4 Instant takeaways from Celtics' impressive win vs. Cavaliers

There are only two to pick from, but Wednesday’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was the best one of the season for the Boston Celtics. They battled with one of the East’s best and eventually pulled away for an impressive 125-105 victory.

Here’s what stood out: 

Threes are Back (Sort Of)

This one really applies to both sides, but man, there were stretches of this game where it felt like we were all watching the 2023-25 Celtics. The ball was flying around, finding open shooters, and then hitting the bottom of the net.

Through the first half, the Cs sank 14 of their 28 long-range attempts, while the Cavs kept pace and made 13 of 24.

Both teams cooled off significantly as the game went on, but surely seeing the ball go through the hoop, for at least a half, will do something for this team’s confidence.

Jaylen Brown Continues to Lead By Example

Despite the Celtics’ slow start to the season, Jaylen Brown has been consistently efficient as the team’s top scoring option. Through the first four games, he averaged 26.3 points per game while shooting 50% from the field and 47.8% from beyond the arc.

The way he’s attacked the game has been fascinating. He’s strayed away from being aggressive early and is more patient, picking his spots along the way. Against the Cavs, he took his time, scoring four points on three shots in the first quarter. Brown turned up in the second. He poured in 18 points, tying a career-high for a single quarter. It took just seven shots for JB to ignite the TD Garden crowd on fire.

Brown’s second quarter has the height of his performance against the Cavs, but he still made some big buckets to help the Cs keep the visitors at a distance.

He finished with 30 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

Josh Minott is For Real

There’s been tons of hype about Josh Minott throughout training camp, preseason, and these first few regular-season games, deservedly so. The 22-year-old wing has done everything a coach could dream of as a role player, and Wednesday night was no different.

Minott was tasked with guarding Cavs forward Evan Mobley (18.3 points and 8.8 rebounds heading into this game) and had him in the torture chamber. He picked up Mobley in the backcourt and consistently hounded him all the way down the floor.

Not only was Minott great on defense, but he was great on the boards, too. Anyone who’s watched the first week of Celtics basketball knows they need all hands on deck to secure crucial defensive rebounds. Over these past two games, since being inserted into the starting lineup, Minott has been key.

His final stat line was all over the place with 11 points, 13 rebounds, three steals, and a block.

Payton Prtichard Continues to be Impactful Without Knocking Down Threes

Let me start off by saying, it is such a bummer that Payton Pritchard hasn’t had his touch from long range so far. The matchup with Cleveland was another rough go for the Celtics guard, as he sank just one of his eight attempts from three.

The reason why the absence of Pritchard’s three-ball has been so disappointing, besides the obvious, is that he’d be off to a monster start to the season if his shots were falling. Though he was cold again on Wednesday, Pritchard still did plenty to help the Celtics’ offense. He spent the evening setting up his teammates with great looks, racking up a total of 10 assists.

His ability to manipulate Cleveland’s defense was impressive, to say the least.