Arrogant Celtics aren’t holding up bargain on other end of the court
The NBA is a humbling league, and the Celtics glided through their first five games without feeling truly humbled. They lost two of those games — a rugged game at Chicago in Dwyane Wade’s home debut and then a shootout at Cleveland without two starters.
Even without those two starters again Sunday night the Celtics took their opponent for granted. There was no way the overshadowed, lightly regarded Denver Nuggets would come to TD Garden and punch the home team in the mouth, especially after looking so uninterested the night before in Detroit.
Arrogance has crept into the Celtics’ locker room. They believe they are the second-best team in the Eastern Conference. They believe they are good enough to beat opponents without much of a defensive effort, and that is disturbing after just six games.
The Nuggets scored a mind-boggling 77 points in the first half and cruised to a 123-107 win, as the Celtics have now allowed 251 points in the past two games.
Mudiay had missed 51 shots through his first five games but yet managed to make 9 of 10 in the opening quarter. The Nuggets scored in an array of ways against the soft Celtics defense as they converted 64.4 percent of their first-half shots.
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