There was a feeling of deja vu at TD Garden Friday night during the Celtics home opener, a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Celtics and Heat.
The atmosphere felt just like the one experienced when the two teams last met in May, and at times, the play felt eerily similar as well.
From the 15 Boston turnovers (resulting in 16 points for Miami) to the Heat shooting a staggering 16-of-33 (48.5%) from deep, it felt like a travel back in time to last May.
But this time, it was different. The Celtics were able to overcome their mistakes and close things out in the fourth quarter, something they struggled to do the last time these two met.
Similar to what we saw in May, the Celtics came out a bit flat in the first quarter, as Miami started the game on a 25-13 run right out of the gate. Needing a spark, Joe Mazzulla turned to Oshae Brissett about midway through the first quarter.
Brissett, a 6-foot-7 wing who spent the last three seasons in Indiana before signing with the Celtics over the offseason, was a healthy scratch in Wednesday night’s 108-104 win over the Knicks.
“He was supposed to go in to the start the second but I felt like we needed him earlier,” Mazzulla said postgame. “So we kind of just went with him, and he did a great job.”
The 25-year-old provided much-needed energy off the bench with his constant crashing on the offensive glass.
“He (Brissett) didn’t play game one, and he changed the game,” Mazzulla said. “That, to me, is what momentum is all about. He came in, he had a significant impact, and he did his job at a high, high level.”
Mazzulla has preached the importance of playing with the right mindset continuously, and that is exactly what Brissett did Friday night. In his five-minute stint off the bench to finish the first quarter, Brissett brought the energy, finishing with three rebounds (two offensive) and displaying his ability as a cutter with a strong flush at the rim.
"He was the sole reason that we got back into the game, and I told him that," Jayson Tatum said postgame. “We were kinda flat. His energy, his offensive rebounding, and giving us second and third-chance opportunities was big… For him to not play last game and come in today and give us the spark to turn the game around was huge.”
With Brissett in the game, the Celtics closed the first quarter on a 12-2 run, shrinking the Miami lead to just one.
After a back-and-forth second quarter, the Celtics closed the final 5:04 of the frame on a 17-6 run, fueled by Jaylen Brown.
The Celtics then built the lead up to seven in the third quarter before sloppy play again got the best of them. The C’s finished with more turnovers (5) than assists (4) in the third quarter, as Miami was able to retake a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Through the first three quarters, the Celtics had already turned the ball over 14 times and surrendered nine offensive rebounds, a recipe for disaster judging off what we have seen from this team in the past.
Fourth-quarter closeouts have been a chronic issue with this group in years past, an issue they hope to have resolved heading into the 2023-24 campaign. Trailing by one with 12 minutes to go, Boston needed quick scoring to the final quarter.
They got one, and it didn’t come from Brown, Tatum, or Kristaps Porzingis – it came from Derrick White.
The 29-year-old erupted for nine points in the first 2:23 of the fourth quarter, outscoring the Heat 9-2. The fast start gave Boston a lead they would not surrender.
White, who had already put together one of his most impressive showings as a Celtic, was the most dominant player on both ends of the floor and stepped up big when it mattered most.
The 6-foot-4 guard registered three blocks on Friday night, including two chase-downs on Jimmy Butler (who was almost non-existent, much to the credit of White).
It’s foolish that White, who was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team a season ago, was left off ESPN’s top 100 players list for the 2023-24 season. He is a phenomenal two-way player, and he offered a reminder of that to a national audience on Friday night.
“He’s a competitor, he’s consistent, and he wants to win,” Mazzulla said of White postgame. “The plays he made tonight were sick. Just sick plays. That’s just what he does.”
White and Brissett stepped up in a big way for the Celtics on Friday night. As the new-look Celtics are clearly still trying to find some cohesion, the team needs to control what they can control, which would be their mindset and effort. Led by White and Brissett, the Celtics did just that on Friday night.