Rookie Jayson Tatum gleefully punching Jaylen Brown in the chest started Boston’s celebration on the floor at Vivint Smart Home Arena, Wednesday night.
Celtics point guard Terry Rozier stared at the sellout crowd as it filed out, his right hand waving in the air. Ricky Rubio and Rudy Gobert were left asking each other how Brown could find himself wide open with the game on the line.
And the rag tag Boston Celtics — without Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris — stole one from a Jazz team in the thick of a playoff race.
Brown’s game-winner with 0.3 seconds remaining gave the Celtics a 97-94 win, in what is the NBA definition of a team stealing a road victory. Boston was down for most of the second half, and was trailing by six points in the final minute before closing on a 9-0 run as the Jazz faltered.
“It hurts tonight, but tomorrow we have to get ready for the next one,” Gobert said. “I think they wanted it more than us on the boards. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. If we grab one of them, we win the game.”
Utah’s overall picture is getting murky. With seven games remaining, the Jazz are in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They are a game behind the fifth spot, but also only a game ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers for the last spot.
That’s why Wednesday night hurts for Utah. The Jazz had a short-handed team on the ropes multiple times, but couldn’t finish. Utah led 69-58 midway through the third quarter, and built its six-point lead late in the fourth quarter by getting stops defensively and finding ways to score.
But then Boston’s Greg Monroe hit a turnaround jumper. Then, Monroe made two free throws, and Tatum tied the game with a dunk. Last week, when the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Jazz on their home floor, Utah looked hesitant in its final possessions. It looked the same on Wednesday night down the stretch. While Boston found itself good shots, the Jazz had to force shots. While the Celtics ran plays down the stretch with a purpose, the Jazz looked unsettled with the game on the line.
“We just didn’t execute the way we needed to in some situations,” Utah coach Quin Snyder said. “All that aside, we didn’t rebound defensively down the stretch. Whether it was the free throw line late, I felt like if we could’ve secured a couple of defensive boards, that makes up for when you’re struggling on the offensive end.”
Boston coach Brad Stevens flummoxed the Jazz all night with his lineups, and switching defenses. The Celtics made their third-quarter run by switching to a zone defense that confused the Jazz. More importantly, Boston’s 9-0 game-ending run coincided with Stevens switching back to the zone.
“We probably played more zone tonight than we had in the last two years,” Stevens said.
The defense allowed the Celtics to let their young players shine offensively. Brown scored a team-high 21 points. Tatum and Terry Rozier scored 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 22 points. Jae Crowder scored 16 points off the bench. Ricky Rubio scored 14 points, while handing out 10 assists and grabbing eight rebounds.
The Jazz (42-33) shot 41 percent from the field, and went just 9 of 33 from 3-point range.
“They just played zone,” Mitchell said. “It was a little different look. That was pretty much it. I turned the ball over at the end of the game. We have to take care of the ball.”
