The Celtics had one job last night in Washington.
They did none of those things.
There was no focus, there was no showing up, and the Celts laid an egg.
I think that’s the best way to describe it.
It’s one thing to lose a close hard fought game.
you might live with those on some level.
That is NOT what last night was.
It wasn’t just one guy either, it was 6 of the 8 main rotation guys that played.
The first was Jayson Tatum.
He gave you more than enough on both ends in his 31 minutes.
This was one of the rare occurrences where Tatum set the tone early, and nobody else really followed.
I’m not going to complain about 28/9/5 on 11-19 (2-7) shooting.
Heading into halftime when pretty much everyone was a double digit minus player, Tatum/Smart were just a -2.
The inability to win the non-Tatum minutes was one of the biggest factors of this game.
In this game, it was Smart’s shooting that helped keep the Celts close for long stretches.
It’s no surprise the Celts are 7-2 in those 9 games since.
- That’s it.
We’re moving on.
He’s been incredible by pretty much every metric or eye test you want to use.
Last night was not one of those nights.
It was a stinker.
They happen to everyone.
Unfortunately, we are not in the position to be having stinkers from the best players right now.
A team worst -24 in his 26 minutes, Jaylen finished 9-19 (0-4) with 4 TOs.
That’s….not going to cut it.
The game first started to swing when Joe subbed out Tatum/Smart with a 13-10 lead at the 7:31 mark.
Over the next 4 minutes, the Celtics would score just 2 points.
Over this span, Jaylen went 0-4 and the whole team went 1-9.
That ended up being pretty costly.
- As important as the Jays are to the success of this team, guard play is right there.
When this team gets good guard play, they go to another level.
When their guard play stinks?
Nothing else really matters, even games where Tatum shows up.
Unfortunately, only one of the three guards showed up.
In fact, nobody really did outside of Tatum/Smart.
That’s an issue.
When the Celt struggle defensively, it starts at the point of attack.
The perimeter players have to be able to prevent drives/paint points.
When they don’t, everything falls apart.
Think of it like the head of the snake.
For this team to be effective defensively, they need to limit dribble drives/plays at the rim.
Let me ask you, does it look like they did that in this game?
Time and time again we saw plays like this
What the hell is that?
Pathetic defensive effort is what.
Was this the JJ Redick podcast curse we saw Derrick White go through?
Either way we’re going to need a much better Al moving forward.
He just seemed slow in all facets.
- I suppose this is a good spot for the 11-44 shooting performance from deep (25%).
When it comes to the Celts outside shooting, it’s pretty simple.
Just hit your average.
You don’t need to go crazy and make 20 3PM and shoot over 40%.
That’s the bar.
Last night was the 5th time this season the Celtics have shot under 26% from three.
They are 0-5 in those games.
Almost everything was a clean look.
So just add it up.
You get you ass kicked.
- The Wizards played with pace.
How many times did we see the beat everyone down the floor even after makes?
That’s the inexcusable part of last night’s defense.
It wasn’t like they were getting shredded in halfcourt sets.
They couldn’t stop anything in transition.
They need to come out with that pop, energy, and focus no matter who they play.
Not just the Bucks.
I agree, how they respond is important, but not having that mindset last night is an issue.
I get maybe in the first quarter things are up in the air as the game settles.
But things got progressively worse as the game went on.
The Celts came out of halftime with zero fire/energy.
The bench is the one that injected some life for a moment, so they earned the minutes.
It didn’t work out, but that’s life.
If the starters wanted to play, don’t suck ass for 3 quarters.
- I’m not exactly sure what positives we got from Grant in his 25 minutes.
What is the thought process to throw an extremely telegraphed one-armed pass over the middle fo the defense?
Any one of us could have stolen that ball!
Did he maybe not see that Deni Avdija is looking right at him because Muscala was in the way?
Even still, a terrible decision in a brutal spot.
- Here’s something that I found interesting last night.
The Celts are 7-11 when they allow 120+ points.
That’s to be expected.
They’re 34-3 when they do and 18-21 when they don’t.
So far, that hasn’t really happened.
The Ugly
- I mean, the defense.
What else could there be for this section?
The only game worse was the OKC loss when they gave up 150.
Last night was also the 4th highest scoring total of the Wizards' entire season.
Especially at full health.
This wasn’t a game where they were missing all their defenders or anything like that.
Everyone played, but nobody defended.
Sure Porzingis was making some tough shots, but that is not why the Celts got blown out.
They got crushed because collectively they were asleep on defense.
If the Celts don’t defend, they die.
There will be nights where their shots don’t fall.
you might still win those games as long as you show up defensively.
When you do neither, last night happens.
So here we go.
If the Celts end up in the 2 seed, so be it.
If they somehow get the 1, cool.
What they can’t do is no show like we saw last night.
If they do that, they aren’t going to like what happens.
