The Celtics got big performances from a number of key contributors including Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard on Sunday, holding off a spirited push from James Harden and the Clippers in the fourth quarter for a hard-fought 121-118 victory.
Here are the takeaways.
The Celtics got a clutch win (barely)
The Celtics have one of the NBA’s worst teams in the clutch, and they allowed what should have been a much more comfortable win in the closing seconds turn into a nail biter.
The lion’s share of the credit belongs to Harden, who struggled mightily in the first half and didn’t get a ton of easy field goals in the second either (more on that in a minute).