"Probably One Of My Worst Performances In A While And That Cost Us The Game" - If The Celtics Are Going To Make A Deep Playoff Run, Jaylen Brown Simply Cannot Play How He Did Against The Hawks

Adam Hagy. Getty Images.

The beauty of NBA basketball is that no matter how well you're playing as a team, if you don't come correct every single night, your ass can get beat. Any team on any given night can get got. Good teams losing to other good teams, good teams losing to bad teams, doesn't matter. The really good teams are the ones who figure out the consistency part, but everyone has a stinker or two over the course of 82. Shit happens. 

The Celts had won 3 straight and 7 of their last 8, with some pretty big wins over some teams who are playing as well as anyone in the NBA. Wins over CLE/PHX/OKC/CHA/ATL etc during this current stretch, the Celts had been playing some damn good basketball as of late.

And yet, even they are not excluded from having a stinker. 

Last night's loss on the second night of a B2B with no Jayson Tatum (or Queta) in the lineup? One of the grossest performances we've seen from them all year. A true stinker in almost every facet of the game. Unfortunately, this type of performance is usually how a team sees its winning streak get snapped. It's not all that often you play well and lose on some sort of buzzer-beater or something. In most cases, you see your streak snapped because you play like a bunch of assholes and put up a performance that truly makes you want to rip your eyes out of your head while watching it. Gross basketball like you read about.

The annoying part? The biggest culprits last night were rested. While it was a B2B for most of the roster, that wasn't the case for everyone. They just sucked ass against a team that was clearly motivated, given what happened between these two teams a few days ago when the Celts took down the Hawks in Boston. 

It's not like there's shame in losing to the Hawks, they've now won 16 of 18. That's fine. The shame comes from how the Celtics lost. What we watched was most definitely not them playing to their potential or playing Celtics basketball, but instead playing a way that can only be summed up by calling it losing basketball. Poor defense, poor ball security, forced offense, terrible around the margins, basically all the things that when you add them up lead to getting your ass kicked. I know the final score says they lost by 12, but this went from a tie game at the half to the Celts down 20 at one point in the second half. It was much grosser than the final score indicates.

And listen, stinkers happen. You wish they didn't, but that's life. What matters is how you respond, and we have years worth of evidence that suggests the Celts usually respond pretty well after laying a collective egg. 

That doesn't mean what we saw last night wasn't annoying as fuck though, so let's dive in.

The Good

- Don't worry, this section won't take us very long, because really there's only one player who I feel like deserves not only to be in this section, but the top spot. I would argue he was really the only guy who played well and had a positive overall impact, and that player is none other than Garzilla

Easily one of the best stories of the Celtics season, the development and growth of Luka Garza has been tremendous. From a player with virtually zero NBA experience before arriving in Boston, I'm at the point now where I see Garzilla as the 2nd best big on this roster and someone who can absolutely be a rotation player moving forward. I know some may think the 2nd best big is actually Vucevic, but my point is Garzilla has basically been giving us Vuc production since he got hurt, and he does it with a MUCH better motor.

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When I think of players from the outside that have come in and fully embraced what it means to be a Celtic, you think of guys like KG, Derrick White etc. In my opinion, Luka Garza is right there. He gets it. He understands what being a Celtic is all about and what that means when you're on the floor. You'd be hard-pressed to find a player who plays with more energy and effort than Garza, and it's not a once in a blue moon type thing. It's every single second he's on the floor. To now be at the point where not only is his effort making an impact, but he's also putting up legit production is yet another win for Brad Stevens. I'll remind you, Garzilla is on a minimum and is already signed for next year for $2.8M. 

Because make no mistake, Garzilla was the reason the Celts were even in this game in the first place. He carried them early, and I continue to be impressed with just how good he is around the rim. His decel move? Elite. His ability to fight for extra possessions on the offensive glass? Elite. His touch around the rim? Elite. 

Will there be issues guarding in space? Sure, but nobody is perfect. At the same time, we did see him be playable against OKC when they were at full strength, so I have confidence that Garzilla can survive in a playoff series. One thing we know for damn sure is he's going to put his life on the line in order to win, and when I know a player will do that, I'm all in. 

- OK I lied, we're adding one more player to this section, and that's Amari Williams. I LOVED his minutes (13) 

To say I'm intrigued would be a massive understatement. If there's one thing I'd like to see over the home stretch of the regular season, it's more Amari Williams minutes. You can see the flashes when it comes to his rebounding, rim protection, and passing. 

Given the insane hit rate that Brad Stevens has when it comes to all of his draft picks, I have no doubt that he's also right when it comes to Amari, we just need to see more minutes on the court. As we all know, the frontcourt is one of the bigger questions of the next iteration of the roster. I'd say that and guard are two areas of need moving forward, and why can't Amari be one of the players that addresses that need? 

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I don't need him to be an All Star, but can he prove to be a playable rotation big like we saw with Kornet, Queta, and now Garza? I say why not.

The Bad

- Normally, I'd say any time you remove Jayson Tatum from the equation, that you should expect a massive drop off, but this year is not a season in which I think you can really use that excuse. I mean, they've only had Tatum for 11 games and they have 50 wins. They learned how to play well and execute with the non-Tatum lineups. 

In this game, I'd say the Celts looked more like Tatum merchants than a team that found ways to be successful all year until his return. Let's start with the offensive approach. It was dogshit.

There seems to be this weird narrative by some that the offense looks "smoother" or "better" or "faster" or "quicker" when Tatum isn't the one initiating things, and aside from that being factually incorrect, I'm just not sure what people see that leads them to this conclusion. How did the passing look in this game? Pretty awful if you ask me. Just look at the seconds per touch/dribbles per touch last night. 

When the ball is moving and guys are getting off the rock, those numbers are usually around 3.5 seconds (or under) and 3 dribbles (or under). As you can see, for Pritchard/Brown/White, those are all pretty high. That tells you that the ball was not moving, guys weren't making quick decisions, and all three were really pounding the ball into the floor. 

It should then be no surprise that the Celts finished with a dogshit 103 ORTG in this game, including a 100 ORTG in the second half, where this game was lost.

Too much isolation, too much tunnel vision, and all that dribbling played right into the Hawks hands when it came to their defensive pressure. The Celts finished with just 18 AST on 35 FGM, and part of that was boosted by a garbage time fake comeback. Overall, I'd say this was an example of how the Celtics should NOT be playing offense, especially when facing a team with a pulse. 

- If you'd like to see where this game turned, look no further than the 3rd quarter. For my money, it doesn't get worse than this

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This is what a stinker looks like folks. Horrific execution on both ends of the floor, one guy forcing things way too much, careless with the ball, you name it and we got it in this quarter.

Obviously the shooting splits stand out, but how about the 16-2 points in the paint advantage? Celts finishing 1-8 in the paint is very on brand, and in my opinion this quarter is where the game was lost. The Celts came out flat, never really found their footing, and once things started to slip away, they were compounded by bad process from the best players. It didn't matter if Joe took timeouts, it didn't matter what lineups he chose, the player execution in this quarter was horrible, and ultimately, they paid the price for it. 

- Solid 18-26 (65%) from the FT line in a game you lost by 10. Jaylen Brown missing 6 FTs himself, after shooting around 90% for the entire month of March. Very hilarious bit. 

- It was a little surprising that coming off his rest day that Derrick White would toss up this type of all around stinker. Defensively, he wasn't nearly as impactful as we know he can be, and offensively? A bit of a disaster. Just 3-12 (1-6) in his 35 minutes, it's not like we can use the B2B tired legs excuse for him. He just laid an egg at a time when you really couldn't afford a Derrick White stinker. He certainly wasn't the only one, but as the #2 option in this game, his production was sorely missed. 

Only 7 points and a -8 in his minutes? Not exactly what I would call good.

- 15 total turnovers, 14 points allowed off turnovers, a bunch of 4th quarter OREBs, lost the shot margin, lost the 3P math. You're not beating anyone good if you're that poor in all of those areas. The Celts gave the Hawks life early with their turnovers, that's what helped ATL maintain a lead in the shot margin, they didn't guard the 3 which led to a 15% shooter going 2-2, and when they tried to make their 4th quarter push, they reverted back to being terrible on the defensive glass which not only killed momentum, it allowed the Hawks to score huge 2nd chance points to maintain their lead.

When I say the Celts deserved this loss with how they played, these are the things I'm talking about. Terrible margins performance.

The Ugly

- This shouldn't exactly come as a surprise as to what is finding itself in this section, because objectively I'd say this was one of if not the worst Jaylen Brown performance of his season. I know the final line says 29/9/9 so one may think he was actually pretty good, but nope. Sorry. I watched the game. I will not be fooled by a garbage time fake comeback barrage of shotmaking that came way, way too late.

Almost from the start, I hated everything about Jaylen's process in this game. Offensively it was all the bad habits that give us PTSD. Right away he was losing the ball on drives, getting stripped, driving into traffic etc. You could tell he was forcing the issue after missing the last two games, he was just a little too sped up. As the game went on, the turnover problems only got worse, because then we had the ball handling turnovers at midcourt. In total he finished with 6, and it was a case of really struggling with Dyson Daniel's ball pressure.

Now to be fair, we did see a SHIT TON of smoked bunnies around the rim which are shots Jaylen almost always makes, but you don't get credit for "almost" making shots. You actually have to execute. When you smoke those, that's not great. It's bad in fact. He finished 9-29 (3-9), but again, 3 or 4 of those makes came when the game was out of hand, so it was actually a bit worse than those numbers suggest, and they aren't even good to begin with.

Defensively, I'd say it was as bad of a no show as what we saw on offense. Falling asleep way too much, no real resistance on the perimeter, something that I'm sure Joe will unload on him when they go over the film. It was nowhere close to the standard required to win, and a level of defense that if we see in the playoffs, only bad things will happen.

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The good news is that after the game Jaylen immediately owned up to his stinker and took full responsibility for it, which I always do respect about the Jays. When they play like shit, they take it on the chin and own it. No excuse making, only accountability

He's right, and I have no doubt he'll immediately bounce back, but there's no other way to spinzone his night. He was brutal from the opening jump, which was unfortunate because he was another guy who was rested heading into this game. This wasn't a case of tired legs due to a B2B, it was just a case of piss poor execution on both ends of the floor from the #1 option. When that happens, in addition to everything else, you tend to get your ass kicked.

Big picture, it's one game in the home stretch of the season. Shit happens. But I will say the Celts do need to be careful to not let things spiral, as they are now only 2 ahead of the Knicks in the loss column with a H2H matchup coming up. They need to finish with a better record than NYK to maintain the 2 seed, so you never know if a game like last night can come back to bite you in the ass down the road. We'll see how things look against MIA tomorrow, and my guess is we'll see a much better performance given the fact that this team rarely has two stinkers in a row.