The Celtics End 2018 In Pretty Annoying Fashion
Remember earlier in the season when the Celtics went out West, lost pretty much every game except for one in which they got down by 19 points and came back? We made the argument that really they should have lost every game on the trip and there was some merit to that. They got a little lucky with that one win in PHX. Well, the Celtics once again just went out West, lost every single game minus one they got down by 19 in and probably should have lost. These two trips were more than a month apart and basically we saw the same result from this group to end 2018. This latest loss now brings to the Celtics to 1-7 in SA over the last 8 seasons and they learned a valuable lesson in what was their 10th road loss of the year, that really they should have already known given their last game in Memphis.
One bad quarter, no, one horrific quarter against a good team is going to do you in every single time. The Celtics lost one quarter last night, which normally tells us hey you know what, they played pretty well! Going into a tough place to win like SA, where the Spurs were 14-5, to lose just sone quarter is pretty damn good. The only problem? That one 12 minute span was not only their worst of the entire season, but their worst in 18 years. One quarter changed the entire feeling of this trip out West, where had the Celts gone 2-1 we’d be feeling a whole hell of a lot better about their situation, but just like we saw in early November, the Celts go out West and struggle. They are now 6-8 against the West this year, giving up 109 points against Western Conference teams. Gross.
So while the Celts had their chance to enter 2019 on a high note, where they can come back to Boston with some momentum and an easier schedule, they of course stayed true to their brand and only make things harder for themselves. Team ahead of them are gifting them losses, and they can’t seem to get out of their own way and make up the ground. That’s annoying. All they needed to do was not have the worst quarter in 18 years and they probably win this game. They could still have a bad quarter, hell they could have still had a pathetic quarter, but what we saw last night in that third quarter was infuriating and repulsive all at once. Giving up 46 fucking points, they should be ashamed.
Now look, the reality of the situation is they trail the 2 seed by 4 losses and 3 seed by 3. Not terrible, but not exactly great either. After their nice little run a few weeks ago the Celts are now 5-5 over their last 10 and can’t seem to play defense to save their lives. But it’s a new year, those are 2018 problems, so here’s to hoping things get a whole lot better in 2019 because frankly they couldn’t get much worse.
Let’s begin.
The Good
– One of the more frustrating parts of last night’s loss was the Celtics wasted the best performance of the season from Jaylen Brown. He was terrific right from the jump, finished with 30/4/2 on 10-15 shooting and really was one of the only players on the roster who showed up for a full 48 minutes
As we often do when it comes to Jaylen, you have to look at his approach because it tells you a lot about how his night is going to shake out. Well last night he was aggressive, almost everything was either at the rim or behind the arc which is his formula for success, and if one silver lining of his frustrating loss is that Jaylen starts to come around, then I guess I’ll take it. Look at this shot chart
That’s exactly what I want to see from Jaylen every night. He doesn’t need to drop 30, I can have realistic expectations, but the approach, the FGA in the paint, that’s what I want to see more of moving forward.
Defensively opponents shot just 4-10 against Jaylen, he was third on the team in contested shots, and that tells me he was engaged on both ends.
– Another game, another consistent performance from Marcus Morris
You know what I’ve noticed this year with Mook? When he puts the ball on the floor and attacks the basket he’s very good about being patient and waiting for his defender to jump by him before going up for the easy layup. It seems so simple, but he does a great job of initiating a little contact right before he gets to the rim, then stops on a dime and gives a little fake, the defender goes flying and it’s easy money. I feel like that’s something we’re seeing a lot more of this year that we didn’t in his first season here.
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At this point I’m not sure what more we could ask from Morris on a night to night basis. He was again a solid 7-13 from the floor, hit 2 of his 3 3PA, and is the one of the only player who brings it every night. I don’t know what he’s going to get this summer, but it already makes me sad that the Celts won’t be able to afford him.
– If we’re being honest, this team could have used a little more Kyrie
A nice 16/8 on just 7-14 shooting, pretty much everything was working for Kyrie outside of his three point shot. I am all for balance within this offense, but I also feel like him taking just 4 FGA in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough.
– You know me, I’m a sucker for a good Brad ATO, and this may have been his finest work
– Hey, 30 assists on 43 FGM is pretty damn good. It’s not often the Celts have 30 assists and lose, so that’s cool.
– His shot was iffy at best at 6-14, but shout out to Jayson Tatum for making a legit effort on the glass last night. He finished with 12/11 with 2 blocks, and seeing as how with this undermanned frontcourt the Celts are getting killed on the glass every night, it was good to see him put in the effort in that regard.
The Bad
– Where to start. I say we begin with Al Horford. The one thing we know about Al, is he tends to struggle with these big beastly centers. The Andre Drummond’s of the world if you will. Well, LaMarcus Aldridge poses many of the same issues because he’s an absolute tank, the only problem is unlike some of those other goobers, he actually can shoot. His turnaround game is nice and when he isn’t bodying you, he’s setting you up and killing you with that turnaround fade. Safe to say he destroyed the Horford matchup last night, and that was a huge problem.
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On 44 possessions LMA had 11 points on 5-11 shooting against Horford, but he also had 5 assists. He was responsible for 58 of the Spurs points which certainly isn’t great. Combine that with Al snagging just 3 rebounds and only tallying 3 assists, this was certainly not his best night.
The real problem though, since Brad can’t play Al every minute against LMA, was once Daniel Theis came in. You look at their recent struggles on the defensive end lately, a lot of it has to do with Theis. LMA manhandled him t the tune of 5-7 shooting, he was a foul machine, and there was really no reason Brad couldn’t give Yabu some of Theis’ 18 minutes. It was very clear early on that Theis couldn’t handle that load, so why not give him a try? He didn’t even play in the second half and LMA went 7-8 for a team high 17 points. Come on Brad what’s the deal here.
– It’s really frustrating to hear this team talk about their defense when the truth is their defense has fucking sucked for weeks now. Over their last 6 games the Celtics have given up 120 points 3 times. Since their 8 game winning streak ended on 12/15, they’ve had the 25th defense in the NBA with a rating of 113.2. That STINKS and is a gigantic reason why they’ve gone 3-5 since. If this team isn’t defending at a high level they have no shot, and while I get they are undermanned with some of their better defenders like Baynes, the perimeter defense is what made my blood boil last night.
Derrick White roasted Kyrie to the tune of 5-6 shooting. All opponents shot 8-11 against Irving. Patty Mills went 4-6 against Terry, DeMar DeRozan went 6-12 against Tatum. Where was the resistance? Outside of Smart, there wasn’t any when it came to the Celtics perimeter defense and that’s a gigantic problem. Let me show you a few examples. We’ll start with Derrick White.
What the fuck is that? These were just two examples. Considering he went 8-9 from the floor and had a career night, you get the idea.
Then with DeRozan, was this the first time the Celtics ever played him? Don’t you know they want to get him the ball with space at around the FT line? This is just being lazy
Pathetic.
And don’t think someone like Mook is off the hook either. He got WORKED by Davis Bertans, that’s right Davis Bertans who finished with 14 points on 20 possessions while being guarded by Mook. These are some of the Celtics better defenders, and they absolutely stunk out loud on the road against a good team. Can’t have that.
– Yup, Terry’s shot selection is still infuriating.
The Ugly
– Listen, I’m all for being patient when it comes to Gordon Hayward. I get the fact that he started playing basketball in August and there’s a long season ahead. However, I do not think it’s crazy to expect him to make some wide open threes. I’m not sure what that has to do with his ankle. Sure maybe it was just an off night, but 0-6 (0-5) with 0 points and 0 FTA simply can’t happen. Yes he did some good things with his 5 assists, but look the reality is this team needs him to give SOMETHING offensively. We’re in 2019, it’s OK to expect him to actually contribute to scoring the basketball if he’s going to be in the lineup.
4 of his 6 FGA were classified as “wide open” according to NBA.com which means no defender was within 6 feet. One of them was “open” and the last one had “tight” coverage. Call me crazy, but these are situations where we should expect Gordon to be nails.
– Now, the 46 point quarter. I was 13 the last time the Celtics did some shit like this, which is absolutely incredible. This game was tied at 67 with 5:59 to go in the third quarter and then boom, it’s 92-82. The numbers here are utterly ridiculous as the Spurs shot 76/100% in that quarter. You may have thought that was just a hot stretch, but the Spurs continued to make it rain in the fourth with 55/62.5% splits. They scored 74 points in the second half on 67/76% shooting, so yes while the third quarter is basically why they lost, their entire defnse was complete dogshit for the final 24 minutes.
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You had the Spurs making every three, you had them repeatedly getting to the lane with ease, all while the Celtics played hero ball and tried to do nothing but take threes and bring the deficit back with one play. It was the exact opposite of what we saw them do against Memphis and guess which one worked out. Chalk it up to a random inferno shooting night for the Spurs if you want, but again I stress if this team is supposed to be elite defensively, where was it? The one thing they couldn’t do in this game was have another Memphis 2nd quarter, and not only did they go that, they were 10x worse. A normal shitty 35 point quarter would have been fine, but 46? Have some fucking pride.
– No starter took more than 3 FTA. Kyrie took 2. Tatum took 0. Meanwhile the starters went 4-17 from three. That seems like a problem to me.
– Both Kyrie’s eyeballs got scratched so that’s fucking great too.
So we end 2018 with yet another annoying, frustrating Celtics loss. While there is no shame in losing to a good Spurs team at home, there is some shame in the effort we saw from this team defensively. They now return home for a nice 4 game homestand but don’t think for a second any of these games are gimmes. Not with the way this team is playing defense. They need to take advantage of a “soft” January schedule if they actually want to pick up ground in the East, and looking at the calendar we aren’t exactly in the “early” stages anymore. Wake the hell up would you please.