PHILADELPHIA — Jaylen Brown lingered at his locker post-game on Tuesday night. He and Derrick White finished changing at the same time, but White stepped up for his media availability first. Once Brown was done getting dressed, he sat at his locker. Head down. Hands together in front of him.
As White wrapped up, Brown stayed there. Motionless.
When he stood up to speak with reporters, the anguish was palpable.
“Poor performance by me on both sides of the ball,” Brown said. “I let my guys down tonight.”
From start to finish, the game was cruel. The Boston Celtics shot 14-of-50 (28.0%) in the first half—the lowest first-half efficiency mark in the NBA yet this season, per Dick Lipe. “It was a great offensive process,” Joe Mazzulla said, but the shots simply didn’t fall.
They battled all the way back with a 36-point third quarter, and by the time the fourth came around, Boston once again stared down crunch-time basketball. That’s when Justin Edwards came to life.
“He just stepped up in those moments and made the shots that were necessary,” said Jordan Walsh. “But I think that we were there. I think we got a good contest. I think that we did our job. I think he just found fire.”
Celtics' crunch-time issues are no longer a coincidencea
From the 6:00 mark to 4:42, Edwards nailed three straight triples on three straight possessions. He single-handedly flipped an eight-point Celtics lead into a one-point advantage for the 76ers.
As Boston scrambled to keep up with the elusive Tyrese Maxey—who entered the evening as the league’s third-leading scorer—their defense got sucked in. When the ball found Edwards, the Celtics’ late contests weren’t enough.
That was the difference. A nine-point run from a guy who was averaging 4.0 points per game entering the contest. Playing 11.5 minutes per contest. Fresh off a DNP on Sunday night. That sealed Boston’s fate.
The Celtics kept things close through the final possession of the game, but another Edwards three-point attempt was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Maxey was driving. He turned his back. I thought I could go make a play,” Jaylen Brown said. “I was guarding [Edwards]. I thought that if I went to go make a play, there wouldn't be enough time for him to get a shot off. But ended up leaving [Edwards] wide-open for three, and then was kind of like, 'F***.' And then Oubre just kind of, I guess, just slipped behind me for an easy offensive rebound. I got caught ball-watching. You just got to get in there and get in there.”
Edwards’ miss fell to Oubre with 9.5 seconds left on the game clock, and 1.1 seconds later, the Celtics were down two.
Brown took a risk. He chased Maxey across the floor in hopes of nabbing a game-altering steal. He lost Edwards. Payton Pritchard had to sprint to the three-point line to contest Edwards’ shot, and then Brown didn’t box out Oubre.
It was yet another game-defining moment that pushed Boston back when they were at the brink of victory.
The Celtics are a Kelly Oubre Jr. rebound away from 6-6. They are a Josh Minott turnover and Neemias Queta take foul from 7-5. A missed tripping call away from 8-4. A few Detroit Pistons missed rebounds away from 9-3. An Opening Night end-game shot from Payton Pritchard away from 10-2. But that’s not reality.
In reality, the Celtics are 5-7. Seven of their 12 games this season have come down to clutch minutes (which the NBA defines as a five-point game under five minutes), and they are 2-5 in those situations.
“I think we’re going to be in a lot of close games this year,” Derrick White said after their latest clutch loss. “So, definitely things we can learn from and grow from, but it’d be nice to start winning some of them.”
When the game clock starts to trickle down, pressure mounts. Stakes rise, and the imminent threat of defeat singes the hairs on the backs of players’ necks. Every step, dribble, and drive matters more.
But the process with which the Celtics play remains stalwart.
“It's no different than the rest of the game,” said Mazzulla. “You lean on your execution. Whether it's transition defense, whether it's fouling, whether it's executing on the offensive end. All those things are the same. It comes down to who can make plays, and they made the last play, and we didn't.”
Bounces haven’t been there for Boston. Missed rebound opportunities in Detroit, hustle turnovers in Orlando, and an Edwards heater in Philadelphia.
Any of those individual games would be a one-off issue. Or perhaps the brutality of luck being a cruel mistress. But they aren’t individual games anymore. They all morph into the same category of end-game situations.
Boston itself is shooting 46.2% from the field and 42.9% from deep in crunch-time situations. Their opponents are shooting 48.7% overall but just 31.3% from distance.
The Celtics are getting 5.6 shots per game in the clutch. So are their opponents. The Celtics are getting 2.0 threes. Their opponents, 2.3.
The numbers are staggeringly similar. Yet the Celtics are 2-5. And the result is a constant sense of reflection.
For Walsh, who has pivoted from watching games finish from the pine to affecting the outcome on the hardwood, it’s been particularly different.
“I think it feels maybe a little different,” Walsh said. “I mean, it still hurts equally as much, whether you're playing or not. You never want to have your guys lose. But it's definitely an added sense of like, 'Dang alright, now, what could I have done better to get over that hump?' It's close games. How can I affect it? Those extra two points, do I get another stop that one possession, and then hopefully that changes. But I definitely start thinking about it that way, rather than just feeling for the guys.”
Five-minute sample sizes of Celtics basketball are only part of the story.
Every clutch game Boston has played this year has gotten to that point for a reason. They gave up a 38-point first quarter in the first Orlando game. A 38-point third against the Jazz. Allowed the Pistons a 19-offensive rebound performance.
Tuesday night, their 28.0% first-half disaster was the culprit.
Each close game comes with a story. And each story is made up of a hoard of small issues that led to the end result.
“Just little possessions,” said Brown. “Little stuff throughout the game that we have to be better at. Tonight was not a good example.”
“Rebounds. Just layups. Little stuff. Transition opportunities,” he elaborated. “Stuff that you just got to take advantage of that we didn't tonight.”
The Celtics are a +25 on the season. That’s the 12th-best mark in the NBA.
The next-highest sub-500 team in the total +/- rankings is the Orlando Magic. They are +1 on the year. That is 19th in the NBA.
Boston’s seven clutch games are tied for the third-most in the league this year. Their five losses in those situations are tied with the 1-10 Indiana Pacers for the second-most in the NBA—the 3-8 Dallas Mavericks are the only team with more (6).
Maybe it’s only a matter of time before the Celtics figure out how to win down the stretch. “We just gotta continue to learn and grow from each game, and when we're out there in crunch time, you just gotta execute,” said White.
Maybe it’s just a matter of the small moments landing in favor of Boston. Luckier bounces off the rim. Accurate officiating in the closing moments. The basketball team that has won its minutes this season should see that success translate to crunch time.
Maybe the singular tough breaks will iron themselves out.
But it’s no longer a singular experience. It’s a trend.
And therein lies the problem.