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Jaylen Brown, Celtics drop another close loss to 76ers: 8 takeaways
Derrick White's heave, and Neemias Queta's put-back, both missed.
Jaylen Brown led the way with 24 points, but the Celtics came up just short for the second time this season against the 76ers on Tuesday, falling 102-100 in a chaotic finish.
Here are the takeaways.
The details cost the Celtics down the stretch.
The Celtics were a combination of unlucky and inattentive in the final minutes, which is not a good combination for a team that can no longer get by on talent alone.
First, some unlucky: With 2:20 remaining, Sixers rookie V.J. Edgecombe fired up a 3-pointer that bounded high off the back rim and seemed to scrape the rafters before falling back through, which gave Philadelphia a crucial two-possession advantage at 100-96.
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Then with the game even in the closing seconds, Justin Edwards missed a go-ahead jumper (more on why in a minute), and the Celtics might have had an opportunity to win the game with just under 10 seconds remaining if Jaylen Brown hadn’t missed a box out on Kelly Oubre, who laid the put-back up and in. That left the Celtics with 8.7 seconds and a two-point deficit.
The Celtics got further unlucky on the final play, and once again Celtics fans might be looking to the Last Two Minute report for cold comfort tomorrow around 5 p.m.: After Derrick White inbounded to Brown, Brown dished back to him for a 1-on-1 advantage against Andre Drummond. Drummond poked the ball free, but he appeared to make a lot of contact with White’s arm as he did so. White’s heave found the hands of Neemias Queta, who rushed his put-back attempt a bit and couldn’t send the game to overtime.
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The Celtics can take a lot of positives from Tuesday’s game, but one of the biggest reasons Joe Mazzulla preaches details so often in regards to this team is that without paying close attention to them, winning becomes a lot more difficult.
Jordan Walsh remained a major positive.
The Jordan Walsh emergence continued on Tuesday with nearly 30 good minutes off the bench. In something of a surprise move, Walsh started the second half, and he played the closing minutes – locking up Tyrese Maxey on three consecutive possessions by staying with the speedy star in isolation, slithering over screens and making Maxey work for his shots with his length and athleticism. Walsh’s defensive instincts and footwork are surprising given his gangly build, but his versatility was on full display, and he finished with two steals and two blocks in addition to his seven rebounds.
Offensively, Walsh remains a bit of a shaky spacing option, but he did make one of his three 3-point attempts – not unlike Sunday’s game clincher, the shot was created off a pass by Brown, who trusted the 21-year-old with a shot in the corner. The Celtics also use him as a screener, which can be a useful job for a player with his level of energy and effort.
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Walsh seems to be forcing his way into the rotation, and given that there still seems to be a starting spot up for grabs on this Celtics roster, he may get his first start of the year (and the third start of his NBA career) in the near future.
Even if he doesn’t, the last few games have done a lot for Walsh’s career – he has gone from something of a questionable NBA player by relatively common consensus to someone that Mazzulla keeps on the floor down the stretch in a close game.
No Josh Minott in the second half.
In perhaps related news, Minott sat down with 6:35 remaining in the first quarter and remained on the bench until midway through the second. Once he re-entered the game, he did very little – committing a pair of shooting fouls before Mazzulla sat him back down again.
Minott, who started the game and has been a major part of the rotation over the last few weeks, never returned. He finished the game with three points and one rebound after playing just over eight minutes.
After the game, Mazzulla was asked if he spoke to Minott about the decision to keep him on the bench and simply said that the conversation would remain “between Josh and myself” – a somewhat ominous way of phrasing things, even if that wasn’t Mazzulla’s intent.
Derrick White made some 3-pointers.
White still wasn’t efficient (18 points on 7-for-20 shooting), but seeing him get a few shots to fall (4-for-11 from three) felt like progress. His new 3-point celebration appears to be covering his eyes and ears which isn’t quite as catchy as finding a pocket full of 3-pointers, but perhaps given his cold streak, a motto of “See no evil, hear no evil” with the media – whether news or social – might be for the best.
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White added a pair of blocks and seven assists, and his final heave was a pretty high IQ decision even if it didn’t work out – rather than trying to create something better that almost certainly wouldn’t have materialized in the two seconds afforded him, he threw up a prayer of a triple presumably knowing that since Drummond was fouling him on the perimeter, he wasn’t under the rim to prevent Queta from having a shot at the game-winner.
Your daily update on the shooters missing shots.
Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard finished a combined 2-for-9 from 3-point range, which isn’t particularly notable except to continue to note that the Celtics’ already small margin for error becomes a heck of a lot smaller when two of their best shooters can’t find the range.
The Celtics have still been 15.3 points per 100 possessions better with Pritchard on the floor as opposed to on the bench – he finds a lot of ways to contribute even if he isn’t making shots, but they are anxiously awaiting his water to find its level, and it remains stubbornly low.
The Celtics are taking a ton of long twos.
Were you someone who complained about the number of 3-pointers the Celtics took last year? If so, we have good news for you: This year’s team is taking the second-most long mid-range shots in the league. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics are taking 13.3 percent of their shots from long mid-range – a number that will only go up after they took 23.3 percent of their shots from long mid-range against the Sixers.
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The bad news, of course, is that this year’s team is also taking the fewest shots at the rim and the second-fewest corner 3s, and perhaps as a result of lacking those two highly efficient options, the Celtics have the 23rd best effective field-goal percentage (52.6) and the 16th-best offense overall after finishing third last year and first during their championship run in 2024 when the threes were flowing fast and easy.
Hugo González twisted both ankles.
The rookie had a difficult game. In the third quarter, defending Tyrese Maxey, González took a step back to contain the Sixers star, only to take an awkward step and tweak his left ankle a bit, although he remained in the game.
A few minutes later, González had a more painful looking injury – after an impressive steal, he raced up the floor with Quentin Grimes trailing him, but as he planted to go up for a layup, his ankle twisted outward painfully and he traveled as he tried to regain his footing and toss up a prayer of a layup. González was immediately removed from the game and went to the locker room.
The good news: As we’ve noted before this season, 19-year-olds bounce back quickly from injury, and González was upgraded to “available” midway through the fourth quarter, although he didn’t return. We’ll see how sore he is in the morning, but even if he misses the second night of the back-to-back, he will then have a few days off to recover.
What’s next
The Celtics will now head back to Boston to take on the Grizzlies on Wednesday, wrapping up their three-games-in-four-nights stretch. After that, they get three days off before the Clippers visit on Sunday, followed by a trip to Brooklyn to take on the Nets in a week.
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