Crashing back down
A 30-point lead wasn't enough to give the Celtics a win.
Winning streaks never end well. Sometimes, it’s a blowout, sometimes a dagger at the end of the game, and sometimes a total collapse. Against the Atlanta Hawks last night, we saw the latter.
The Celtics led by 30.
And then they didn’t.
In the blink of an eye, the Hawks flipped the script in the final minutes of the second quarter. Boston struggled to find their footing in the game after that. The weirdest thing was how the Celtics self-deflated. There wasn’t a significant turning point in the game.
Instead, Joe Mazzulla’s team abandoned everything that’s been working, played with a lack of urgency, and went stone cold from the perimeter.
Celtics 118 - Hawks 120
⭐ Jayson Tatum was playing as the defacto point guard. He was aggressive when attacking the paint and operated well on defense. His 3-point offense struggled — as did the rest of the teams. However, in an unfamiliar role, with the impressive Dejounte Murray looking to lock him down, Tatum did well to play through the physical defense and lead the game in scoring courtesy of his ability to get to the line.
Tatum went 9-of-11 from the charity stripe, grabbed eight rebounds, and dished out five assists. For the most part, he played well.
Don’t get it twisted, though. Tatum was always a primary culprit in settling for isolated possessions. As the Celtics looked for their offense, he was guilty of letting the ball stick at times.
How often have we seen this high pick-and-pop between Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis? We know how it’s supposed to go. Tatum should have dragged out his dribble, drew two, and dumped it into a wide-open Porzingis. As we can see above, Tatum got the defensive coverage he wanted. Ideally, he would have taken an extra step (either toward the paint or the wing).
Either way, the ball should have found Porzingis. That’s been a money play all season. Going away from it when trying to rebuild momentum made little sense. Even if it ended with a Tatum back-cut and Porzingis finding him on the give-and-go.
⭐ Jaden Springer gave the Celtics some good minutes off the bench. His defensive upside was clear to see. As you would expect from a younger player trying to make his mark, he was slightly over-enthusiastic on some plays. Still, I loved what he showed regarding screen navigation, on-ball tenacity, and willingness to take on some of the tougher assignments from the opposing team.
As he gets more comfortable in the rotation, he will likely play under more control, at which point we will begin to see his best.
⭐ It felt like Payton Pritchard was single-handedly trying to reinvigorate his teammates in the third quarter. He pushed the pace, attacked the paint, and looked to keep the ball moving. Even without his perimeter jumper falling, Pritchard still found ways to create space off the dribble and generate offense as the ball-handler.
Again, there were times when the ball stuck. At times, his shooting gravity could have been better served in an off-ball role, spacing the floor in the weakside slot. Still, I’ve really enjoyed his improvements when scoring off the dribble and generating space after initiating contact with bumps and veer steps. And, of course, his changes of pace make him a nightmare to guard when he’s running in transition.
🗑️ Joe Mazzulla’s decision not to call a timeout when the Celtics were spiraling late in the second quarter and then again in the third will undoubtedly be a talking point. I get it; he likes his team to figure things out independently. He wants them to be resilient and have good problem-solving skills. And considering he’s led this team to the best record in the league and the first seed in the Eastern Conference, who are we to argue?
Here’s my thing, though. Gregg Popovich would have called a time-out during that slide. So would Erik Spoelstra. Steve Kerr would have, too. Those three names are the best coaches in the NBA, if not some of the best in history. If they would all have tried to reset their team and keep control of their lead, why would Mazzulla let things continue to unravel? I get that it’s a teachable moment. I get that the players can learn from stretches like this. What I don’t get is why the coach doesn’t want to kill the opponents’ momentum and help hit the reset button.
I’ve become a big fan of Mazzulla. But his instance of letting things play out could prove costly in the postseason.
There needs to be a middle ground here.
🗑️ The perimeter defense took a major blow the moment Jrue Holiday and Derrick White were ruled out of the same game. Brown is a solid on-ball defender and can hang with most guards in the league while also being big enough and athletic enough to switch elsewhere on the floor. Still, losing both Holiday and White for the same game means the Celtics were without arguably the best two-way backcourt in the NBA.
It’s no surprise that Dejounte Murray had himself a night, then. It’s also no surprise that the Hawks shot 50% from deep on 18-of-36 shooting. Going with Tatum and Brown at the 1 and 2 gave the Celtics size and length at the guard positions, but it would appear the trade-off was impactful on-ball defense on the perimeter.
Both Brown and Tatum are solid defenders. This will undoubtedly be a learning curve for them.
🗑️ Sam Hauser struggled in his 10th start of the season. He couldn’t find his range or rhythm on the perimeter, thus hurting the Celtics drive-and-kick offense. Of course, his scoring gravity ensured the spacing remained intact; it’s just that without him converting at a high clip, Boston could not capitalize on defensive collapses or on actions to get Hauser curling toward the break for a movement 3.
Defensivley, Hauser held his own. He rotated well, guarded his yard, and switched with pace and purpose. Still, if his threes aren’t falling, he needs to find other ways to impact the offense—whether that’s driving closeouts, cutting more off-ball, or operating as a screener. His game needs to be more than just hitting catch-and-shoot threes.
🔈My take: This was the Celtics' 15th loss of the season. We’ve witnessed a historic run this year. With so much winning, the losses feel a bit tougher and slightly more pronounced.
It’s also easy to take each loss as an indictment on the coaching staff or the negative aspects of a player’s performance. In truth, you can’t win them all. Losing 15 out of 72 is a dream scenario. I’m not going to lose sleep over a collapse against the 10th seed on their home floor with the Celtics starting backcourt out of the rotation and a clear lack of focus from the team. We’re in the final stretch. Seeding is already secured. It is what it is.
📰 Postgame Quotes
📰 Kristaps Porzingis admits the Celtics took their foot off the gas.
“It’s the NBA, these kind of things happen,” Porzingis said. “We just don’t want to make it a habit and it hasn’t been a habit for us. We slipped one game and we did relax a little bit and we paid the price…I think we could have been smarter in a couple situations on defense,” Porzingis said. “We should have made them work to get their buckets more.”
📰 Jayson Tatum admits the Celtics fucked up.
“It’s tough,” Tatum said. “You want to win every game you play. For us, people think we should never lose. We was up a lot. We fucked the game up. We know that. We’re all adults and professionals. We know we didn’t do the things necessary to win.”
📰 Jaylen Brown wasn’t happy with the final shot.
“I didn’t love the last shot that we got,” Brown said. “I think we kinda waited too late, waiting for the action to develop. But the clock was winding down and we was taking too much time. I didn’t really like the last shot that I got on the right wing.”
Mailbag
I held off on posting the mailbag yesterday. There weren’t many questions in there and I didn’t want to force it. As a reminder, every Monday will be a designated mailbag post, if there are enough questions. I had an extra one or two yesterday, so let’s wrap up today with looking at those questions.
✉️ Rui Monteiro Mascarenhas asks, “In your opinion, how has the mentality changed (my question is beyond current roster vs older)? Everyone seems more comfortable and cohesive but what is driving that? Is it Joe, after all full year plus experienced coaching staff? Cheers”
My take: I think a lot of the mentality comes from the roster getting older and more experienced. This core has been on multiple deep postseason runs. They’ve been to the NBA Finals. They know what it takes to be an elite team — both in the regular season and in the playoffs.
So, I assume they’re more focused now. They will understand the current roster construction comes with its own set of cap issues, and that likely means there will be some upheaval in a year or two. So, their window being open and small means they have to be locked in.
I think Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff have also done a good job of getting everybody focused and improving their styles of play. We’ve seen multiple players take a developmental leap this season — Brown’s willingness to pressure the rim, Tatum in the post, and Pritchard creating via bumps. All those little improvements matter.
✉️ Michael Ouyang asks, “When was the last year a GM did as good a job as Brad Stevens this year: offseason, trade deadline, I know best to evaluate at the end of the season, but things like keeping PP and Sam Hauser, getting Tillman and Springer, these detail moves and evaluations all seem to be working out, as well as the big strategic moves of essentially replacing Timelord and Smart with KP and Jrue. Clearly the man has a fantastic sense of his roster and the bets are all coming up wins. Like do we have to go back to 07-08?”
My take: This is a tough question. I haven’t followed every team in the league closely enough to give a fair answer. I would say that Sam Presti has done a fantastic job with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Zach Kleiman has worked wonders with the Memphis Grizzlies.
I’m also a little biased. I’ve followed this Celtics team throughout their rebuild. I sat through the countless isolation possessions. I cheered for Gerald Wallace as a bench leader. I thought James Young was going to be an integral part of the rotation. And I believed Kyrie Irving when he said he was sticking around.
Stevens has 1000% had a massive impact since entering the front office. It feels like every move he’s made has been a hit. If the Celtics win a championship this season, they owe a lot of it to Brad.
I’m not sure if he’s been the most impactful GM of the last 20 years, but he certainly has enough clout to confidently throw his hat into the ring.
✉️ Steve Siller asks, “Does the fact the Cs will basically be sleepwalking through the last 10 games a cause for concern? Champagne problems, I know. And I hope Joe won’t let them, but laziness can create some bad habits. Tatum 8 second violation gonna force me off a cliff!”
My take: For a contending team, the regular season is about fine-tuning rotations, figuring out your best combinations, putting an offensive and defensive gameplan in place and…building championship habits.
That means the worst thing this Celtics team can do is take their foot off the gas over the next 10 games. They have to keep acting like they’re striving for something. Because once the postseason begins, they’re going to need those habits to help them overcome adversity and to withstand tough stretches.
I don’t think we’ll see the Celtics completely unravel. However, their loss to the Hawks clearly indicates what can go wrong when you’re not 100% locked in.
I’m hopeful that this loss will serve as an immediate wake-up call and that the Celtics will continue to steamroller their way to the playoffs. After all, the hard work has been done. There’s no point in letting it all go to waste because you got a little bit lazy.
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Catch you all tomorrow! Have an awesome day!