You Won't Find A More Disgusting Display Of Basketball Than When The Celtics Collectively Throw Up An All Around Stinker
Through 24 games, the Celtics now have 5 losses on the season. Those 5 losses are by a combined 20 points. They are yet to lose by more than 6 in any game this season. Part of me finds that impressive, because it tells you that even on their off nights they are still right there with a chance to win. Part of me also finds it pretty annoying, because it means they dropped a winnable game.
I'll tell you this much. A game like last night, where the Celts fumbled a winnable game at home, would bother me WAY more without a title than it does now. To be honest, that's how I feel about every one of these close losses this season. It's more "oh well!" than "oh no!" if that makes any sense. We know what this team is. We know what this team can do. We know their ceiling, and we know their floor. No team goes 82-0, and I have bad news for you. The Celts will lose again at some point this season!
Some have called this a schedule loss, with their 6th game in 9 days and the second half of a B2B, and while I think there's something to that because you could clearly see the fatigue in everyone's legs these last two games, I do have a little bit of an issue with putting it the result completely on the "schedule".
To me, this game was lost due to a lack of execution. The Celts had a 4th quarter lead with under 10 minutes to go in this game, and the Grizzlies were simply better down the stretch in terms of executing on both ends of the floor. Careless turnovers, a lack of resistance defensively, that's wasn't all just because this was the 6th game in 9 days. It was because the Celts were playing like shit and then eventually paid the price for it. It's OK, it's a long season!
Sometimes you're going to have to grind out wins when you're tired. Welcome to NBA scheduling. This was only the first loss of the year on a B2B (4-1) and the Celts went 12-2 last year in that situation, so it's not like every time they find themselves in this spot it's an automatic loss. They simply just need to execute better. The Bucks game is a great example. Compare that execution to what we saw last night, and it's no surprise the results are the complete opposite.
The Grizzlies played great, they were physical, they made their 3s, and they got out in transition, so it's not like, this was some sort of fluke performance for them by any stretch, so they deserve credit for doing something most NBA teams have been unable to do, which is win in Boston.
The good news is now the Celts have 4 days off and ramp back up with DET/WSH/CHI/CHI, so chances are the team that continues to win at an .800 clip will be just fine moving forward.
But that doesn't mean we ignore when they lay an egg. In fact, it's the exact opposite, so let's dive in.
The Good
- For the first time in a long time, I'm not even sure what to put in this section? For example, Jaylen Brown had an efficient 22/3/6 on 10-14 (2-3) shooting, so normally that'd be a great place to start right? Well, he also had 5 TOs and was a team worst -17 in his minutes, so that wasn't exactly great.
Then there's someone like KP who continues to look better and better as he gets into game shape, but he finished 6-17 (3-10) and didn't exactly provide any sort of defensive resistance on JJJ during the most important stretches in the fourth quarter.
The ball movement was good I suppose, I'll never complain about 26 AST, but when I see that number I just think about all the wide open looks this team missed so really I get annoyed that 26 AST isn't actually 35 AST.
You know what? Let's not overthink this. For my money ,the only thing that even feels worthy of living in this section was the play of Payton Pritchard
After his goose egg against the Bucks, this was the most predictable performance in the history of predictable performances. Payton Pritchard simply does not have 2 bad games in a row. That's not just my homerism talking, that's really the case
When I think of true Payton Pritchard "stinkers", I'd go with Opening Night, 11/1 vs CHA, 11/12 vs ATL, 11/16 vs TOR, and 12/6 vs MIL. Go ahead and look at that graphic above and look at what happened immediately following one of those disasterclasses. Every single time there was an immediate response with Pritchard getting back to the level he's been at all year, so it wasn't surprising at all that we had more of the same last night. This is what Payton Pritchard does. It's why you can rely on him in this role because if nothing else, he's consistent.
Considering he was the only player on the roster who seemed to be able to make a shot, it feels right that he's the only player on the roster who finds himself in this section.
We can move on.
The Bad
- When you look at the Celts last three games, it's pretty surprising that they finished 2-1 instead of 0-3, because I'd say for 95% of teams out there if they experience what the Celts went through these last 3 games, they are all losses
1. The opponent makes 20 3PM on 51% shooting
2. The Celts shoot 32% from three
3. The Celts shoot 30% from three
Considering in their entire franchise history the Celts had never won a game before when their opponent made 20 3s on 50% shooting, I'd say that was a bit of a prayer. On the season heading into last night they were 6-0 when shooting under 33% from deep, but in today's NBA you're never going to remain undefeated with that type of lack of shotmaking. For them to split those games is also a bit of a prayer.
There are two way to look at this in my opinion. The first being it's encouraging that a team can win even when they don't have it. That's the sign of a legit contender. Who cares if it's ugly, just find a way to win. That's the good part.
The not so good part is the fact that they aren't really playing good basketball, especially defensively. Over their last 3 games, the Celts defense ranks 23rd in the NBA. They're 20th in opponent points per game at 117.3, 23rd in opponent 3PM at 15.3, and 28th in opponent 3P% at 45.5%.
That….STINKS. These are all areas defensively that the Celts are usually among the league leaders in, so as you can see it's been anything but over the last week or so.
And before you play the "they aren't trying yet, it's December" card, just know that I reject that claim before you even can finish it. That's bullshit. I'm not saying the Celts need to have NBA Finals quality defense right now, but that is not what we are currently watching. There can be a balance between not going balls to the wall and risking injury, and being among one of the worst defensive teams in the league. This team has too many plus defenders to have defensive production like that.
This matters because when you go through a stretch like what we're seeing in terms of a shooting rut (24th in FG%, 19th in 3P%), not being able to get stops is how you find yourself dropping winnable games.
In this loss, it was twofold. As Joe talked about after the game, the transition points were a huge problem. The Grizzlies won that battle 22-4, and had 19 points off the 14 Celtics turnovers. Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Celts giving up a ton of transition points, the majority of them coming off TOs, led to a close loss.
It's basically how they've lost every single playoff game since the Bubble. If their points off turnovers is around 19-22, this is the type of result you get.
- The second issue was their lack of interior defense down the stretch of this game on one end, and their inability to make a shot on the other. After taking that 4 point lead early, this is how the rest of the game went as MEM closed 31-21
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JJJ completely took over this game, scoring at will in the paint regardless of what big was on the floor. He abused Queta going to his left in a way that made it feel like Queta had never looked at the scouting report, and then once KP came in he didn't even really contest any of the running hooks/floaters that JJJ put up. Credit to him for how he executed, but that paint defense was absolute dogshit from everyone involved, which cannot happen.
As we always say, if you don't defend, you die.
- This really does feel like the seasons of consistently having to deal with non-shooters having prayer outlier 3P shooting nights. I mean, JJJ and Ja Morant are 33% and 26% three point shooters on the season, and they finished 7-10. It was just like Kyle Anderson hitting those three straight 3PM back in the Warriors loss. Very annoying.
Meanwhile, Tatum/KP/White finished a combined 6-27. It's not like the Celts didn't have their own wide open looks, they just bricked pretty much every single one of them.
Against the Bucks, the number was a brutal 4-24 on "wide open" 3PA. Just an insane number.
Against the Grizzlies, the Celts threw up 12-37 (32%) on "wide open" 3PA and 3-14 (21%) on "open" 3PA. So combined, a horrific 15-51 (29%) on clean looks.
If this is where you want to point to fatigue and not having their legs, I'll allow that. It's not a surprise to have dead legs shooting the ball given their schedule. What isn't acceptable is also not playing defense while this goes on.
- As I mentioned at the top, the reason I didn't have Jaylen in the top section despite his efficiency was the fact that he was way too careless with the basketball. A whole bunch of being loose with the rock, going into crowds without a plan, a lack of ball handling, it was all bad.
Against a physical team like the Grizzlies who love to play with tough ball pressure, you can't be that careless. When you go long stretches of the game of having more TOs than FGM, that's how you find yourself in this section. The good news is Jaylen doesn't run from his mistakes and takes ownership when he plays like shit
- Sadly, this wasn't just a brutal night for one of the Jays, they were both pretty awful. It's funny that even in a Tatum stinker he still finishes with 17/13/9 with only 1 TO, but given his 6-21 (1-10), this was certainly not a good Tatum performance. A little surprising given how awesome he was against the Bucks, but sometimes you have one of these nights.
The Tatum stinker is few and far between, but when he's off he is really OFF.
To be honest, it really reminded me of the stinker he had against the Wizards back before Thanksgiving. In that win, Tatum finished 6-19 (0-10) and 16/9/8. Sound familiar? The issue of course is the Grizzlies are NOT the Wizards, and when nobody on the roster is making anything, it's tough when Jaylen has TO issues and Tatum can't buy a bucket either. That's almost always going to end in a loss.
- Yes, I find it highly annoying and pretty inexcusable to lose a game by 6 in which you finished 19-28 (67%) from the FT line. The Celts closed this game going just 4 of their last 10 from the stripe. That has me at a loss for words. Make your FTs and you probably win this game. Fuck around, and find out the hard way.
I know this is a weird obsession of mine, but a game like this is why. A team with this many good FT shooters should never miss 9 FTs in a game and finish under 70%. Pritchard missed 2 (!?!?!?!?!?), KP missed 2 (?!?!?!), Tatum and Brown missing 4th quarter FTs, in no world is any of that acceptable.
- We may be living in a bit of a Derrick White slump. Over his last 4 games, White is only shooting 31/26%, while taking around 9.5 3PA a night. He's had only 1 game with over 50% from the field, with the rest failing to even break 34%. Something tells me the 4 days off is going to do him wonders, because his 3 ball is a bit of a brick at the moment.
The weird part is they're clean looks too. He's shooting just 23% on "open" looks during this stretch and 27.8% on "wide open" looks. I would imagine this doesn't last much longer and water will find its level.
- Even though he didn't really do much (1-11, 1-6), it was still pretty weird to see Marcus Smart on the parquet floor in a different jersey. I watch plenty of Grizzlies games and didn't really feel that way after the first few weeks last season, but with this being his first time playing in Boston, it was definitely weird for my brain to process. Watching him lock up KP on multiple post ups had my brain and heart a little confused, and thankfully this is only something that has to happen one more time this season.
The Ugly
- The Grizzlies went with the strategy of giving Jrue Holiday a billion wide open looks and daring him to make them, primary from the corner, and sadly, he did not come through.
A brutal 8-26 (4-17), this was a situation where Jrue has to take those open looks. Mazzulla Ball demands it. If you're open, especially from the corner, that's a shot you need to take without hesitation. Considering corner 3s are what Jrue does best, the fact that he struggled so badly with them was very surprising
Last season, Jrue shot an insane 60% from the corners. It was a layup for him. And while that number is unfair to expect season after season, there has been a noticeable drop in his corner production even before this disaster of a showing.
He went all of last regular season missing 37 total corner 3s. This season, he's 15-49 (30.6%). Part of that is the 3-10 from the corners last night, but even if you take that out you're looking at 12-39 which is still 30%. That's a pretty substantial drop from something that was a big weapon last year, so it's no surprise that the Grizzlies took their chances with it last night.
Much like everyone else, Jrue struggled to make his "wide open" 3PA. He finished a tough 4-14, while also being 0-3 on his "open" looks, so a combined 4-17 on clean looks isn't going to cut it. Add in that Ja Morant basically got whatever he wanted on the offensive end, and this was a rough showing on both ends of the floor.
Hey, nights like this happen. This entire season the Celts had found ways to win on nights where nothing goes in, but eventually you're going to be on the other side of it. 19-5 is still nothing to sneeze at, and now they get the chance to rest, recover, reset and then come back out next week guns blazing.