After a stretch of five games in seven nights (and six in nine), it’s not surprising that the Memphis Grizzlies outscored the Celtics 22-4 in transition points en route to a 127-121 win at TD Garden on Saturday night.
Boston had actually turned a 14-point deficit in the third into a 4-point lead to start the final frame, but in the end, didn’t have the legs to close it out.
It’s definitely tough. Everybody’s tired. It’s been kind of a tough stretch, but it’s no excuse,” Payton Pritchard said after scoring 22 points on 6-o-f-11 shooting from the arc and being part of the closing lineup. “You gotta come out. We’re the best team in the NBA and we gotta show it every night. That’s our mentality. We gotta show it every night.”
For the most part, they have despite some difficult circumstances. The loss to the Grizzlies was their first in five backends of a back-to-back. They had won both games in Charlotte in an away-and-away against the Hornets, blew out Brooklyn on the road, and crushed the Clippers and Heat after tough games against the Timberwolves and Cavaliers respectively.
They have a sparkling 15.9 net rating on the second night of a back-to-back (121.9 off rtg, 106 def rtg). You could even argue that they’re at their best with their backs (no pun intended) against the wall. With a more traditional night off between games, their net rating drops to 7.1.
But now, by virtue of missing out on NBA Cup contention, they’ll play just two games in the next eleven days — Thursday night hosting the Pistons and Sunday night in DC — before heading back to TD Garden for a Thursday tilt against the visiting Bulls.
“It’ll be good, to get some days off,” Jaylen Brown said. “It’s been some tough scheduling, so tonight, I don’t think was the best indication of Celtics basketball.”
All things considered, the Celtics are relatively healthy (after a Kristaps Porzingis injury scare) with six of their next nine games duringthe holidays at home. They’re second in the East at 19-5 with a top-10 offense and defense with the third highest net rating in the league. A tough December loss to one of the West’s hottest teams doesn’t change that.
“It’s basketball. It’s going to happen to every single team, so we don’t really have an excuse,” Jrue Holiday said. “You just have to go out there and play, even though sometimes, games might not go your way, we always know we’ll be in it because of the way we play and how hard we play.”
