The Shorthanded Celtics Basically Did Everything You Cannot Do When You're Trying To Beat The Best Team In Basketball

Maddie Malhotra. Getty Images.

Even at full strength, beating the Warriors is an uphill battle. That's not just true for the Celtics, it's true for the entire league. I mean they have 5 losses all year. You could make the case that they are pretty good at this whole basketball thing. When it comes to this specific team finding a way to potentially beat the best team in the NBA, they had to be perfect or damn close to it. Then once we learned they would be without 3 rotation players, that became even more true. Then once the Celts lost Romeo (a starter) after only 8 minutes, it became even more true. In the end, they fell short. It was another annoying and frustrating loss in a game that despite the shortcomings, was still winnable. You can add it to the list. But I woke up this morning feeling similar to how I did after the Utah loss. Not all losses are created equal. I feel way worse about the Clippers or Spurs loss than I do this. If anything, a game like last night confirmed my belief in the main trio of this team. They can play with anyone in the league, even the Warriors. 

What they can't do though is repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot in these types of games. Winning is hard enough, trying to do it by making things harder on yourself is very rarely going to work out. There are some things they couldn't control given who was out, but there was a whole lot in this game that they could control that was simply losing basketball. That's where the frustration kicks in for me. Last night's loss wasn't a case of your best not stacking up to their best, which would be a real cause for concern. It was more about self inflicted wounds. When the Celts don't do that shit, they can beat anyone. When they can't seem to get out of their own way, you get results like last night.

And even if you walk away from this game with a generally positive takeaway, it still doesn't change the hard reality that the Celts record now sits at 14-15. That stinks. Stinks real bad. There's context that goes along with that record and other teams around them lost last night as well so it could have been worse, but feeling OK about a game like last night doesn't change the reality that this team needs to start stacking actual wins, and not just moral wins. Records matter. A feel good loss counts just the same as an inexcusable loss. You don't get half a win, you get a full loss, and with the future being uncertain in terms of who will even be available moving forward, dropping these close games hurts twice as much.

With that said, let us begin.

The Good

- As long as he continues to play like this, Jayson Tatum will own the top spot in this blog. For all the shit he took with his very slow start, Tatum has been everything you would want from a franchise player and then some in the month of December. First, the highlights

27/8/6 on 9-19 shooting with just 1 TO in his 42 minutes. For those keeping track, here is how his December has looked

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What was it people said they wanted from Tatum. They wanted efficient play, and they wanted consistency, especially against good competition. I dunno, looks to me like that's exactly what he's done since the calendar flipped to December. He's back to playing at an All NBA level. Ideally, you'd like to see a lot more green in that image than red, but when it comes to Tatum's play he's been exactly what we all want. If you're someone who is still going to complain despite 31/8/3.6 on 50/39% shooting, you're just looking to complain and don't really care what actually happens on the floor.

It was Tatum's 3rd quarter (11 points on 5-7 shooting) that really helped the Celts close the gap, and he led all Celts in fourth quarter scoring with 7 points. After getting off to a slow start, Tatum exploded because he got back to what makes him successful. Attacking the rim. I honestly wish he did it a little more once the Celts took the lead in the fourth rather than looking for the knockout three, especially because the Warriors didn't really have rim protection, but on a night where the Celts needed their best player to show up, Tatum answered the call.

- The same is true for Marcus Smart. We got the full experience in this game that's for damn sure. There's no defending his end of half foul, that was about as dumb a mistake as you could make. But that does not overshadow everything else Smart did. No one is saying he's a perfect player, he's going to make mistakes, but the Celts are not even in this game without his all around performance 

19/6/8 on 6-12 shooting told us he delivered offensively. His shot selection was good, he was efficient, and he was pass first. Of his 12 FGA, 6 of them came in the paint. That's much better balance and something I want to see him continue to do. Defensively, Smart matched up with Steph Curry on 21 possessions and gave up just 6 points on 2-8 shooting. Hard to argue that he didn't show up on that end either. Again, no one is excusing his stupid foul, but there is more to a game than 1 play. It was Smart who kept the Celts within striking distance early when both Tatum/Brown provided little to no offense, and I would make the argument that he did a great job of playing and accepting his role in a game where you would understand if he felt the need to shoot more given who was out. Instead he played in control and in the flow of the offense. That's encouraging.

- Then there was Jaylen. With him, the main thing I care about is how he looks/moves coming off the hamstring injury. That looks to be so much better than the first time he came back. The burst is there

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20/9/2 on 8-16 (4-7) was the good part. Seeing Smart/Jaylen/Tatum all play well in the same game against the #1 defense in the NBA is important and tells us that guess what, maybe they do work well together! Much like Tatum, Jaylen was awesome in that third quarter (8 points on 3-5 shooting) and it reminded us what this team can look like when both of those guys are rolling at the same time. They can be a force. 

In terms of Jaylen's approach, it was also what you want to see. Of his 16 FGA, 9 of them were in the paint. We had multiple possessions where we saw the Brown/Tatum two man game work to perfection. Tatum with the ball, defenses collapse, and he found Jaylen for the bucket. I think we all want to see more of that moving forward and I don't see why we won't as long as both stay on the floor. 

- In a game like this, the Celts were going to need their role players to play above their weight to some degree. Once Romeo went out, that became even more true for someone like Aaron Nesmith. He's a player who is really struggling in his Year 2 and as a result gets inconsistent run. When he is out there, we often see him look like the game is moving a little too fast for him. He panics to some degree. That's why I thought it was great to see him seize his opportunity and actually play well off the bench

Sure, there were a couple wide open threes you'd ideally like him to make, but he was one of two bench players to finish in double figures and he was a +7 in his 22 minutes of action. That's pretty good for a guy who desperately needed a positive moment. It'll be interesting to see if he can back it up during this stretch of guys being out, because it's becoming clearer and clearer that this team needs some sort of spot up shooting. If that can be Nesmith, great.

- I dunno where it came fro, but the outside shooting of Josh Richardson was a pleasant surprise. Not sure how many times we'll see him make 4 3PM in a game, but his 15 points off the bench were big, especially in the second quarter.

- If I told you heading into this game the shorthanded Celts would basically match the Warriors in FG%, 3PM, and 3P% there's no way you would believe me. Yet, that's exactly what they did. 

- In a perfect world, this team does not get down 20 in the first place. That shit is getting old REAL fast. But we continue to see the trend of when that happens, this team does not fold. Instead, they fight back. People after the game loved to flood my mentions with this idea that it's a "fake comeback" if you don't win the game. That confuses me, because the Celts took the lead in the fourth quarter. The comeback wasn't fake, it happened. 

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That tells me a few things. First, they aren't playing with that annoying "woe is me" bullshit we've seen in years past when things don't go their way and any sort of adversity turns into a 30 point blowout. This team has shown us the ability to respond to adversity, which is good. Second, it means they are still buying into what Ime is selling. Whatever they did at halftime clearly worked and guys are still buying into the program. 

Ideally, they figure out how to close these types of games out, but you get down 20 to Steph Curry and that Warriors team, you don't often see that team come back. Everyone talks about how they want to see this team play with heart and fight, well that's what last night was.

The Bad

- Whatever the plan was for Andrew Wiggins, it failed miserably to start this game. They simply had no answer for him to start and it's what played a big part in their early hole. He was super aggressive early, then his jumper started to fall and there was really no adjustment in that first half. Part of his success was due to Steph and how much attention he commands once he puts the ball on the floor, and Wiggins deserves credit for knocking down his open looks, but that still doesn't make it not a failure on the Celts part. 

There should never be a quarter where they allow someone to go off for 18 points on 7-10 (4-5) shooting. That's inexcusable, especially when the majority of your good perimeter defenders played in this game.

- You may be someone that puts all the blame on this loss on that Smart foul. Usually, those people have an agenda, and for me, that takes away from the real reasons why the Celtics lost this game. Let's start with the biggest reason.

Defensive rebounding.

Where was it? Sure, Al and Grant didn't play. Big deal. I thought Rob was pretty awful protecting the defensive glass in this game, Freedom only had 2 DREB in his minutes, and all you have to do is look at the Warriors side and it sums up this game. They finished with 12 OREB and 19 second chance points. Time after time after time we saw the Celts get a stop, give up a OREB and then buckets. They were slow to 50/50 balls, they repeatedly let rebounds touch the floor and go right to a Warriors player. You simply cannot do that against a team like GS and think things will work out.

That's what I mean by self inflicted wounds. Just grab a rebound, it's not hard. Stop trying to tap it and just fucking grab it. 

Then, there's the TOs. The Celts finished with 16 in this game which you guessed it, is far too many. Jaylen had 5 by himself which is inexcusable. I think it's fair to be legit concerned about his inability to not turn the ball over once he starts dribbling. It's like we've reverted back to his Year 2 or something. If he's going to be a high usage player, he needs to be better with the basketball in his hands. Period. Having possessions where he tries to dribble through 3 defenders just isn't smart or is it something that has a high probability of succeeding. 

- Of course 16% three point shooter Andre Iguodala makes this huge prayer in a gigantic moment

I mean what the hell. This is the type of shit that always seems to happen against this team. The defense was fine I guess, but it's also a prayer. I'm sorry, that's the truth. Then the Warriors got this second prayer as well

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Nothing you can really do about either of those plays. That's why I'm not overly mad about how this game went. If it takes an Iggy 30 footer to put this Celts team away, so be it.

- Where we really saw the absence of Grant/Horford in this game was the 2nd quarter. Given who was available, Ime had to roll with Freedom. It's no surprise that his minutes were where the Warriors started to get their separation. They initially had Freedom sag way off Iggy when GS was having him initiate the offense. It worked to some degree. Then Kerr made the adjustment and moved Iggy off ball and the Warriors then carved up that unit. There were three 2nd quarter lineups that included Freedom. Here they are

Pritchard/Richardson/Nesmith/Tatum/Freedom: 180 Ortg / 180 Drtg / 0 net rating

Smart/Richardson/Brown/Thomas/Freedom: 66 Ortg / 160 Drtg / -93.3 net rating

Pritchard/Richardson/Brown/Tatum/Freedom: 0 Ortg / 133 Drtg / -133 net rating

There's no denying this is where their depth issue hurt them the most. It's their issue as long as those guys are still in the protocols. When we saw the starters come back in for the 2nd quarter, they had a 150 Ortg / 90 Drtg / +60 net rating. 

That's tough.

- I know Ime wants to stick up for his players, but getting a tech at the end of that half was not the best move. You try so hard to claw back in the game, you should never do anything that gives Steph more free points. 

- It really sucks that as soon as Romeo gets an opportunity and starts a game off pretty well, he gets an elbow to the head and has to miss the rest of the game. That's basically been the story of his career, it's crazy. The kid literally cannot catch a break.

The Ugly

- Where else can we put the Smart foul. There's just no need for this

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It's everything you can't do in that situation. I don't care if you think this wasn't a foul because Curry jumped forward. Yes it was. But to be honest that's not even the point. Where's the situational awareness to not even put yourself in that position. If Steph Curry hits a 50 ft bomb with 0.9 seconds left, so be it. That's not worth risking what eventually happened. This is one of those plays where the idea was bad and the execution was even worse. More shooting themselves in the foot with self inflicted wounds. Shit that you absolutely cannot do in a game like this, especially since you just did a great job cutting a 20 point lead to 10. Smart has to be better in that situation, no two ways about it. 

This is now the 3rd time this season he's had a boneheaded late clock situation foul. That cannot happen.

- You know what I'm putting here. In a game the Celtics lost by 4 points, they missed 9 FTs. Nine. 20-29. Not only that, they missed 6 alone in the 3rd quarter. This is the 2nd best FT shooting team in the entire NBA, and you're blowing a game like this at home because you simply cannot make your FTs. This was the first game all season we saw Rob miss 4 FTs in a game. Heading into last night he was shooting 80% in December. Jaylen missed his only 2 as well. It's hard enough to beat GS, you leave 9 points on the board at the FT line, you have no shot.

Personally, I put FT shooting, 2nd chance points, and TOs higher on the list of why the Celts lost this game than that Smart foul. Even with that the Celts had every opportunity to take the lead and build a lead, and they choked.

- The Celts have a clear issue winning close games. That's just a fact. While this was a 4 point loss, they are 1-4 on the season in games decided by 3 or less. Basically, they have been unable to win pretty much any game that comes down to 1 or 2 possessions down the stretch. Their clutch time record stinks. Until they figure that out, not much is going to change.

The good news is they are right back at it tonight against the Knicks. Love a good back to back when you could theoretically only have 10 guys available if Dennis and Romeo both miss the game. They do have an opportunity to lessen the blow of last night if they finish out this homestand strong, but it's going to require getting actual wins. Ones that count. If they play like they did in the second half of last night's game they should be fine. Will they? Who the fuck knows.