BOSTON — Derrick White scored 25 points for the third consecutive night in the playoffs. He started Monday night 7-for-10, reaching 52% from three into his sixth game. Yet he walked away from Game 1 against the Cavs in awe over what Jaylen Brown did.
“He’s unbelievable,” White said. “The things he can do on the court are special. I think he just consistently wants to get better. He had it going, but he was also making the right read and creating stuff for myself and my teammates. He was unreal tonight, started the game off big for us and just consistently made the right play. When he gets it going, he’s fun to watch.”
Brown highlighted one of the finer nights of his career with a third quarter three where he turned his head away before he scored, finishing with 32 points, six rebounds, two assists and a block on Donovan Mitchell while only committing one turnover. Brown shot 12-for-18, 4-for-6 from three, and converted all four free throw attempts in a runaway 120-95 win over the Cavaliers. All of it proved necessary with Cleveland threatening early and Jayson Tatum struggling against extra Cavaliers attention.
Joe Mazzulla’s comments about rust-versus-rest played out in the first quarter. Isaac Okoro converted his first two shots from deep as the Celtics shied away from him and Cleveland hit 8-of-9 shots on a 21-9 run after trailing by 13 to begin the game. Jaylen Brown hit his first five shots, scoring 15 points in seven minutes attacking downhill. On defense, Boston mixed looks against Mitchell and Cleveland’s other wing players, switching early before settling into a drop that devastated the Cavaliers’ offense. They came out of timeout and forced a 7-for-26 drought.
“Competitiveness was there, all the guys,” Mazzulla said. “We had some really good team defensive possessions and some good team offensive possessions … success will look different every night for each player, but at the end of the day, you can’t be defined by one thing … you’re always gonna go through stretches of shot-making and not shot-making. It’s the other stuff that puts pressure on (you), when you turn it over, when you put guys to the free throw line, when you have empty possessions because of not-good shots and when you give up shots that you don’t want to … so managing the game on those margins allows us to play through the typical stretches of the game.”
Tatum finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and one turnover. For Brown, who had his shot, Mazzulla praised his willingness to kick the ball out of the post after scoring 6-8 points in a row. The two stars able to trust their teammates from different perspectives, Tatum falling to 40.6% from the field this postseason and Brown improving to 54.5%.
Luke Kornet played 12 first half minutes and grabbed eight rebounds, taking the rim away from the Cavs, who shot the fewest mid-rangers as percentage of their shot attempts in the league. Cleveland didn’t make one outside of the paint until midway through the second quarter, Darius Garland coming around a screen and hitting one at the free throw line. Xavier Tillman Sr. played four minutes to open the second quarter, holding Cleveland to an 0-for-5 start next to Al Horford. The Cavs shot 26% from the field in the frame, including 4-for-13 inside the arc. Still, a 19-15 win win there only resulted in a 10-point Boston lead at halftime.
“I thought Luke was exceptional when he came in,” Brown said. “He contested shots at the rim, he rebounded and he made timely plays on offense.”
Tatum’s struggles mounted into the second half, falling to 5-for-17 from the field through three quarters. White and Brown picked him up like they did in the opening series against Miami. Brown unloaded a two-handed dunk driving through Okoro. White started 7-for-10 from three, improving to 52% from deep through his first six appearances this postseason. Kornet’s active minutes continued, as the crowd leaned into Luuuuuke and De-rrick White chants throughout the second half.
“It shows the depth of our team and how we can win games in a lot of different ways,” Tatum said. “It just presents another challenge of what else can you do to impact the game in a positive way and make sure that your team wins?”
On the play that tipped the scale early in the third, Okoro tipped a Brown pass into the back court, Tatum recovered it and White stepped into a bailout three at the end of the shot clock. Boston led 71-57. Payton Pritchard, who added a pair of early scoring plays against the Cavs’ smallest guard, capped the third with pull-up three just short of half court at the buzzer.
Jrue Holiday made his presence felt with a pair of offensive rebounds early that he used as the foundation of his most effective postseason performance with his new team. He scored in transition following Brown’s block on Mitchell and bumped Garland before hitting a baseline jumper. Boston carried its defensive dominance to the fourth, limiting the Cavs to 18 points, while Brown slammed the door shut with a floater and a pair of threes within the first five minutes that emptied the benches.
“That definitely has been an emphasis for me, being efficient,” Brown said. “We got a lot of threats on our team with the addition of Porzingis, with the acceleration of Derrick White, that means a lot of guys are gonna have it going or have the ball in their hands. So when I get it, I need to be efficient with the opportunities that I have, just because of how the game is going. We got a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things … when I get the ball, I want to be as lethal as possible.”
