Celtics display 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 proud to you?

The title of this one would possibly’ve given it away, however in case you pointed to the inverted peaks and valleys, you’ve acquired the proper thought.

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

The actual check is how a crew will reply when issues cease going their method, and the Cs did an amazing job of that on Sunday.

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

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

“Yeah, you simply must 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 crew was up by as many 19 factors. “After which they acquired 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 properly with the physicality on offense and our connectivity and our poise defensively.”

We acquired an amazing take a look at the “bend don’t break” Celtics in the beginning of the third quarter. They’d simply watched the Wolves rip off a 9-0 run to shut the primary half, reducing their result in three factors on the break. Happily, they got here out of the gates with fireplace on the defensive finish. By the point Minnesota had scored their first discipline aim of the half, Boston had already blocked three photographs and had ballooned the lead as much as 15 factors. The 2 groups went backwards and forwards 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 energy and measurement to pin Alexander-Walker low and get simple seems to be to assist push the lead again to 2 possessions.

“I say it on a regular basis: ‘How can we reply? How can we face up to what they’re making an attempt 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 “ultimate act” of this win.

Minnesota’s ultimate 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 incredible job of closing out three-point shooters, protecting 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 time and again, however the Celtics didn’t let something get out of hand. They responded like champions each single time issues acquired tense.