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Marc D'Amico

Say what you want about the Boston Celtics, but one thing you can’t deny is their ability to win in the clutch.

Boston did it again Monday night, for the third time in four games of the Eastern Conference Finals. And yet again, Jaylen Brown was at the center of it all.

Brown, you might recall, was the player who sent Game 1 to overtime with a miraculous 3-pointer to tie the game just ahead of the final buzzer. Saturday night, he scored the game-tying points, he preserved the tie with a blocked shot, and then he assisted on the game-winning points.

It all began with 2:40 left when Brown executed a beautiful step-through and floater to tie the game up at 102-102. Each team struggled to score for the next two minutes and the game remained tied as the clock approached the 1-minute mark. That’s when Brown tracked Andrew Nembhard from behind and blocked Nembhard’s layup attempt away at the 1:05 mark for what is unquestionably the biggest defensive play of Brown’s career. Then came the biggest assist of his career, exactly 20 seconds later.

Brown came off a screen by Jrue Holiday near center court and dribbled to the left wing, where he was defended by Myles Turner. Brown then hit the breaks, dribbled through his legs from left to right, and split two defenders to get into the paint with his right hand. At that moment, he had options – three of them. Derrick White was open in the right corner, Jayson Tatum was open on the right wing, and Holiday was open at the top of the arc. Brown rose up and kicked a pass out to White, who promptly drilled a 3-pointer from directly in front of Indiana’s bench to push Boston ahead by three.

Neither team scored from that moment on, and a critical offensive rebound by Holiday sealed the win and the sweep for the Celtics. Without Brown’s heroics, this series very well may have been heading back to Boston for a Game 5.

Q4 :45.0 - [BOS 105-102] White 3pt Shot: Made (16 PTS) Assist: Brown (2 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 105, Pacers 102

Leave it to Jrue Holiday to make the biggest defensive play of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Holiday, a Second Team All-Defensive performer this season who certainly could have been chosen to the First Team, came up clutch with his defense on the most important possession of the game. It arrived with less than 10 seconds remaining and with the Celtics leading by just one point.

Jayson Tatum had just missed a driving layup with 10.1 seconds left on the clock to give Indiana a chance to take the lead. Andrew Nembhard took the ball in transition and attempted to drive past Holiday, but Holiday jumped Nembhard’s driving lane and poked the ball away with his left hand. This occurred right after Holiday somehow avoided tumbling to the ground as he lost his balance backpedaling to the defensive end of the court.

Holiday not only poked the ball away from Nembhard, but he also corralled the loose ball with 3.3 seconds left. He took the ball in the opposite direction and was intentionally fouled by Pascal Siakam with 1.7 seconds left on the clock. The 15-year vet went to the line and canned both freebies to push Boston ahead by three.

Indiana failed to score out of a timeout, leaving the Celtics with a commanding 3-0 series lead that was sparked by their defense and Holiday’s clutch steal.

Q4 :03.3 - [IND] Nembhard Turnover : Lost Ball (2 TO) Steal:Holiday (3 ST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 114, Pacers 111

It was only a matter of time until the Boston Celtics pulled away from the Indiana Pacers with the way they were playing Thursday night.

Well, the time finally arrived late in the third quarter when the C’s strung together a 12-3 run to pull ahead 84-71. That was their largest lead of the game to that point, and they maintained a lead of at least 11 points the rest of the way.

Derrick White opened the spurt up with a 3-pointer that was soon followed up by a step back jumper by Jayson Tatum. Myles Turner then scored the only points of the stretch for Indiana with a 3-pointer before Jaylen Brown generated a 7-0 run for Boston.

Brown, who put forth arguably the top performance of his playoff career, answered Turner’s 3-pointer with one of his own 20 seconds later. He then dished an assist to Oshae Brissett for a dunk before closing out the run with a running layup.

Add it all up and Boston had built a 13-point lead that at one point ballooned to as many as 20.

Q2 1:53 - [BOS 56-43] Brown Running Finger Roll Layup Shot: Made (23 PTS) Assist: Holiday (7 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 126, Pacers 110

Boston went to Jayson Tatum over and over during overtime of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It paid off with eight straight Celtics points during overtime, and 10 overall, which led to a 133-128 win.

But the most important moment of the night occurred with 6.1 seconds left in regulation, when Jaylen Brown drilled possibly the biggest shot of his career to this point.

Coming out of a timeout with the Celtics trailing by three, Brown caught an inbound pass right in front of Indiana’s bench in the left corner of the court. It was his moment to show the world that he has the clutch gene.

Brown pulled up for the potential game-tying 3-pointer with Pascal Siakam draped all over him. It didn’t matter one bit. Brown was prepared to own the moment.

He released the triple with 7.0 seconds left on the clock and it dropped through the net to tie the game up with 5.7 seconds remaining. Not only did it tie the game up, but it sent TD Garden into an absolute frenzy, which was exactly what Boston needed to fuel them in overtime.

This win was all about The Jays. Tatum came through with 10 points during overtime, and it was his partner in crime, Brown, who provided him with the opportunity.

Q4 :06.1 - [BOS 117-117] Brown 3pt Shot: Made (24 PTS) Assist: Holiday (7 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 133, Pacers 128 (OT)

From a one-possession game to a 14-point game – all in the span of just two minutes and 25 seconds.

The Celtics smelled blood in the water early in the fourth quarter, they attacked, and they killed their opponent to punch their way into yet another Eastern Conference Finals.

Four of Boston’s players combined to score 13 points during a critical 13-2 run from the 9:10 mark of the fourth to the 6:45 mark. The final basket of the stretch, a 3-pointer from Jayson Tatum, splashed through the net and forced Cleveland to call for a timeout to regroup its troops.

That 14-point lead, however, was already plenty of cushion for Boston to close out the win.

Jrue Holiday opened the run with a floater and Derrick White followed that bucket up with a 3-pointer. Following a layup by Cleveland’s Darius Garland, Al Horford then connected on one of his six 3-pointers on the night to bump Boston’s lead out to nine. Horford then scored an uncontested layup at the rim off of a beautiful drive and dish from Jaylen Brown, before Tatum connected on his triple to force Cleveland into a timeout.

Boston’s lead never dropped below nine from that moment on before it polished off a 113-98 victory. The Celtics will now appear in their third consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, and their sixth in the last eight years.

Q4 :56.4 - [BOS 113-96] Horford 3pt Shot: Made (22 PTS) Assist: Holiday (4 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 113, Cavaliers 98

Max Strus made two mistakes in one second of play, which set the Celtics up to slam the door closed on Game 4 with a 3-1 series lead.

With Cleveland trailing by only five points and with less than 90 seconds remaining in the contest, Strus misfired on a 3-pointer from the top of the arc on a shot that could have made it a one-possession game. Instead, Jaylen Brown rose up at the free-throw line to grab the rebound, all while Strus reached in and fouled him. That foul was the sixth of the night for Strus.

So all in a second of time, Strus missed the opportunity to make it a one-possession game, he fouled Brown to put Boston on the edge of the bonus, and he fouled himself out of the game. That last part looms large, given that Strus had drilled a game-high five 3-pointers to that point of the game.

Brown immediately followed up Strus’ blunders with a knockout triple of his own from the right wing. That’s where Jayson Tatum found him for a 3-pointer that pushed Boston ahead 105-97 with 69 seconds left on the clock and ostensibly ended the game for Cleveland.

So Strus made the big mistakes, and Brown drilled the big shot, all to help the Celtics take a commanding 3-1 series lead back to Boston.

Q4 1:09 - [BOS 105-97] Brown 3pt Shot: Made (27 PTS) Assist: Tatum (5 AST)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 109, Cavaliers 102

Taylor Snow

The Cleveland Cavaliers cut what had been a 23-point deficit down to single digits partway through the fourth quarter of Game 3 Saturday night, to which Payton Pritchard responded with one of the biggest momentum-swinging shots of his career.

With 7:42 left in the game, Boston’s backup point guard confidently rose up from the Cavs’ logo and buried the triple to put the C’s up by 12 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

That long-range dagger kickstarted a 10-5 run, and Boston led by double digits for the remainder of the game en route to a 106-93 win to take a 2-1 series lead.

Q4 7:42 - [BOS 91-79] Pritchard 3pt Shot: Made (5 PTS)

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Keys to the Game: Celtics 106, Cavaliers 93

After dominating Cleveland in Game 1 of the East Semifinals, the Celtics got a taste of their own medicine in Game 2.

The Cavaliers blew open a 54-54 halftime tie with a 36-24 third-quarter advantage, riding a 16-point frame from Donovan Mitchell who came alive after scoring just six points in the first half.

Cleveland kept rolling into the final frame, going up by as many as 29 points before coming away with a 118-94 series-tying win.

Q2 8:30 - [BOS 37-33] Holiday Running Dunk Shot: Made (4 PTS) Assist: Tatum (4 AST)