Once again, it was the Jaylen Brown show in TD Garden.
But in a win over the New York Knicks, the darlings of the Eastern Conference, Brown got some much-needed defense and board work from rookie Hugo Gonzalez and the suddenly-surging Jordan Walsh.
“They’re slowly chipping away at what it means to be really impactful for this team,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said postgame.
Boston came out flat against the Knicks, who entered the Garden on a five-game win streak. They outscored the Celtics 32-21 in the first quarter. All signs pointed towards a long night ahead for the C’s: Payton Pritchard was 0-4, settling for Josh Hart three-pointers worked against the Boston defense, and Brown had three turnovers.
Enter Gonzalez, who averaged just 11 minutes a game heading into the night and sat the entire first quarter, but took on the challenge of guarding Karl Anthony Towns like he was another 200-pound teenager. Opposing big men have been the biggest question mark facing the Celtics this year. Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet are not walking through that door. The last time the Celtics saw the Knicks at TD Garden, Towns went 4 of 6 from the 3-point line and dropped 26 points in a 10-point loss.
Gonzalez took over the bulk of the workload from Neemias Queta early in the second quarter after Towns posted a three-pointer on Queta and then outworked him under the hoop on the next possession. Despite picking up a pair of fouls, he managed to stop a Towns drive by double-teaming him with Queta, poke the ball from the big fella, and pick off Jalen Brunson to feed Pritchard on the other end. He was a +17 during the quarter, and the Celtics’ scored 12 points off New York turnovers.
“Towns is going to score. So, we sent multiple guys at him, but I thought whenever we put Hugo in, he just did a good job of just getting underneath him. Just kind of, being physical with him. You saw the depth of our team throughout some of that game,” Mazzulla said.
It feels a little silly to include Walsh, a newly-promoted starter, in depth talk – but that’s largely who he’s been during his young Boston career. He came off a big 14-point performance in Boston’s win over Cleveland and showed a willingness to out-hustle everyone else on the court in the Celtics’ fourth quarter, just as desperation over a dwindling lead began to seep in. Mikal Bridges cut the once double-digit lead to three, and Walsh’s back-to-back offensive boards opened it back up to 109-101 for Boston. From that point on, he was everywhere. He stole, he drove into two-and-a-half Knicks players, and created a jump ball with Towns.
“The last six minutes of the game, he was just a great playmaker,” Mazzulla said.
“I’m starting to see Jordan, man. He’s starting to play like a grown man,” Jaylen Brown said postgame, and added, “I’m loving it.”
There were growing pains. Bridges made eight three-pointers.
Gonzalez committed what could have been a crippling flagrant foul late in the game, and the Celtics gave way too many and-one’s to the Knicks in the clutch.
And yet, when the young guys figure out how to help this team to a win over a contender, it’s hard for Jaylen Brown not to smile.
“It’s only been 20 games, and there’s already been a huge amount of growth,” he said.