And just like that, the Celts 6 game winning streak has ended.
On one hand, it was a wildly entertaining game.
We were blessed with some high level basketball for 2.5 hours where it felt like a heavy-weight fight.
It’s not like they were blown out or got killed on the road by a bad team.
The Celts despite their issues were right there.
When they had to make the plays to pull out the win, they executed.
Even the “easy” game vs UTA is against a team that has currently won 7 of 10.
Especially when you have a target on your back the way the Celts do.
Is it the end of the world?
Is it still kind of annoying because this was a winnable game?
To me it is.
I think both can be true.
Take it on the chin, lick your wounds, and turn the page.
Pretty simple, Tatum was awesome in this game.
For me, Tatum’s job last night was simple.
As the best player, he had to go blow for blow with SGA.
Whatever SGA did, Tatum had to match it.
Especially when he seems to be able to get whatever he wanted offensively.
In looking at Tatum’s shot chart, I see an approach most people beg Tatum to have.
He certainly held up his part and gave the Celts enough to win.
There was no no-show, no maddening shot selection, no lack of aggression.
- Then there’s Kristaps Porzingis.
Maybe the 33% shooting from deep?
So even though it came in a loss, this is why I find it somewhat encouraging.
He’s the needle mover.
- Defensively, a bit of a disaster for DWhite.
Here’s a fun fact about this too.
Did you know White led the Celtics in this last year as well?
I am also doubling down on my theory that Derrick White possesses the clutch gene.
All he does is seem to make big shots (especially catch & shoot 3s) late in games.
I’m here to say the time has come to let Derrick cook late in a close game.
Look for him, get him shots, chances are he’s going to make it.
For his role, I feel like Pritchard has given the Celts exactly what they need.
The Bad
- How rare was last night’s result?
They’re now 23-1 when they do that, so that stings.
They are now 6-1 when that happens.
They are now 15-2 when that happens.
This is just one of the many reasons why I wouldn’t get overly worked up about last night.
We saw the Celts do things that the overwhelming majority of the time led to wins.
Just goes to show how important defense is.
Credit those guys for making shots, but that isn’t exactly a normal occurrence.
The Celts challenged Giddey to beat them from deep, and he responded.
SGA’s were mostly contested stepback threes.
Sometimes you just have to live with it and tip our cap.
I mean the starters got cooked in their minutes unlike anything we’ve seen all season.
Unfortunately, the backcourt
The size and patience of SGA was a big time problem.
A 173.9 Drtg???
Then there was the Al/Kornet double big lineups.
For whatever reason, Kornet works best as a solo big.
OKC leads the NBA in points off turnovers, so what did the Celtics do?
They naturally turned the ball over 14 times, leading to 16 OKC points.
That feels pretty important in a 4 point loss.
In the 4th quarter, what did we see?
The Thunder are too good to be that careless, especially in the 4th quarter.
Jrue’s were especially brutal because they are all mostly uncontested layups.
For reference, last year he was at 72.5%.
We just can’t have a disaster class on both ends of the floor.
If you’re going to struggle defensively, I need the offense to make up for it.
If your shot is going to struggle, I need you putting opposing guards in jail.
That didn’t happen, and it proved costly.
- But in terms of costly individual performances, none were bigger than what we got from Jaylen.
To put it simply, 4-18 (0-8) is nowhere close to good enough.
Part of it was just missing open looks, but other parts were a little more concerning.
When it comes to things Jaylen struggles with, high pressure defense with length is one of them.
It gives him CTE.
The 4-18 is whatever really.
Guys have off shooting nights.
We’ve seen those exact splits from everyone on the roster this season.
The concerning part is how he looked against length/good defensive pressure.
- You’re simply not going to win giving up 127 points in regulation on the road.
Can’t have it.
With that said, we’re on to Utah.
