Celtics forced into a fight, but Jaylen Brown, Derrick White deliver in fourth to hold off Kings in Sacramento
What is unusual about the Kings is they have been porous this season (8-26), but have three players — DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, and ex-Celtic Dennis Schröder — capable of carrying a team in the fourth quarter. DeRozan has punished the Celtics numerous times dating back to his days in Toronto.
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Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta is fouled by Sacramento Kings guard Demar Derozan during the first half.Scott Marshall/Associated Press
But the Celtics’ intensified their defense and held the Kings to 5-for-17 shooting in the final period and 0 of 10 from the 3-point line. What’s more, Sacramento missed its final 15 attempts after beginning 12 for 21. The Celtics were focused on avoiding a second disappointing loss on this season-long five-game road trip.
“We were just better defensively in the second half,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We were physical. We were aggressive, limiting them to one shot and really kept them out of transition in that second, and I think the correlation from our defense to our offensive execution is when we were at our best.”
It was a welcoming sight for Mazzulla, who called two timeouts in the third quarter, 102 seconds apart. The second one was prompted by Payton Pritchard turning his back and allowing Keon Ellis an uncontested alley-oop for an 81-77 Kings lead, completing a 15-3 run. The Celtics battled to tie the game after the third quarter and White’s 3-pointer with 10:45 left gave Boston the lead for good.
“There was some lapses there and it’s gonna happen during games,” Mazzulla said. “You want to try to pick those up as much as you can. Those back-to-back (timeouts) we just had to reset. There’s effort and there’s execution. I thought we were playing hard, we just weren’t executing.”
Derrick White scored all of his 16 points in the second half.Scott Marshall/Associated Press
White and Brown combined for 35 of the Celtics’ 58 second-half points but the bench kept the game close in the first half, countering Sacramento’s torrid early shooting. The Kings are 28th in the NBA in scoring and 30th in 3-point makes, yet shot 55.6 percent in the first half and made 8 of 16 3-point attempts.
For most of the first half, the teams traded 3-pointers. Anfernee Simons scored all 14 of his points in the first two periods, making four triples while Sam Hauser was 3 for 3. Sacramento’s Ellis and Precious Achiuwa combined for five.
Eventually, the team that decided to play defense was going to take control and the Celtics bore down in the final period, with the help of the erratic Westbrook, who missed all four of his three attempts while Schröder managed just one bucket in the fourth quarter.
“We were just getting stops and when we are getting stops we are about to get out and run,” Hauser said. “We were able to get good shots, drawing people in the paint, getting kickouts or just take the layup. It started on the defensive end for sure.”
Hauser scored 15 points in his 29 minutes, going 5-for-7 from three. He started the second half in place of the ineffective Jordan Walsh, who did not play in the second half. Mazzulla said he was just looking for a spark after such an inconsistent first half. Hauser was a plus-9 in his 19 second-half minutes, while Hugo Gonzalez attempted just one shot but was effective in defending the crafty DeRozan.
The Celtics shot 50.6 percent from the field and nailed 17 3-pointers on a night where Brown was admittedly off. Against Sacramento’s trapping defense, he opted to shoot 3-pointers through the first three quarters and missed eight of his nine attempts overall. He also committed five turnovers and picked up five of his six fouls in the second half.
He was disqualified when he took the risk of standing in front of DeRozan at midcourt to take a charge. He was called for a block.
“Slow start, missed some easy ones, felt a little heavy today, it wasn’t my best game,” Brown said. “But our team played well. Offensively, we played great and defensively we were able to get some stops down the line. We rebounded the ball. We didn’t allow them to get some second-chance opportunities. Our offense was clicking on all cylinders, everybody pretty much.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
