“Light the beam” chants broke out at TD Garden as the Boston Celtics watched the final seconds tick off of the clock Friday. When the buzzer sounded, it finalized what had been decided for the last few minutes — their 114-97 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Boston entered the fourth quarter tied with the visitors and then spent 12 minutes watching as their fourth win in five games quickly became their fifth loss in their last eight home games and their seventh in their last 15 overall. They couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean and then watched the Kings shoot 61% from the field and 8-11 from deep in the final frame.
“When you’re having inefficient offense it puts pressure on your defense,” Joe Mazzulla said after his team’s 42-point second half. “I don’t think it’s a long-term effort thing. If you’re able to hold a team like that, to a 19-point quarter and a 23-point quarter, and you have two 21-point quarters. I think that just wears on you. And so, whether it’s shot-making, whether it’s execution, whether it’s spacing, I think that takes a toll on you.”
Mazzulla is right. Once things started to go poorly on offense, it was obviously affecting the defense.
Frustration is a real thing. It happens to all of us.
For the Celtics, theirs resulted in defensive lapses.
Take this possession for example. Boston leaves Malik Monk wide open for a three. When he misses, they fail to secure the rebound, which found Domantas Sabonis (this, and like every other rebound). Once Sabonis had possession, the Celtics elected not to defend him and left him open for a three of his own.
“If you’re going to shoot 28% from three, you know, you’re going to have to do a bunch of other things, really, really, really well, and it puts pressure on your defense throughout the game,” Mazzulla added. “So, we have to be better.”
Now, there were lapses in effort like the play above, but there were also lapses in focus. Those surfaced once things started to snowball. Shots weren’t falling, stops weren’t happening, and on the rare occasion that Sacramento missed, rebounds weren’t secured.
The Cs got desperate and started to take more risks, like this attempted steal by Jaylen Brown.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to spark some energy at a crucial point in the game. Boston had been slipping and a big play could’ve revitalized them.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Instead, the Kings had to do literally nothing except hold onto the basketball when Brown blitzed. By doing so, they created an open corner three.
Frustration also happens to fans, who booed the Celtics midway through the fourth quarter as the Kings capped a 21-7 start to the period.
The emotion stems further than just Friday’s loss. Though it was a brutal one, perhaps the worst of the season, it wasn’t unlike what fans have been watching for the past month or so.
The Celtics are 8-7 in their last 15 games
In that span, Boston ranks 5th in offense and 4th in defense
But in 4th quarters during that span, Boston ranks 8th in offense and 26th in defense
— Cameron Tabatabaie (@CTabatabaie) January 11, 2025
The offensive struggles have been present, while the defense has been inconsistent. More specifically, those inconsistencies come with the game on the line. Whether you want to site the Christmas loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, the earlier loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, or even the disappointing outing against the Chicago Bulls, the story feels pretty much the same.
“I think, partly, sometimes, our offense, whether it’s our spacing, whether we’re not shooting as well as we want to,” said Jayson Tatum on the rough month. “Tonight, we had a lot of turnovers, I did, in particular. All those things play a part, and our defense needed to do better.”
The Celtics have absolutely earned some grace. They just won a championship, after all. At the same time, this 15-game sample size is not nothing. There can only be so many “we have to be better” press conferences. At some point, if there’s no change or return to the standard, we’re all going to have to listen to the Cs when they’re telling us who they are.
