There was a moment late in the Celtics’ loss to Brooklyn on Thursday where the Boston offense looked like it was about to fall into another one of its cycles of stasis. Jayson Tatum looked off the roll man to take on Jeff Green in isolation, down seven points with three minutes left. Kyrie Irving edged over to loosely double, meaning it was time for another Tatum step-back.
Then something happened the Celtics hadn’t seen in a while, or at least since late January. Marcus Smart cut through the lane and made some magic happen.
After spending the past month-plus trying to establish a consistent and persistent offense, the fundamentals of a high-pace, low-turnover system were back in place.
