The NBA has a poetic way of rewarding you for your strengths and making you pay for your shortcomings. For the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks last night, fate played the hits in the biggest moment.
No matter how poorly they played, Boston gave themselves chances to win down the stretch. The bench was nonexistent, shooting was just about average and the Celtics’ offense came down to Jaylen Brown and Derrick White making shots when they needed to. The Celtics shot nine whole percent better than the Hawks from three, reaching their fabled 40% mark that usually signifies a win.
But counting stats can only get you so far, even when the Celtics’ shot themselves in the foot so many times they might as well be sponsored by the new Nike Bullseye 1s. Yes, the Celtics allowed 20 offensive rebounds and committed 20 turnovers, which would be an easy explanation, but ultimately, it all came down to one of each.
One offensive rebound…
And one turnover…
These were the poster boys of Tuesday night’s failure, but it’s foolish to think the game was played on an offensive-rebound-and-turnover-laden spreadsheet and these were simply the final two statistical entries. It’s eventually going to come down to making the right play. The Celtics failed epically to execute basic basketball tasks like boxing out and throwing an accurate inbounds pass.
If it wasn’t Onyeka Okongwu, Dyson Daniels or Larry Nance Jr. would have had that rebound. Boston just didn’t have enough size in the paint to handle them; Jayson Tatum and Al Horford were spread out wide. As for the pass, Jrue Holiday and Tatum just were not on the same page. It’s simple, yet simply maddening. I love making fun of coaches when their broadcast interviews are just “you know, we have to execute!” but there is a reason they love that word.
This game felt like a smoothie of sloppiness, but it had enough Clutchberries in it to give Boston a real shot. But these two plays were the final seasoning choices that consigned the smoothie to oblivion. You can’t put cayenne pepper in a smoothie. You just can’t.
The Celtics did plenty well beyond their casual relationship with the ball last night. White and Brown were spectacular, combining for well over half of Boston’s points — 68 of 116. But their dominance may suggest surrounding incompetence: they were the only players to make a field goal in the fourth quarter.
That isn’t going to work long-term. I actually think Tatum was plenty assertive down the stretch — he just needs to make shots. That game-icing corner three he missed? It was a great shot. It just didn’t go down.
Boston is feeling the lack of Kristaps Porzingis as an offensive innings-eater, and simply wasn’t able to absorb simultaneous off-nights from Payton Pritchard, Holiday and (to a lesser extent) Tatum. They just run out of options: Neemias Queta played 21 minutes, but didn’t attempt a shot. Luke Kornet is clearly still not fully healthy. And Horford can’t bring the energy they’d need from him to salvage that type of situation.
There is no good reason to rush Porzingis back (and plenty good ones not to). But the Celtics have now twice looked discombobulated and sloppy without their ideal offensive firepower this season. Most nights, they’ll be able to absorb that, but it’s not feasible to only have two guys who can score in the last quarter when you’ve already ruined your smoothie. In the second night of a back-to-back against the Nets tonight, let’s see if they can blend up a better one.
