Not Only Did The Nuggets End The Celtics 20 Game Home Winning Streak, They Showed Them What A Champion Looks Like

Winslow Townson. Getty Images.

And just like that, the undefeated streak is over. Before we dive in, I do think we should take a second and appreciate what the hell just happened. No Celtics fan, in the history of their existence, experienced what we just lived through. A 20-0 run to start a season, the best in franchise history, was one hell of a run. We may never see something like that again in our lifetime considering it took 78.5 seasons to happen for the first time. That's pretty awesome. 

21-0 would have been much cooler, but…ya know.

So let us now take a moment of silence to honor the run and we can finally turn the page.

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Amen.

Now that we've made our peace, we can move right into what was yet another gut punch. For those keeping score at home, this was now the 6th loss on the year by 5 points or less, and the 4th by 3 points or less. Love that for us. That's the Celts I love. To where as good as they've started the year they still find just the right ways to twist the knife and keep you on your toes. Classic them. 

Like everyone else, I couldn't wait to see this matchup. Everyone healthy, and everyone rested, let's go. Iron vs Iron. As true of a measuring stick game as you could possibly have in mid January. The Celts want to be the best, the Nuggets are the best until someone knocks them out. That's how being the champ works in my opinion. I think we all were curious how the two would have matched up in the Finals last year, and if last night was any indication, it would have been some pretty high level hoops.

We knew that coming out of this game we were going to learn something about this team, both good and bad. If anything, I walked away with it being more of a confirmation than anything else. If the Nuggets are the standard, and they are what it takes to win a title, the Celts are right there. Not only that, they are right there even on nights when their two stars get massively outplayed. That's encouraging.

The other side of the coin is the fact that at some point you'd like to see these types of games end in wins. While there's certainly no shame in losing a 2 point game to the defending champs, it's also a game that the Celtics had every opportunity to win, and didn't. That matters too. Not just in the final two minutes, all throughout the game. At the end of the day, it confirmed what we already knew.

To beat the elite of the elite, you have to execute on both ends of the floor in high leverage situations. The little things matter. The stars need to show up in the biggest moments in the biggest games, because the other side will. If they don't, you're cooked. 

Last night was a reminder that as good as the Celtics have shown to be, there is still more growth to be had before they can call themselves the champs.

Let's talk about it

The Good

- I don't even want to think or what this game would look like had Kristaps Porzingis not put the entire offense on his back in the first quarter. The KP vs Jokic battle was so interesting to watch given their different styles, and we saw right away what a three level threat Porzginis continues to be.

21 points on just 11 shots, if there's one main gripe I have from last night it might be not getting Porzingis more shots. Given how he was playing, getting only 4 shots in an entire second half cannot be the strategy. For that, I blame everyone from Joe down to the players. Figure it out, the dude is 7'3 and was getting whatever he wanted. 

While KP also has to remain aggressive even if he's not able to face a switch, I think there's something to the idea of having a PSTD feeling of watching this team in the second half and KP not being used. He's the guy who was brought in to fix these types of issues, but in order for that to happen you kind of have to incorporate him.

I'm not even going to get on KP for not being able to slow down Jokic because who the hell slows down Nikola Jokic. Nobody. I thought Porzingis did his part in this game in terms of showing up in a big game against a big matchup which as a Celtic, is still a question for him. We have no idea how KP will perform in a playoff situation as a Celtic, and if we're treating this like a playoff-esq game, seeing him play well is a great sign.

- I don't want to jinx it, but we may be out of the Derrick White slump. Outside of Porzingis he was really the only other efficient offensive player finishing 9-18 (5-12), and it was Bald Derrick that pretty much saved the Celtics from their horrendous 3rd quarter

A little bit of everything in his 24/3/5/2//1, Derrick is another guy I don't really ever have to worry about showing up in a big game and that was true even before he enhanced his powers by going bald. I know DWhite is going to show up. 

For the Celtics to reach their ceiling, it is very important that Derrick White remains aggressive offensively. The sample is big enough, to me he has the ultimate green light. Whatever decision he wants to make I'm good with, as long as it means he's being aggressive. Taking open 3s with confidence, and attacking the rim with force, it's this type of approach and production from White that helps the Celts reach that next level. 

- Honestly that's pretty much it for this section. I'd rather move on if that's OK with everyone.

The Bad

- Whether you're playing an elite team in the regular season or you're in a playoff series, one thing that remains true is that in games like that, the margins are so important. To win 4 out of 7 or to beat the defending champs in January, you have to nail the details. If you don't, those little things add up to big things and the next thing you know, you've lost 102-100.

When I think of the biggest contributing factors to what happened last night, it begins with the margins for me. So what does that even mean? Let's go down the list.

In a game like this against a team like that, when you have the opportunity to step on the Nuggets throat and open a game up, you have to do it. Especially when Nikola Jokic is off the floor. To begin the 2nd quarter, the Celts pushed the lead to 7 just 90 seconds in while Jokic was on the bench. In a spot like that, you'd like to see them push that to 12-13 before Jokic came back in. Instead, they couldn't stop Jamal Murray, and Jokic entered a 43-40 game. Missed opportunity #1.

In the 3rd quarter, Derrick White made a 3PM at the 3:40 mark to put the Celtics up 9 at 82-73. Welcome to opportunity #2. Close that quarter strong and take a double digit lead into the 4th quarter, which would have been massive. What happened? They didn't score again, and ended the quarter up just 1.

So as you can see, small things like not winning the non Jokic minutes and not closing quarters strong are the things that may not seem like a big deal, but add up to ultimately impacting the result. Let's continue on.

Whenever I hear people voice their concerns about the Celts in a playoff series, I often hear the same stuff. Health, three point shooting, Joe's brain, end of game offense etc. What I don't hear a lot which suprises me is how nobody else seems to be concerned over late game rebounding, especially in close clutch situations.

The Celtics rank just 16th in the NBA in DREB% in the clutch at 66.7%. In their losses, that number drops to 18th and 62.8%. Think back to just this past playoff run and all the frustrating losses that you feel probably shouldn't have happened. What was the common theme? Opponent OREB, especially late. So when I say the margins, I'm talking about plays like this

That's losing basketball. More often than not when the Celts have a loss like this, you can point to several plays that look just like what you see above. It didn't matter if both KP and Al were on the floor, it didn't matter if only one of them was there and then Jrue came on, the late game rebounding was inexcusably bad and in my opinion is the true achilles heel. When you're in these tight games, you have to finish defensive possessions cleanly when you force a miss. Every single second matters, so even on the OREBs that didn't lead to points in the final minute, it still took off a valuable 10 seconds. 

So while all the chatter will be about the offense and the 3s, this loss started by the Celtics fucking around on the margins.

- To say the Celtics did not have a defensive answer for either Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray doesn't really do it justice. They didn't just not have an answer, they got absolutely demolished by both 

This is where you need to give the champs their credit. Their two stars came into the toughest building in the league and competely dominated. It didn't matter what the Celts tried, it was buckets either way. Murray carrying the load while Jokic sat was a huge reason why the Nuggets pulled this game out, and then when Jokic is on the floor I mean the guy is simply ridiculous. What a player. Way too big for anyone but also agile and smart enough to keep a defense honest. 

To put it simply, the Nuggets stars were the two best players on the floor last night, and that's something that cannot happen. Shit, it basically never does

- Easily one of the grossest halfs of basketball this team has ever played is what we got in the final 24 minutes last night. I mean what even is this

At home, rested mind you. There's so much to hate about this picture I'm not sure where to start

I hate that after 15 AST on 15 FGM in the first half, the Celts followed that up with much less ball movement and only 6 AST on 16 FGM. That's #1. I don't love the fact that they took 8 fewer 3PA in the 2nd half compared to the first, clearly it got them out of their normal style of play, and given the fact that the 3P volume is what helped build their first half lead, I don't love changing that approach. That's #2. The 3-7 from the FT line, I mean what the fuck. Add too this 6 OREB for the Nuggets and you can see this was gross no matter where you looked.

Say what you want about the 3rd quarters, but all I know is that last night was the 4th lowest scoring 3rd quarter of the Celtics season and it was tied for their lowest 4th quarter of the entire season. The 39 points was, you guessed it, the lowest in a 2nd half the Celtics have scored all season, and the 2nd lowest of any half, trailing the 38 points they scored against MIL when they got their doors blown off. 

I'm sorry, but you're not going to beat the defending champs scoring 39 points in a half, and the fact that in another big time game against a big time team, the 3rd quarter proved to be an issue and the 4th quarter offense proved to be an issue. That shit matters.

- Getting virtually nothing from the bench unit certainly wasn't helpful either. Bench production was supposed to be something that separated these two teams, yet both sides finished with just 13 points. A 3-10 (3-7) showing isn't going to cut it.

- Something else worth monitoring is what we're seeing from Jrue in these big time matchups. He was pretty much nonexistent in this game which I would say is a bit of an issue. The offense stuff I can deal with given all the other mouths to feed, but if Holiday is going to be quiet offensively, he needs to be loud defensively and he most certainly was not in this game. It's never a good thing when you say to yourself "Is Jrue even playing?" you know what I mean?

Looking at his year so far, we've had a stinker against the Nuggets, two stinkers against MIL, a 5-15 (2-10) and a 4-16 (0-4) against MIN, a 2-8 (2-5) against OKC, a 5-12 (1-5) against GS, this is something that is at least slightly concerning. This doesn't mean he sucks or this is going to doom them in a playoff series, it just means that so far in some of the biggest games the Celts have had, they've had to deal with a Jrue stinker. That's not exactly what I think Brad had in mind when he made that trade. These are the games the Celts need Jrue to be at his best and deliver, just like everyone else.

- Imagine someone telling you the Celts would take more shots in the paint, score more points in the paint, and make 6 more 3PM than the Nuggets while making the same amount of FTs and somehow lose. That seems impossible to do and yet here we are.

The Ugly

- If you were looking for a certain pair of stars, you should have known they were going to be down in this section. There's no need to sugarcoat it, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum shit the bed. Both equally as brutal in their own way, on a night where they had an opportunity as the stars to make a statement, they were outplayed. A statement may have been made, but it wasn't exactly the one I'm sure they were hoping for.

Whether you want to focus on Jaylen's 6-19 (1-9) and two crucial missed FTs in the final minute or you want to focus on Tatum's 9-24 (1-8) and brutal 3-9 4th quarter, it all tells the same story. The Jays weren't good enough. Which is why that something I tweeted back in November remains true even to this day

This game was another perfect example of that tweet. At the end of the day, nothing else matters for this team if the Jays are going to play like they did last night. The shooting, the late game decision making, the late game execution, it all comes down to how Jaylen and Tatum perform in those moments. 

With Tatum, you had the questionable decision to force the ball late with 17 seconds when in hindsight you probably like him to pll that ball back out

With Jaylen, after he misses both FTs and somehow gets the prayer opportunity to either attack or get a higher percentage look, he gags the pullup three. 

On the first ATO at the end of the game, the Celts ran the play for Jaylen and nothing came of it. Credit the Nuggets defense, but also what the hell. Figure that shit out. Then in the 2nd ATO we got this

There are those margins again. An entry pass just so slightly lobbed a tad too high, a split second decision from Tatum that he even admitted himself he rushed which resulted in a low percentage look. Those are the small things that kill you. When the game was in a position where the best players on the Celtics had a chance to make a play, they both came up short.

The reason this game might feel triggering is because is a fashion of losing we've seen time and time again at the highest level. That's why last night was a good reminder that above all else, things still come down to the two best players and how they perform under pressure. Everything starts and stops with them.

Now what I think is silly is people who take things to the extreme and suggest that the Celtics can't close or aren't good in late game situations. That's just factually inaccurate. They're 13-8 in the clutch and have the 5th best clutch time ORTG in the NBA. We've seen them execute in big spots against good teams all year. Last night just happened to be one of those instances where they didn't, but it didn't tell us anything we already didn't know. Unless this team executes down the stretch in a playoff series, they won't win. All last night did was confirm that. 

If you gave Tatum a do-over on that play, he's 100% driving to the rim there. All you can ask for in that position is to get your best player the ball in space and then trust he makes the right decision. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. The thing is, it wasn't just how the stars played at the end that cooked the Celts. As much talent as this roster has, no team is surviving a stinker from their two best players at the same time. Think of what it took from the Nuggets stars just to win by 2. Now imagine if both Jokic and Murray laid eggs.

As we know, things don't get any easier in terms of the schedule, which is another reason why last night's loss matters. Not only was it a reminder that this team still has some progress to make for them to hit their ultimate goal, but it was also a reminder that they can't really fuck around right now during this part of their schedule, or the Bucks and Sixers will be right on their heels.