Ranking each Celtics loss from least to most bizarre

The Boston Celtics have lost only 15 of their first 72 games this season. Every loss is a spectacle, an event, and an absolute catastrophe. These defeats feel much more crushing than normal for the fanbase because they’re just so rare.

Once the final buzzer sounds, everyone logs onto Twitter/X, Facebook, or Reddit to let fellow Cs fans that the sky is falling.

That’s fine, but the fact of the matter is that the Celtics do not simply just lose games.

No, it seems to take an instance of the stars aligning in order for them to perish.

There’s always something: a random opposing player catching fire, prolonged cold spells from the offense, players missing games, controversial calls, and more.

I’ve ranked all fifteen of Boston’s losses this season from least to most bizarre.

15. January 2, 2024: Boston Celtics 123, Oklahoma City Thunder 127.

This was a less-than-ideal way to kick off 2024 — that’s for sure.

In a clash between two of the NBA’s best, the Cs came up short. It wasn’t a freakishly bad offensive outing from them either. Sure, 45.7% from the field isn’t great, but it’s not abysmal. They still made 37.5% of their threes. The only real outlier on their end was a rough Jaylen Brown performance. He logged just 15 points on 4-of-18 shooting, yet they still found themselves in a tight game.

OKC shot pretty well, knocking down 45% of their attempts from deep, including four from Josh Giddey — a 31.2% career three-point shooter.

14. December 4, 2023: Boston Celtics 112, Indiana Pacers 122.

At the time, Boston’s first loss to the Pacers stung quite a bit. The juggernaut Celtics went crashing out of the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament at the hands of a young Indiana team.

It turned out to just be one of those nights where Mazzulla Ball didn’t pan out. The Cs sank just 29.3% of their threes and weren’t able to match the high-powered Pacers offense.

Add in the absence of Kristaps Porzingis and you’ve got yourself an elimination.

Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images

13. March 7, 2024: Boston Celtics 109, Denver Nuggets 115

The second of two meetings between Boston and the reigning champion Nuggets was strange, but not in a freak way. Seeing the Cs have to work for every single bucket while Nikola Jokic helped his teammates to seemingly endless looks at the rim was an odd experience.

The Celtics have had the NBA’s best offense all season, so when they’re working their tails off to get shots up you do a double-take. It didn’t help that Jayson Tatum scored just 15 points on 13 shots and was as ineffective as we’ve seen.

It was yet another night where the threes didn’t fall. Just 28.9% of Boston’s long-range attempts found the bottom of the net, while they found their second-straight loss.

12. January 19, 2024: Denver Nuggets 102, Boston Celtics 100.

Again, if the Celtics are going to lose to anyone, the defending champions aren’t the most surprising team to do it against. What was shocking was to see Boston’s home winning streak come to an end. The Cs had been invincible at TD Garden up until this point.

They had plenty of opportunities to get themselves over the finish line, it just didn’t work out for them. The hosts sank just one field goal in the final 4:51 of the fourth quarter, all while holding Denver to just three buckets.

It was a frustrating way to watch the game end, for sure.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

11. November 6, 2023: Boston Celtics 109, Minnesota Timberwolves 114.

Ah, the first loss of the year. Who could forget? Boston’s six-game heater was snapped at the hands of the gritty Timberwolves in overtime. In the months since, Minny has proven to be far better than we all believed them to be at the time.

There’s no shame in them being one of the few to best Boston.

Overall, this was an exciting game. It couldn’t be held to just four quarters and needed the overtime to decide things. The Cs had a chance to win in regulation, but Brown’s game-winner didn’t find the bottom of the net.

The real outlier in this one was the efficiency as a whole. The Wolves are a great defensive team, but the Celtics aren’t shooting below 40% from the field and 30% from three very often.

10. November 8, 2023: Boston Celtics 103, Philadelphia 76ers 106.

I suppose any Celtics loss at the hands of the 76ers is bizarre, right?

This one was, quite simply, a rock fight.

Porzingis was the only Celtic to score more than 20 points in a game where the team as a whole shot just 39.6% from the field. The strangest aspect of this one was that Boston nearly ripped off a huge comeback to steal it, but a front-rim three from Porzingis kept them from tying it late.

Photo by Dong Xudong/Xinhua via Getty Images

9. December 19, 2023: Boston Celtics 126, Golden State Warriors 132.

So, this was the first “worst loss of the season.” It featured a 17-point collapse from the Cs. They completely froze in the fourth quarter, hitting just 6-of-22 attempts from the floor. Despite that, they still had a chance to steal a victory, but Tatum elected to waste away the final possession, before firing up a contested three from the right wing.

A combined 9-of-12 fourth-quarter performance from Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Chris Paul also helped bring Boston’s personal boogeyman back from the dead. Plus, Trayce Jackson-Davis had a personal rebounding party for himself down the stretch, grabbing seven boards in the fourth.

8. February 1, 2024: Los Angeles Lakers 114, Boston Celtics 105.

Another “worst loss of the season” was the spark for a monster February from the Cs. After this one, they won 11 straight games to head into March.

Where was that team on this day?

Who knows?

Boston looked awful. They came out and turned the ball over nine times in the first quarter. It was very clear that it wasn’t going to be their night. Three of the Celtics’ starters failed to crack double digits, while Lakers guard Austin Reaves posted a season-high 32 points and drilled seven long-range daggers.

That, paired with two bizarre double-doubles from D’Angelo Russell and Jaxson Hayes, was enough to seal the win for the LeBron James and Anthony Davis-less Lakers.

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

7&6. Milwaukee Bucks and LA Clippers a lot, Boston Celtics a little.

The Celtics have only gotten absolutely waxed twice this season. First, against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 11, then later that month on the 27th as they hosted the LA Clippers.

Both of these games were pretty similar. Boston came out flat and never quite stood a chance at a comeback. They definitely showed a bit more life in the home loss to the Clippers, since they actually rolled their starters out for the second half.

Tatum and the boys didn’t even suit up after heading back for the break in Milwaukee. The game had been decided and there was no reason to risk injury.

Then, against LA, JT was the only starter to score in double digits. He, Payton Pritchard, and Luke Kornet were the only Celtics to do so on that tragic night.

5. January 8, 2024: Boston Celtics 131, Indiana Pacers 133.

Boston’s second loss at the hands of the Pacers was definitely stranger than the first. Sure, they didn’t have Tatum for this one, but it was still an extremely winnable game.

In fact, the Celtics looked to be in control of this one up until the point where Tyrese Haliburton went down with an injury. It was then, after the Pacers lost their best player, that the meltdown got underway.

Indiana rode the hot hand of… T.J. McConnell to climb back into this one. All 12 of his points made their presence known, as did the officials.

This game probably had the worst ending of any that we’ve had to watch. A pair of soft ticky-tack fouls were called on jump shots in the closing seconds. First, Boston got a whistle when Brown was contested by Buddy Hield. However, the call was overturned after a Pacers challenge.

Then, Bennedict Mathurin found his way to the free-throw line after drawing a questionable foul on Porzingis — also while shooting a jumper. He sank both attempts and won the Pacers the game.

4. November 24, 2023. Boston Celtics 96, Orlando Magic 113.

What a game this was. So, the Celtics came into the day with a chance to secure the top spot in their In-Season Tournament group with a win over the Magic.

That did not happen.

That did not happen because Boston had no answer for Moritz Wagner. The rotation big man hung 27 points on their heads as he led the charge for Orlando. His monster outing, paired with the disgusting second half that we got from the Celtics was enough to seal their fate.

Making just 10 shots for an entire half probably isn’t going to win many basketball games. It also doesn’t help when one of your stars, Brown, was just 1-of-14 during that stretch.

It was, simply, not meant to be that day.

3. November 20, 2023: Boston Celtics 118, Charlotte Hornets 121.

Boston’s early-season loss to the lowly Hornets was probably the biggest “Wow, they’re actively trying to lose” game I’ve ever seen.

This one was pretty much over. The Celtics had a nine-point lead with just over two minutes to play.

What happened after that was chaos.

Missed layups, missed free throws, offensive rebounds, zero stops. It was all there.

The Celtics got cooked by LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams, and Miles Bridges, who hit the game-winner in his first game back from suspension.

This all happened in a game where Tatum posted 45 points. I don’t think I’d believe you if you told me Boston would lose a game to the Hornets where he scored that many.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

2. March 25, 2024: Boston Celtics 118, Atlanta Hawks 120.

Ah yes, the inspiration for this entire piece. The Celtics’ monumental collapse in Atlanta was truly a sight to see. You probably wouldn’t believe that it happened if you hadn’t witnessed it with your own two eyes.

After the Cs spent the first 18 minutes of this one getting just about everything they wanted on offense, they decided it was over and that it was time for some fun.

The ball stopped moving and subsequently stopped going in the basket. By the time Boston decided to start passing again, it was too late. The shooters had gone cold.

At least on their end.

It was a completely different story for the Hawks, who managed to shoot an unbelievable 11-of-19 from beyond the arc in the second half. Boston had no answer for the long-range onslaught and watched an easy win slip away.

Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

1. March 5, 2024: Boston Celtics 104, Cleveland Cavaliers 105.

It was always Dean Wade.

He and the Donovan Mitchell-less Cavaliers were able to overcome a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit behind the hottest shooting in all the land.

This game had promise. Tatum had a dominant 22-point first half but then scored just four points, shooting 1-12 from that point on.

Wade made all seven of his shots in the fourth, including five gutwrenching threes. His squad only missed four shots throughout the entire period and finished on a 34-11 run.

Meanwhile, the Celtics couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean. They shot just 8-of-26 and were able to convert just three times in the final six minutes.

Though some of these defeats were more mild than others. There weren’t many, if any, that felt like just an average game. It always seemed to take something abnormal for them to come up short.

Yet, in a lot of these, they were still in a decent position to try and win.

When you look at the amount of chaos that it took for the Cs to fall, it helps ease the nerves as the playoffs approach.