BOSTON — The Boston Celtics weren’t too concerned about creating flashy plays to get back into the win column Friday night.
They sure did come through in the form of some highlight-reel dunks from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, but those plays were overshadowed by the grit and toughness the Celtics displayed to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 121-109, at TD Garden.
It was the latter that certainly caught the attention of Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla, who made sure to praise his players for that part of their effort to snap their three-game losing skid.
“What we saw in the second half of last game and we saw tonight is our best version of our team,” Mazzulla said. “… If we’re physically and mentally tougher and we work at it, the talent and everything else will take care of itself because we have that. I said that to the guys after the game. The best thing I thought we did was we just made tough plays.
“And driving to the basket and finishing through contact is a tough play. Passing the ball when you don’t have a layup is a tough play. Getting 20 offensive rebounds is the tough play. I thought we did that.”
Mazzulla liked his team’s energy level and effort from the outset. It was hard not to especially with Al Horford continuously challenging shots at the rim and Marcus Smart, who missed Wednesday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers due to illness, diving in the stands to save the basketball.
But even with those plays, the Timberwolves charged ahead of the Celtics to take an eight-point lead in the third quarter. All the Celtics did was stay composed before storming past Minnesota over the final 12 minutes, largely due to a 23-point final quarter from Jaylen Brown.
“Like I said, I trust them, they’ve been through a lot and they’re going to stay the course,” Mazzulla said. “I thought from the jump we were physical, we were tough, we were connected. Things didn’t go our way, which they’re not going to and I thought we did a great job staying the course. I thought that was the one key when the breakthrough came was just staying the course. And we were tough.”
The box score backed up the toughness Mazzulla saw on the court. He pointed to the Celtics taking nine more shots than the Timberwolves, grabbing 20 offensive rebounds and having 28 assists compared to 12 turnovers as evidence of that characteristic shining through.
“To me that’s the sign of a tough team,” Mazzulla said. “And that’s something that we just have to commit to night in and night out.”
