7.6 | 8.4 | 4.8 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 27.1 |
| Jaylen Brown | 55 | 33.2 | 50.2 | 35.2 | 71.9 | 1.1 | 4.4 | 5.5 | 3.7 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 22.5 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 44 | 29.6 | 52.6 | 37.5 | 85.9 | 1.6 | 5.3 | 6.9 | 1.9 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 20.3 |
| Derrick White | 56 | 32.0 | 47.1 | 40.7 | 89.7 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 4.9 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 15.5 |
| Jrue Holiday | 55 | 33.0 | 48.0 | 44.8 | 82.4 | 1.3 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 12.9 |
| Payton Pritchard | 60 | 20.5 | 44.3 | 38.3 | 81.1 | 0.9 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 8.2 |
| Al Horford | 50 | 26.9 | 49.7 | 40.5 | 85.0 | 1.2 | 5.4 | 6.6 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 7.9 |
| Sam Hauser | 59 | 21.1 | 44.7 | 41.7 | 88.2 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 7.9 |
| Xavier Tillman, Sr. | 3 | 11.8 | 75.0 | 50.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| Neemias Queta | 23 | 12.3 | 61.3 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 4.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 4.9 |
| Luke Kornett | 43 | 14.6 | 69.5 | 0.0 | 88.6 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 3.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 4.9 |
| Oshae Brissett | 40 | 10.7 | 45.5 | 27.9 | 65.5 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 3.7 |
| Drew Peterson | 1 | 2.6 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | 26 | 7.9 | 35.1 | 32.2 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.8 |
| Lamar Stevens | 19 | 6.4 | 46.7 | 37.5 | 72.7 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.8 |
| Dalano Banton | 24 | 7.1 | 37.3 | 12.5 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 2.3 |
| Jd Davison | 2 | 2.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Jaden Springer | 5 | 3.9 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| Jordan Walsh | 4 | 8.3 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 0.5 |
