Joe Mazzulla had seen enough. 

The Celtics were trying to climb out of a 20-point hole, but every time they were close to getting a stop, they were giving up offensive rebounds to the Pacers. 

Three minutes into the third quarter, Indiana had rebounded all three of their missed shots. After the third, an easy putback for Bennedict Mathurin, Mazzulla called a timeout, and called on Luka Garza, Sam Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, and Anfernee Simons to come off the bench. When play resumed, Neemias Queta, Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, and Jaylen Brown were spectators. 

“To be honest, I was pissed,” Brown said. “I was ready to play, so I didn’t know. It felt like we were mailing it in. It was only three minutes in, but we trust our coaching staff. So it was the right decision. That second group is the reason why we won the game. Garza, Sam, Hugo (Gonzalez). We won tonight, but it was because of those guys. So it was a great call by Joe.”

The Celtics bench unit sliced the lead in half over the next eight minutes, only allowing one offensive rebound in that stretch. The Pacers shooting, which nearly set off the fire alarms in the first half, was the only thing colder than the Bruins ice after halftime. If this bench unit had any true cohesion and shot-making, they might have been able to erase the whole lead. 

“I thought even though we subbed, I still thought we were playing some decent basketball,” Mazzulla said. “There was just the stuff that just wasn’t going our way, and that just happens. So again, you just have to build the perspective of ‘Here’s the truth, here’s what’s going on, here’s what we’ve got to do.’”

The truth was that at that moment, their Finals MVP and likely All-NBA player, and two other key players on a championship roster, weren’t getting the job done. Instead, a 19-year-old, a guy off the scrap heap, and a player in every trade rumor for six months, were going to have to turn things around. And Mazzulla had no problem going with them. 

“I think it speaks volumes about the level of confidence they have in all their players,” Gonzalez said. “I think he knows he has a very deep roster … Ultimately, all he’s looking for is to find what works at that moment.”

There were enough missed opportunities that it felt like the Pacers remembering how to shoot for even a couple of minutes would be enough to regain control. They never did, and because Boston’s rebounding effort had vastly improved, led by Gonzalez’s nine on the defensive end, the Celtics were able to get the stops they needed to go on a run. The shot-making from Anfernee Simons gave them enough scoring punch to slowly walk the lead down. 

“A 20-point game in the third is nothing … every timeout, we came back, we chipped away at it,” Mazzulla said. “So it’s just having an understanding that we have to earn it one possession at a time. It went from 20, then it was 12, then it was eight, then it was four, and then our guys did what they did.”

What the starters did was play like they should have from the beginning. After Brown checked back into the game late in the third, he attacked the basket five straight times, getting to the rim at will to score or draw fouls. The time on the bench had its intended effect. 

“I was just kind of casually getting to my shots in the first half,” Brown said. “I missed some shots that you guys have probably seen me make over and over again all season, but I feel like I just wasn’t a threat enough downhill … When I came back in, I was like just shot out of a cannon.”

Brown scored 18 of his 31 points in the 13 minutes played after checking back in. He hit half his shots and five of his six free throw attempts. He also had five rebounds, two blocks, and a steal in that stretch, putting up All-Star numbers just in that very short amount of time. Brown outscored the Pacers by himself in the fourth, 14-13. 

The win over Toronto was widely called a true team win because of how many different guys stepped up in Brown’s absence. He obviously played in this game, but there were stretches where he, and some of the other Boston starters, felt absent. Luckily, Mazzulla is allowed to make substitutions. 

“(I) feel like we kind of jolted the game and our energy and effort and everybody came in and took care of the rest,” Garza said. “JB was unreal down the stretch. It’s a team game. Not every night is every player gonna have it to start the game. It’s the NBA, it’s a lot of games, so we all rely on each other. That’s a part of team basketball. We rely on each other to pick the person up when they’re down and then get them into rhythm and they go, and I think tonight we did that.”