The Utah Jazz entered Monday night's game in Boston a wounded team, on a three-game losing streak that was punctuated by an embarrassing loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday afternoon.
And the opening of this game didn't give much hope that things would be different against the Celtics, as the home team jumped out to a 14-2 advantage before the Jazz started to compete.
Even after knotting the game 27-27 early in the second quarter, the Jazz would fall behind once again, going nearly five minutes without a point while shooting a frigid 27% from the field. The Celtics went up by as many as 14 points, and led 46-36 at the break.
And then something happened at halftime. Maybe it was the Gatorade, or Will Hardy going nuts on them, but the Jazz woke up.
George keys the comeback
Early in the third quarter, Keyonte George was hit in the face by Jaylen Brown on a three-point attempt.
The best version of Key came out, and the Jazz took full advantage once he did.
He proceeded to hit all three free throws to get the Jazz deficit into single digits (54-45), and soon after, he was back at the line for two more shots, and the run was on.
A 24-7 run by the Jazz, with contributions by George, Lauri Markkanen, and Elijah Harkless, turned the deficit into a 66-61 lead for the Jazz.
By the end of the third, Keyonte and Lauri had 26 of the Jazz's 38 points in the quarter, the Jazz were a red-hot 83% from the field, and they led 74-72.
A wild and crazy final period
After missing several deep shots to start the fourth quarter, Svi Mykhailiuk and Kyle Filipowski made back to back threes to help the Jazz to a 83-75 advantage.
Just before the seven-minute mark, Kevin Love hit a short shot to make it 90-79 for the Jazz, but Boston wasn't done. Jaylen Brown scored six points to help the Celtics storm back, and they also hit several threes to go on a run and reduce the Jazz's lead significantly.
By the two-minute mark, the Jazz lead was down to 97-96, and it looked like Boston might pull out a win after all.
But Keyonte George would score to keep the Jazz in the mix, and then Jusuf Nurkic rebounded a Keyonte miss with 0.6 seconds left to give the Jazz a 105-103 lead that they would not surrender.
And after multiple calls had gone Boston's way (including multiple replay reviews), Jaylen Brown committed an offensive foul, upheld on review, that gave the Jazz the win.
The Jazz move to 3-4 on the year, avoiding a repeat of last year's 2-7 opening mark, and have some hope moving into the final two games of their road swing, at Detroit (Wednesday) and Minnesota (Friday). For one night, the Jazz looked competitive once again.