Domantas Sabonis, Kings dominate Celtics in disappointing return to TD Garden: 8 takeaways
What started as a competitive game turned ugly for the Celtics in the final two quarters of Friday's contest.
Domantas Sabonis and the Kings tore the Celtics apart in the fourth quarter on Friday, continuing their impressive stretch with a 114-97 victory.
Here are the takeaways.
Domantas Sabonis was dominant.
We’ll get into the Celtics in a minute, but the Kings – who are winners of their last six games and have come together since firing Mike Brown – do deserve the first bullet point here, and Sabonis in particular merits attention.
The Kings big man recorded one of the most impressive double-doubles you will see in the NBA this season – a 23-point, 28-rebound outing, which (the NBC Sports Boston broadcast noted) was the first time a player recorded that many rebounds against the Celtics since Ben Wallace, and the first time a player scored 23 points and recorded 27 rebounds against the Celtics since Moses Malone.
“Some of them, he just kind of outworked us for them,” Joe Mazzulla told reporters afterward. “It’s one of the best things that he does. You’ve got to match his effort every possession, and he did it more than we did.”
Sabonis outclassed the Celtics’ bigs over and over, and he pulled down eight of the Kings’ 16 offensive rebounds. The Celtics had no answer for Sabonis in the pick-and-roll, and they even allowed him four really good looks from 3-point range, which he happily took en route to 3-for-4 shooting from deep.
(For what it’s worth, Kristaps Porzingis said the Celtics were “trying” on this play, but he admitted “it doesn’t look perfect.”)
Jayson Tatum picked on Sabonis as a mismatch a little bit, but the Kings’ defense – and the Celtics’ awful shooting, which we will get to – covered any of Sabonis’ deficiencies on that end.
Friday was, in short, a beatdown, and for most of the game, Sabonis was the one administering most of the body blows until the Celtics’ rotation staggered to the bench with two minutes remaining.
Jayson Tatum had one of his worst games of the year.
Tatum has been invaluable for the Celtics for the vast majority of the season, but he was at his worst on Friday – inefficient (5-for-13 from the floor, just 2-for-3 from the free-throw line) and extremely sloppy with eight turnovers overall and five in the third quarter alone. Only Jrue Holiday (-18) had a worse plus/minus than the Celtics’ star (-11).
Sometimes when Tatum struggles, he ends up going to pieces, and he left shards all over the parquet floor on Friday.
“I’ve played this game for a very, very long time,” Tatum said. “Just got to stick with it. Some nights are tougher than others and turn or whatever, not making excuses for them at all. Got to take care of the ball, especially just live ball turnovers really hurt you. But just got to stick with it and move on to the next one.”
The Celtics fell apart in the second half.
Tatum was far from alone in his struggles – late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, the Celtics simply unraveled.
It started with Tatum’s aforementioned turnovers. It continued when backup Kings guard Devin Carter opened the fourth quarter with two deep 3-pointers and a driving layup that helped give the Kings the lead with some distance. It became a flood when the Celtics failed to secure a few key offensive rebounds, including a particularly bad moment with just under nine minutes remaining when the defense broke down and surrendered a completely uncontested 3-pointer to Malik Monk, which Monk missed … only to see the ball carom back to Sabonis, who got another completely uncontested 3-pointer, which he canned to push Sacramento’s lead to eight.
Coming off their encouraging road trip, the Celtics never really answered the recent questions about how they play when they don’t make 3-pointers, and they continued to be sloppy on the ball. Their defensive effort continued to be inconsistent – they gave up 19 and 23 points in the second and third quarters respectively, but they gave up 34 and 38 in the first and fourth.
Mazzulla said he felt that the Celtics have a “short-term” effort problem.
“It’s not a long-term effort thing, but in the short term, yeah, I think our inefficient offense put pressure on our defense, and they were able to take advantage of that with effort plays, whether it was offensive rebounding, open threes,” he said. “You’re coming down missing them and they’re coming down making them, it’s going to take a toll on you.”
Friday was yet another bad shooting night.
In their last 15 games, the Celtics are shooting 35.1 percent from three, which is a small step back from their 36.6 percent 3-point shooting for the year.
Those numbers, however, aren’t entirely representative of the stretch of games we’ve seen. The Celtics shot 9-for-46 against the Thunder. They were 16-for-54 against the Pacers on Dec. 29. They were 8-for-33 in their Dec. 23 loss to the Magic. They were 14-for-56 in their Dec. 19 loss to the Bulls. They were 18-for-60 in their Dec. 7 loss to the Grizzlies. And, on Friday, they were a catastrophic 11-for-41 (26.8 percent).
Kristaps Porzingis and Jayson Tatum were 4-for-7 and 3-for-7 respectively, but much of the rest of the rotation was catastrophic, including Derrick White (0-for-6), Payton Pritchard (1-for-7), Sam Hauser (1-for-4), Jayson Brown (1-for-5) and Al Horford (0-for-3).
When the Celtics miss 3-pointers, their offense starts to gum up. They can keep themselves on track for a while – they held a lead at halftime and the game was tied going into the fourth quarter – but as frustrated shot after frustrated shot dented the rim, the game was very clearly moving in a certain direction after three quarters, and the Celtics weren’t able to do much to turn it around.
We have seen some extended stretches of Celtics basketball recently that simply hasn’t been very good. They have more than enough talent to right this ship – especially since 3-pointers (which we are about to get to) would probably fix things, and the smart money would probably bet that the free-falling 3-point shooting will level off at some point.
How soon will that happen? And what happens if the Celtics start missing in the postseason?
“I think just part of the season, probably spurts, we shoot the ball better, and some spurts that we don’t,” Tatum said. “As long as we take the right ones more often than not, believe in our ability, and whoever is shooting the ball with confidence.”
Even Payton Pritchard is struggling.
After Pritchard’s lightning-hot start from three, the Celtics guard has cooled off considerably – just 29.6 percent from deep in his last five games, and 34.8 percent in his last 10. Pritchard isn’t the Celtics’ most important player, but it’s hard to overstate how backbreaking his 3-point shooting was during the Celtics’ first 20 games and how much pressure it has relieved for opponents that he is now struggling to find a rhythm. In Celtics wins, Pritchard shoots 45.5 percent from three. In losses, he has shot 31.5 percent.
Jayson Tatum explained his beef with Brandon Jennings.
Jennings, who is perhaps best known for peaking roughly 10 games into his rookie year with a 55-point game, sparked a mini-controversy on a recent podcast appearance when he called Tatum “the softest superstar in Celtics history.”
On Thursday, Tatum responded with a post on Instagram captioned “SoFtesT SuPeRstar in CeLtiC HiStoRy,” with a number of his game outfits and highlights.
“I just had some time yesterday,” Tatum said Friday.
Tatum added that criticism comes with being “one of the best players in the league.”
“At the end of it, you can look at some of the ridiculous takes people on TV have said about some of the best players to play this game that didn’t necessarily age well,” he said. “When you see some of the comments that they made about certain guys and how their careers turned out, you’ve just got to laugh. It’s just part of the journey.”
The Celtics are feeling the weight of their struggles.
This has been a trying stretch for the defending champs.
“I’m confident we’ll bounce back,” Porzingis said. “We’re just having not the prettiest moment right now as a team, and it’s completely normal.”
Porzingis added that the locker room was quiet, “like it’s supposed to be” for a team that cares about winning but isn’t playing up to its usual standards.
It’s more difficult this season, probably,” Porzingis said. “It’s normal, I think. But we’ve just got to find a way to keep chipping away. Right now, we don’t need to peak right now. But we need to peak at the right moment as a team, and I’m confident we’ll get there.”
Brown agreed, noting that you believe the Celtics aren’t fighting, “I think that opinion would not be valid.”
“Just be candid. Watch film. Film doesn’t lie,” he said when asked how the team should address its issues. “Accept it. Just be better. Accept criticism well. Are you willing to be coached and come out and put your best foot forward?
“[…] It’s part of the journey. It might not be as pretty as some would like. But I believe in this team. I believe in these guys and I think we’ll be alright.”
The Celtics will try to bounce back Sunday.
The Celtics will try to avoid their second two-game losing streak of the season on Sunday when they take on the Pelicans at 6 pm. They face the Raptors and Magic on Wednesday and Friday next week.
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