It's Possible To Be Both Happy And Mad At The Celtics After Last Night

That headline might be confusing, but it’s true. Last night the Celtics took the court with their G-League team against a real life NBA playoff team and gave an effort we could have only dreamed out. Even with WSH coming off a B2B, it would not have surprised any of us if the Celtics reserves were wiped off the floor. But the exact opposite happened, and that makes me happy. When you’re playing with house money like the Celtics were, with no pressure given that 80% of your team was out, it’s a freeing feeling. You’re ready to roll with the punches and whatever happens, happens. It’s probably what a lot of tanking teams feel at this time of year. Not a care in the world.

But then something happened. The Celtics played incredible. So good that they built up a 20 point lead. This is where my anger at them sets in. Role players or not, this was a game the Celtics should have won. In fact, they won it basically 3 separate times but came up short the one time they really needed to win it. That’s the epitome of frustration. For some reason this team is one of the worst late game execution teams that is also a top 2 seed in their conference. They poop their pants time and time again and it doesn’t matter who it is either. We’ve seen Kyrie do it, we’ve seen veterans like Morris do it, and last night it was our young savior Jayson Tatum with shorts filled with poop. Taking this game to 2OT was certainly impressive, but absolutely not necessary if they just don’t shit the bed. I think it’s totally fair to look big picture and say “you know what this was pretty awesome considering who actually played” while also saying “fuck you for losing this game”. That at least how I feel at the moment. I’m proud of how they played given the circumstances but I can’t sit around and talk like blowing a 20 point lead at home is acceptable behavior no matter who is on the floor.

With that said, let’s begin

The Good

– As if there was any goddamn question who we’d be starting with today! Last night Yabu got his first career start and quite frankly, he was awesome.

Yabu finished with 4/3/5 on 1-2 shooting in just 18 minutes and was a +2 on the night. To the untrained eye this may seem like pretty pedestrian numbers, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Watching him play he looked like he belonged on an NBA court which is a first huge step. While it was disappointing that he didn’t make a three, he did it on both ends, creating for others, snagging boards, and even playing All NBA defense on Bradley Beal

Yabu lived up to the hype and I’m excited for him to have a pretty solid role for this team down the stretch of the season. You could tell Brad didn’t want to throw too much at him in his first start, but now that we’ve seen what he’s capable of it’s time to unleash the beast.

– We’ll get to his game losing decision later, but for now we should celebrate the roller coaster that Marcus Morris took us on last night. He finished with 31/9 on 11-22 shooting, and was every big the offensive player this team needed him to be with everyone out

His shot selection will make you want to pull your hair out, but when he’s going he’s a tough guy to stop because his ability to take these midrange pullups out of his dribble make no sense. Hard to defend a shot when you aren’t expecting a player to be able to shoot it with his feet all fucked up and his momentum all wacky, but Morris can.

What makes this game so tough is the Celtics NEEDED Morris to even have a chance in this game, and yet his ending was pretty awful. Hard to be mad at him but at the same time I am mad at him. It’s confusing.

– You know how I’m not mad at? Terry Rozier. Another game in double figures, he too stepped it up on a night where the Celts really needed this sort of production.

just a little 21/5/9 with 3 blocks for Rozier, including going 4-9 from deep and making some biiiig boy threes in big time moments. This was now the 17th straight game Rozier has ended up in double figures and I’m ready to call it. This is not just some classic Rozier hot streak. This is who he is. I’m not saying he’s going to average 21/9 all the time, but double digit scoring and not being afraid of the moment is exactly what he’s developed into. Once everyone is back for the playoffs (Al, Kyrie, Jaylen, maybe maybe maybe Smart), if Rozier can continue to give this sort of production on a consistent basis, that changes everything for this team.

– Obviously this was a big opportunity for Jayson Tatum as well. What I liked was that he was assertive from the jump, and he finished with a team high 23 FGA. Sure he only made 9 of them, but the approach is what I care about more. This team went to him in big moments and for the most part he came through (minus one big glaring issue). It was encouraging that the team leaned on him so heavily and he ended the night a+14 and that he had the guts to take the shots in the big moments. Some he made, some he didn’t, but it was hard to not like what you saw

– Here’s a fun fact. Greg Monroe had 0 double digit performances in his first 6 games as a Celtic. In his last 6 games, he’s had 4. He had his best game as a Celtic last night for sure, a nice little 16/10 on 8-9 shooting with 2 blocks

He was also a team high +17 which was nice, and this is the sort of Greg Monroe that I expected when Ainge brought him in. I’m all for consistent low post offense on the second unit, and once you accept that he’ll give you absolutely nothing on the defensive end, it’s not so bad!

– I love Shane Larkin. Guy is a difference maker and a clutch player when given the opportunity. On his minutes restriction he still managed to pour in 11/4 on 50% shooting and had a couple huge steals. His FTs late should have sealed the deal and you can tell why Brad loves him. Along with Theis he was another signing that people kind of laughed at this summer, and he’s been fantastic for them basically every opportunity he’s gotten.

– It was also nice to see the Celtics get back to what made them successful. Remember the loss to IND and how the Celts played that style that we hated so much of just chucking contested threes and long twos? Well last night it was the approach that got them out to a great start after the break with 56 points in the paint, 21 second chance points and just 26 of their 99 FGA were threes. I’m all for them shooting threes if they come like they did last night, within the flow of the offense and off some great ball movement. It’s games like IND where I get mad.

– Brad flexed his ATO muscles last night and it was glorious

The Bad

– OK, now that we’ve talked about the good, it’s time we get real and be honest with ourselves. Blowing a 20 point lead at home to a team that played the night before is just downright unacceptable. So how did it happen? Well, first you have to consider that this was a classic Theory game

Deep down we knew that after that 37 point first quarter that disaster was on the horizon and that’s really what the 2nd and 3rd quarters were. Their defense disappeared for the most part, Bradley Beal got wherever he wanted in that third quarter, and before you knew it a 20 point lead was a 1 point deficit. Even if you want to say that regression was expected because of who was playing, that still doesn’t excuse the Celtics for allowing 58/75% splits in the second quarter and then 58% shooting in the third quarter. We saw this same sort of effort against IND and it just can’t happen. Rozier, Tatum, Baynes, Morris etc are all supposed to be good defenders, and they’ve really struggled in the second half of games on the defensive end. That’s a little concerning.

– It also didn’t help that the Celtics got absolutely killed on the glass in the second half. I’m talking a 27-12 advantage for WSH. In the overtimes it wasn’t much better, with WSH having a 11-7 edge. The Celtics on numerous occasions were 1 or 2 defensive rebounds away from securing this win, and they couldn’t snag it. That’s what happens when you give a team of shooters expectations, they make shots. This is where it was weird to me that we didn’t see Yabu. I get the lineups were doing well, but he had shown the ability to eat up every defensive rebound that came his way, I would have liked to see him get a shot.

– It may feel wrong, but I have to give a decent amount of blame on this ending on Brad. We talk all the time about how well coached this team is, well they didn’t exactly look like it in crunch time. Not fouling with a foul to give up 3 will never make sense to me, and then making sure every single player knew the situation in the final moments up 3 falls on Brad. Maybe he did tell him and Morris just didn’t listen, but this is not the first time the Celtics have struggled in late game situations, and to me Brad deserves his fair share of blame in that.

– Nader can do things on a basketball court, he’ll hit the occasional three, he’ll turn it over at times too. But one thing he cannot do is play NBA level defense. He just can’t do it. He tries, but fails.

– Jodie Meeks shoots 32% on threes and had missed every one of his 3PA before hitting that corner three. Fuck Jodie Meeks.

The Ugly

– Alright I’ll say it. The Celtics win this game on multiple occasions if they just made their goddamn FTs. I joke a lot about this on Twitter, but it’s not really a joke. You cannot miss late fourth quarter/OT FTs. The Basketball Gods despise it and will make you pay for it every single time. If you weren’t a believer in that, how do you feel after watching last night? I can handle the Celtics getting blown out with all their reserves playing. I can’t handle them losing a game because one of their best FT shooters missed his big moment FTs……twice.

While it feels like Tatum seems to always go 1-2 in late fourth quarter FT attempts, he is shooting 78% on the season in the fourth quarter from the line. He’s not alone, Morris missed a big one too which hurt. In the fourth quarter and OT the Celtics were 5-8 from the line in a game they lost by 1 point. Tell me that isn’t infuriating.

– OK let’s look at that Morris play one last time

At this point the Celtics had made the choice to not foul, but this is just god awful situational awareness. You learn in Biddy Basketball that when up 3 a 2 point shot can’t beat you. You know what can? Leaving your man open for an uncontested 3PA. Morris owned up to it, and I can respect that because there’s really no excuse. He’s a veteran player that simply made a dumbass mistake. It’s funny because his brother did the same thing when the Celts won in WSH, so that’s a little weird. Who knew the Morris brothers were not the best defensive decision makers in the clutch.

Next time, just please let him take the layup, then make your FTs, then use your foul to give so the game can end. Simple, Day 1 stuff the Celtics just couldn’t execute.

– Inbounding the ball, still completely impossible for this team.

– I’m not saying not playing Yabu at all in the 4th and and just 2 minutes in both of the OTs is why the Celtics lost. But I’m also not not saying it either.

– Take it away Brad

So we turn the page. Of course the Celtics make us love them and pull our hair out in the same game, that’s just who they are. On the whole there are more positives than negatives to take away from this game despite it being a “bad loss”, and from a seeding perspective this loss really doesn’t mean dick. So don’t be too upset, they’ll be fine. Plus it’s one of the best days of the year so take some time to be annoyed with this result, and let’s move on.