At the time, Brad Stevens' zone defense commentary sounded like one of his most sarcastic zingers ever.

After getting drubbed by the Toronto Raptors in early February, the Boston Celtics head coach fielded a question about what he could have done differently to change his team's effort. He didn't say he could have switched the strategy on Kyle Lowry, who made six 3-pointers that night. He didn't say he could have shaken up his substitution patters against the Raptors bench, which dominated a long stretch of the decisive first half. Instead, Stevens pointed out one tactic that worked during garbage time.

"We could have put in the three bigs all together on the back line," he said, "and played zone earlier. That was pretty good."

Why did Stevens' remark sound more like comedy than truth? The lineup he was discussing included three centers: Aron Baynes, Daniel Theis and Guerschon Yabusele. It was almost impossible to envision the Celtics ever going to that trio, or anything like it, during meaningful minutes. You can't survive in the NBA with that many big men. You can't just wave goodbye to all hopes of perimeter shooting or playmaking.

You can't do that, but the Celtics -- beaten up, undermanned, and so very resourceful -- returned to the strategy Wednesday night, using a big man-laden zone defense to bust up the Utah Jazz, 97-94. Before Jaylen Brown's game-winning 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left, before Boston outscored Utah 9-0 over the final 2:11, before the Celtics concluded an improbable 4-0 road trip in style, Stevens decided to junk things up.

Stevens: “we played more zone tonight than we have in two years.” — Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) March 29, 2018

He didn't use three centers this time. But in turning to Baynes, Greg Monroe and Semi Ojeleye near the end of the third quarter, all at once, Stevens still essentially punted on all hopes of spreading out the Jazz. In today's NBA, pairing Baynes and Monroe together could be a death sentence. Throw in Ojeleye, a 30-percent shooting power forward, and you'd need a screw loose to even consider such a frontcourt trio. But, after giving up a 15-0 run, the Celtics unleashed the monster zone. And it revived their chances.

On the first possession with the zone, down 69-60, Baynes appeared to forget he was essentially -- for one of the first times ever -- a wing. He was lucky Royce O'Neale, wide open in the corner, missed a clean look at a 3-pointer. But from that point on, the Celtics zone flustered the Jazz, sapping them of any rhythm. Over the final four minutes of the third quarter, Boston's zone held Utah to 1-for-6 shooting from the field, including 0-for-4 from behind the arc. The lone make came in transition before the Celtics could set their defense. By the end of the third, the Celtics had pulled within four points.

How did they ever score with the huge lineup? Ojeleye had one of his best offensive stretches of the season, pouring in seven points over a 2:12 span. The offense wasn't always so crisp, but the Celtics did enough to give themselves a chance, then capitalized down the stretch when the Jazz came up short. Boston didn't stick with the zone throughout the remainder of the game, but returned to it for a number of key possessions. On one, they begged Ricky Rubio to take a wide open 15-footer. He missed, leaving the Celtics down by just four points with two minutes left. On another, they forced Donovan Mitchell into a contested floater. His brick gave the Celtics the ball with a chance to break a final-minute tie.

Boston went empty once before Brown canned a game-winning 3-pointer on his team's second opportunity to pull ahead. The shot gave the Celtics yet another improbable win against a Western Conference playoff team. Really, this streak is getting mad. While collecting five consecutive wins, the Celtics have toppled the Thunder after trailing by five points with 16 seconds left, shocked the Blazers after falling behind by 12 points in the fourth quarter, and now stunned the Jazz -- in a game Utah really could have used for playoff purposes -- after going to a zany zone defense.

This stat might be wilder than anything else:

Celtics are somehow now 13-4 without Kyrie this year. — Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) March 29, 2018

Kyrie Irving has missed the whole winning streak. Boston's injured list Wednesday night included three All-Stars (Irving, Al Horford and Gordon Hayward) and three key reserves (Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris, and Daniel Theis). Whatever. The Celtics just keep finding ways to prevail.

A friggin' zone. Imagine that. Maybe Stevens wasn't joking back in February.