![Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics to game winning shot. [ image source: Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons ]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/3/29/660x290/b_502x220x82/jaylen-brown-leads-the-celtics-to-game-winning-shot-keith-allison-via-wikimedia-commons_1914053.jpg "Jaylen Brown leads the Celtics to game winning shot. [ image source: Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons ]")
The Celtics have had to go on without five-time all-star Kyrie Irving, along with starters Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris, and Gordon Hayward. The 2018 NBA season has been an injury-plagued one for the Celtics, but this has not stopped the grit, grind, and heart of this team to continually battle night after night. This past Wednesday the Boston Celtics were matched up against a hot Utah Jazz team who were at full strength with talented rookie Donovan Mitchell and dominant big man Rudy Gobert.
The Utah Jazz had recently come off a solid win against the Golden State Warriors, the score being 110-91.
Not to mention the impressive month of March the Jazz had been having, previously being 11-2 prior to meeting the Celtics Wednesday night.
The odds were stacked against the Celtics, but they were up to the challenge to win number 52 on the 2018 season. A hot Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown, and rookie Jayson Tatum were more than up to the task of taking down the Jazz.
Struggles from the start
The Boston Celtics are currently the number one team in the NBA in first quarter offense, but this did not come through that night when the Jazz held the C's to just 18 points in the first quarter which led to them trailing by seven points. But, as mentioned before, regardless of the injuries to this Celtics team, they continue to show heart and the will and desire to win.
They answered back in the second quarter, this time putting up 30 points and holding the Jazz to 15 in return. This left the score, at the half, at 48-39 in favor of the Celtics.
At the beginning of the second half, the Jazz had an answer to what the Celtics and Jaylen Brown gave. They ended the third putting 32 points on the Celtics defense while holding their opponents to only 19 points, this gave the jazz a narrow lead heading into the final stretch 67-71.
During the fourth and final quarter, things began to heat up. Terry Rozier aided in the comeback effort, in which at one point they trailed by six to eight points consistently, by hitting two consecutive threes and later finishing with a nice layup to bring it to an 88-92 deficit. After the Jazz answered yet again, Greg Monroe began to drive into the lane with Rudy Gobert draped all over him, but with a dribble, pick up, and beautiful spin move he floated his shot and nailed it even with a remarkable defensive effort by Gobert.
At 90-92 still trailing, Donovan Mitchell attempted to push the pace in order to answer the Celtics. This was thwarted when the C's began to crowd him in the paint which resulted in a turnover.
Jaylen Brown recovered the ball and on the fast break lobbed it up quickly to a ready Tatum and they finished it with a strong slam tying the game. A few empty possessions later the Jazz had the ball with 30 seconds remaining and with the shot clock winding down wound up in Tatum getting a huge block against Jae Crowder, a former Celtic just a year ago.
The Final Seconds Tick
This led to the final seconds of the game, Shane Larkin had the ball and began to drive to the paint with five seconds remaining, the paint was jammed and Larkin dished it out to the perimeter to Semi Ojeleye who had an open three but decided instead to pass it back to Jaylen Brown.
He took a step back to make sure his shot attempt was a three and with a wide-open look took the shot with the final seconds ticking down, making the game-winning shot, giving the Celtics a hard-fought win number 52.
