Compounding mistakes make for impossible mountain climb in Celtics loss to Denver

As the season goes on, the significance of regular-season games becomes smaller and smaller for a team like the Boston Celtics. The Eastern Conference is all but wrapped up, but Thursday night was the rare occasion when a regular-season game felt important.

A late-night thriller in Colorado against the Denver Nuggets, who bested them by one point earlier in the season. A potential Finals preview with the reigning champs and the team with the best record in the league.

From the tip, it was clear both teams wanted this game. But one team executed better, and they were led by a monster Serbian who dropped a 30-point triple-double.

Barring an unforeseen citizenship change, that man was not Jayson Tatum. Nikola Jokic barrelled his way through a Celtics team that let the rope slip through their fingers in a few key areas throughout the night.

“This was a big game. We wanted to win this one,” said Kristaps Porzingis. “It stings. It stings real bad. But I like that there’s big margin that we can improve [upon] from this game.”

Following an ugly loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night, the Celtics got outplayed. Plain and simple. But as Porzingis noted, their gaffes came in improvable areas.

Tatum’s suboptimal performance will be plastered all over national television — tis the life of an NBA superstar. His five turnovers, lack of initial aggressiveness, and missed three-pointer late in the game outline a rough outing for the Celtics star. But that was Denver’s goal.

The Nuggets pressured Tatum almost any time he got the ball, making it difficult for him to make the reads he’s usually comfortable finding. And as the game went on, they blitzed him more and more.

His response to the pressure was less than ideal, but his comfortability with getting help from his peers shined through in his 13 shot attempts.

“It’s not upon me to hijack the game and make it about me, and it’s a national TV game,” Tatum said. “Other guys had it going. So if I have to be in the corner, if I have to be a facilitator at times, so be it.”

If issue one was Tatum’s poor response to blitzes, problem two was a lack of communication on defense.

From the very first play of the game, the Celtics were thrown off by the Nuggets’ off-ball movement. Communication problems were highlighted by quick cuts by Denver’s role players, as Boston failed to keep up with their rapid offense.

Aaron Gordon thrived in this environment as the matter extended beyond halfcourt sets.

As the Nuggets were fighting off a Celtics run late in the fourth quarter, Gordon kept his squad ahead with his rampant crashing of the glass. Weaving between unaware Boston bodies, Gordon threw down some ferocious dunks that mitigated some solid first-shot defense.

Problem three was a bit more straightforward: missed free throws.

Jaylen Brown was absolutely stellar against Denver. His 41 points were the only reason Boston had a chance to take the lead with under a minute left in the game. But shooting 7-of-14 from the line is a tough pill to swallow.

The curse trickled over to the rest of the team, too, as Tatum and Porzingis both missed free throws as well. Boston shot 16-of-25 from the charity stripe as a team in a game they lost by six points.

Combined with a myriad of other minute hitches, the Celtics simply made too many errors.

Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

Denver is a well-oiled machine on both ends of the court. They’re battle-tested champions who turned it up on Thursday night for a TNT game against a big-time opponent.

Making one consistent mistake against the Nuggets is enough to warrant a close game. Making two makes it hard to win. Anything past that makes the uphill climb to victory feel like a hike up Mount Everest with no oxygen tank.

Jokic’s dominance in the post, combined with Gordon’s off-ball cuts and Jamal Murray’s tough shot-making, willed the Nuggets to a win. Every time it felt like the Celtics were about to reach the summit, Jokic was there with another avalanche.

“We had our chances,” said Joe Mazzulla. “And when you play against another good team, those things get magnified.”

Despite all their missteps, miscommunications, and mistakes, the Celtics were still in a position to nail a go-ahead three with 40 seconds left. “It was a one-possession game,” Mazzulla said. “And we had a wide-open shot. It was a great shot. And he just didn’t make it.”

A few more made free throws, the lack of some defensive slip-ups, or one gigantic Tatum make would have changed the outcome of this game. But it didn’t happen. Boston lost this game because they blundered in a few too many dimensions. And when you’re playing the Nuggets, that makes winning a near-impossible task.