‘Our offense let us down’: Joe Mazzulla reacts to Celtics loss to Magic, praises defensive effort
Mazzulla quickly shut down the idea that defensive breakdowns were an issue for Boston on Monday night.
Following a 36-point third quarter for the Orlando Magic, it’s fair to question if the Celtics defense laid back coming out of the locker room with a 15-point lead against a depleted opponent.
Joe Mazzulla quickly shut down any notion that was the case.
Mazzulla instead turned his attention to the other side of the coin: Boston’s 21 point third quarter offensively. The Celtics average 119.1 points per game, fourth in the NBA and good for an average of nearly 30 per quarter. The well below average 21 points registered in Monday night’s third frame meant Orlando had plenty more chances to score points of its own, leading to a seismic shift on the scoreboard.
“There weren’t defensive breakdowns, I thought our defense kept us in it,” Mazzulla told reporters postgame. “When you have a 21-point third quarter and it’s a tie game, you’re defending at a high level. I thought our offense let us down.”
A big part of the reason for the Celtics’ offensive struggles came from Jayson Tatum’s absence on Monday. Coming off one of his best career games, Tatum was a late add to Boston’s injury report on Monday night for a non-COVID illness. He began the game as questionable but was ruled out shortly after.
Tatum’s scoring threat, coupled with his vision and ability to create shots for his teammates, was missed against the Magic. Jaylen Brown had a solid game individually, but turned the ball over five times; Boston had 18 total turnovers.
Many of the other Celtics scored below their season average despite playing more minutes with Tatum out of the lineup. Kristaps Porzingis, for example, played his most minutes this season, but only had 17 points to show for it. Derrick White played 40 minutes and also only managed 17; he’s averaging 17 in 34 minutes on the season.
Those margins may not seem so significant, but they are when considering a 30 point per game scorer was removed from the lineup. Not only was Boston —save for Jaylen Brown — not compensating offensively for Tatum’s absence, it was actually regressing in some ways.
Still, Mazzulla downplayed Tatum’s absence from the lineup.
“We have enough. I mean, obviously you want to have one of your best players,” Mazzulla said. “You want to have him, but it’s not really a challenge, it’s just, we got to do what we got to do.”
Another key slump Monday night: the Celtics had their fewest three-point attempts and makes of the season by a wide margin. Boston had gone over 50 consecutive games with at least 10 threes, a streak that was snapped by Orlando, who only allowed the Celtics to net eight shots from beyond the arc.
“I thought we could have taken some more [threes],” Brown said after the game. “Obviously when you’re more physical, it’s harder to create those openings.”
Even though its difficult to imagine a team replicating that level of success against Boston over a seven game series, an offensive night like Monday’s should be some cause for concern. And, of course, a lot of credit should be given to Orlando, who developed a solid gameplan to slow down the Celtics all night long.
“They have a system,” said Mazzulla. “They have a DNA about their physical defense and the way they play, so regardless of who’s in who’s out you know what you’re getting from that team. You got that tonight.”
Boston returns to action at TD Garden for a 5:00 p.m. tilt against the rival 76ers on Christmas Day.
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