On the second night of a back-to-back and without Paul George (illness), the Celtics fell into a trap game with home just a puddle jump away after a four-game road trip. After the high of Tuesday night’s blowout of the 76ers and arriving in Toronto at 4 am, Boston found themselves behind the 8-ball early in the game facing a 22-point deficit midway through the second quarter.
A 7-0 Jayson Tatum run with a pull-up three, two free throws, and a thunderous dunk led to a Toronto timeout and then the unthinkable
happened.
Tatum struck again with a killer triple with Collin Murray-Boyles slipping under JT’s feet for a flagrant foul. After hitting the free throw, Baylor Scheierman hit another catch-and-shoot 3 to complete the rare SEVEN-POINT possession.
For what it’s worth, the only other seven-point possession I can remember was in the 2022 NBA Finals when Al Horford fouled Steph Curry on a 3 and then Otto Porter hit another after Curry went to the free throw line.
This slick fastbreak capped off the 16-0 run in two and a half minutes.
In the end, the Celtics completed their second largest comeback in Joe Mazzulla’s tenure as head coach. Down six with five minutes to go, Boston closed with a 13-4 run with some lockdown defense, gritty play on both sides of the ball from Neemias Queta, and Tatum getting to the line. However, it was that first half stretch that really made the difference in sweeping their road trip.
“His energy just lifted everybody,” Mazzulla said of Tatum’s presence during that crucial run. “It’s the same thing when you lose close games. We didn’t win the game in the fourth quarter. We won the game in the middle of the second quarter when we cut it to seven again.”
