As the seconds ticked off the first-quarter clock on Wednesday night, the Boston Celtics had full control. A monster 14-point start from Jaylen Brown had propelled them to an early 13-point lead, but he wasn’t done.
With 16 seconds on the clock, Brown dribbled the ball near half-court. At 15, he was blowing by Ron Holland II at the top of the key. By 14, he had Isaiah Stewart in the air. And at 13, Brown threw down a dunk so ferocious he should have asked for Stewart’s permission to be on the next cover of SLAM Magazine with him.
But perhaps the cover would be Brown’s gesture after the dunk rather than the poster itself. As he descended from hanging on the rim, Brown glared at Stewart and pulled his thumb across his throat.
“Just caught up in the moment, I guess,” Brown said.
TD Garden went berserk. It was the first of many palpable moments that pushed the Celtics onward throughout the evening.
How moments dictated the Celtics' win over the Pistons
Momentum swings are a part of sports. Moments that, during the course of a game, shift everything from the energy to the mindset to the actual play of the players.
These moments can be huge. The New Orleans Saints recovering an onside kick in Super Bowl XLIV led to a game-changing 25-7 second half. But small moments can have effects that stretch beyond the instance itself. A base hit down 0-2 in the count. A pair of back-to-back threes with a turnover sandwiched in between. A perfect slide tackle. A huge hit up against the glass.
On the road, these moments suck the life out of a building. Opposing crowds are left in a stunned hush, giving their team a wall of anguish to battle through. Moments serve a different purpose at home.
“We're in the arena. We're playing in the Garden. The fans have our back,” said Joe Mazzulla. “Our guys are playing hard. We're doing what we're supposed to do. That's the most important thing.”
Brown’s crowd-igniting dunk may have been the most viral-worthy play of the night, but it was far from the only one.
With under four minutes to go in the game, Payton Pritchard came off a Kristaps Porzingis three on the wing, drawing the attention of two Detroit defenders. When he kicked the ball back to Porzingis on the three-point line, a small pump-fake was enough to get Jalen Duren off balance, and the 7-foot-2 Latvian took advantage.
Three steps and two dribble were all it took to get by Duren before Porzingis gathered and went up for a shot at the rim. The shot didn’t fall, but he drew a foul and immediately went over to the crowd sitting behind the rim.
A smile crept across Porzingis’ face as he high-fived a fan sitting courtside and turned his attention to the people in the stands. He raised his hands, ready to embrace the crowd, and a steady roar began to grow across TD Garden.
“When I got here, the fans showed me a lot of love from the first moment,” Porzingis said. “And then obviously the success that we're having as a team is helping. But I knew if I have a moment like that in a game, especially that crowd that's sitting on the baseline, they're always super engaged. So, you got to enjoy those moments and honestly, it's just happening naturally.”
Porzingis’ mutual affection with Boston fans is nothing new, but on Wednesday night, it gave the Celtics yet another crowd pop that sent them thrusting forward.
Later in the fourth quarter, as Tobias Harris and the Detroit Pistons were draining three after three, cutting the contest down to a manageable deficit, Boston needed a boost. And Pritchard gave it to them.
With just over three minutes to go, Porzingis missed a three. The ball soared through the air after caressing the rim, and Pritchard outjumped Malik Beasley on the baseline for the offensive rebound.
The crowd loved it.
He pulled it outside the three-point arc, dished it to Derrick White, who played a game of hot potato and put the ball right back into Pritchard’s hands. Without even looking at the rim first, Pritchard turned and fired up a three that cashed, putting Boston back up 14.
The crowd loved that even more.
Yet the Pistons weren’t ready to lie down quite yet. As the game clock slipped to the one-minute mark in the fourth, a Harris triple brought Detroit to within five. White brought the ball up the floor after the shot, and a Porzingis off-ball screen gave Pritchard a window to sprint by Beasley to the top of the arc. He jumped into place and, again, before even considering another option, fired up a three.
The scattered conversations around the Garden stopped as soon as the ball left his fingertips. As it traveled through the air, more and more fans held their breath, creating a slow burn of silence across the arena.
And when it fell, they erupted.
As the howling of thousands engulfed the Garden, Pritchard just hustled back on defense. Without missing a beat, he started pointing out defensive assignments.
Pritchard gets pumped up. Whether it’s a huge stop or a quarter-ending heave, he’ll let out a scream during a stoppage in play. For Brown, the moments often shine through with a stone face. Every once in a while, he’ll yell, but his cutthroat celebration is more indicative of his style. Porzingis loves to crack a smile. Outside ofa few exceptions, Mazzulla is almost always too locked in to let his emotions out.
Everyone lets the energy of the game flow through them differently.
“I enjoy watching guys have their own personality, whatever that may be, to impact the game,” said Mazzulla. “I want the guys to be able to have a personality and be able to impact the crowd. They're here to support us and to help us, and they do a tremendous job of that.
“So, the thing I like is just being in the arena with the guys and competing at high level. And I love when I see the best come out of them, and I love when I see the fans kind of help us take it to another level.
Boston seiged the game in the first quarter, but a steady dose of threes and some increased ball pressure kept Detroit in it. As they slowly chipped away, the momentum of Brown’s early poster had waned.
Porzingis’ pump-up and Pritchard’s threes brought that energy back.
The Celtics didn’t win the game because of momentum. Margins, shot-making, and all of the coaching adjustments in between did that. But the crowd certainly lifted them up.
“Especially for us, I think it's a big home-court advantage. Our fans,” said Porzingis. “Even when we had a tough moment. In the fourth, I think they kept on hitting threes, and we couldn't get anything good going. And then there was a moment when the crowd just started getting itself to ignite us. And those are the special moments.
“Those are the synergy moments between the fans and the players. And for us, compared to other teams, I think it's a huge, huge advantage here.”
Little things throughout the game are enough light even the tamest crowd ablaze. And once that fire gets started, it spreads. From the lower bowl, to the balcony, and all the way down onto the court.
That’s when the players feel it. That’s what moments are for.