Celtics embarrassed by Kawhi Leonard, Clippers in home return: 7 takeaways
Boston collectively shot 10-for-40 (25 percent) from 3-point range in the loss.
After winning their first 20 games at TD Garden this season, the Celtics have now lost two in a row after an embarrassing 115-96 loss to the Clippers on Saturday.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Generally it’s a good idea to remember that every NBA team loses games, and that the Celtics are fresh off a 3-0 road trip. They have a 35-11 record, which is the best in the NBA, and they boast a number of impressive wins on their resume.
Still, Saturday’s game made one thing clear: If the Celtics advance to the NBA Finals, they probably wouldn’t pick the Clippers as their opponent.
The Celtics could win a Finals matchup against the Clippers, of course. They were without Kristaps Porzingis on Saturday, and Porzingis could be a crucial piece of the puzzle – a matchup nightmare who spaces the floor and pokes holes in a Clippers defense that slammed the door on the Celtics all night.
Still, the Clippers have the personnel to defend Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown better than nearly every other team in the NBA. Brown finished 3-for-13, and the Clippers harassed him throughout the evening – he missed his first five shots, and all five were contested by either Kawhi Leonard or Paul George. Jayson Tatum was somewhat better (8-for-18) and got off to a much better start, but his offense fell apart in the third quarter along with the Celtics’ offense.
The Clippers, who have now won 22 of their last 26 games, paid the Celtics back for the 145-108 blowout Boston administered to a tired Clippers team in Los Angeles that was without Leonard (incidentally, Porzingis missed that game too).
“We’re very similar teams,” Joe Mazzulla said. “They have switchable wings, they’ve got physicality, they don’t have a clear matchup that you can attack to create 2-on-1s, and so it’s two very similar teams. That’s kind of why what they did to us tonight, we did to them a month ago. So against teams like that, you have to do a great job of getting stops, getting out in transition, you’ve got to make open shots, and then you’ve got to fight for space and separation. But you’ve got to continue to do it over and over again.”
2. The Celtics can win a game when Al Horford goes 0-for-5 (incidentally, every shot Horford took was a good one). They can win when Derrick White goes 0-for-8 (most of his shots were pretty good too). They can win if Jrue Holiday goes 2-for-11.
What they probably can’t do is win if all three of those things happen in the same game, especially when as a team, they shoot 10-for-40 (25 percent) from 3-point range, and especially if Brown shoots 3-for-13.
“Make shots,” Mazzulla said when a reporter asked what the Celtics could do better to counter the Clippers’ switches. “I think that helps, I would say, regardless of what kind of shot it is. So like I said, I think one of the strengths of this team is at moments of inefficient offense, we still have really good defense and some of that defense would get us back into creating some transition opportunities. Tonight, not so much.”
3. Without calling out his team directly, Mazzulla hinted that the Celtics needed to be reminded that nothing is guaranteed in the NBA after their blowout win over the Heat on Thursday.
“To me, there’s no coincidence that the two extremes happened one after another,” Mazzulla said. “I think those can be gifts when you look at them properly, and keep you balanced, and keep you humble, and just keep you in check. You’re never as good as you think you are, you’re never as bad as you think you are, and I think it’s important.
“We always talk about adversity, and adversity is always looked at as something negative happens to you. But to me, one of the hardest things to do is win consistently, all the time, and handle success. And that’s just as hard as handling losing, is being able to handle success. So I think regardless, you just focus on the character of your team, and our guys will bounce back.”
4. The Celtics’ bench unit made the final score more respectable than the starters deserved: With 33 seconds left in the third quarter, the Celtics trailed 91-55. With their bench unit in the game for the entire fourth quarter, the Celtics outscored the Clippers 41-24 the rest of the way after the Clippers delivered a 29-18 blowout in the second quarter and 36-21 beatdown in the third, which included a game-breaking 21-0 run.
“Our inefficient offense put pressure on our defense, put pressure on our defense, and then our defense kind of cracked,” Mazzulla said.
Payton Pritchard scored 12 points and went 3-for-7 from deep while Neemias Queta scored eight points on 4-for-4 shooting, pulled down five rebounds and swatted two shots in the final period.
“Give those guys a lot of credit,” Tatum said. “They stay ready whenever their opportunity [comes], number is called, and even tonight when the game was kind of slipping away from us they still came in and gave maximum effort. So it was really good to see that.”
5. Mazzulla said the Celtics’ leaky transition defense came down to three things: Missed layups (which are one of his pet peeves), deflected passes (which are bound to happen against a defender like Leonard), and the “poor” angles Celtics players took when crashing the offensive glass.
“When you don’t get the crashing angle, you don’t get the rebound, and you don’t make it 5-on-5,” Mazzulla said. “So you have two guys behind the level of the ball instead of being in front of it, and that kind of gets them out into advantageous situations.”
6. The Celtics have now dropped losses to the Clippers, Nuggets, Bucks and Thunder in January, all of which are understandable, but the lack of a signature win (other than their victory against a Timberwolves team that is slipping a bit recently) could be seen as concerning under certain lighting. Of course, the 3-0 road trip and (again) the 35-11 record help mitigate those concerns.
7. The Celtics will close the month taking on the Pelicans and Pacers on Monday and Tuesday respectively. Monday’s contest against Zion Williamson and the Pelicans tips off at 7:30 p.m.
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