Saturday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks would possibly’ve been the worst of the season for the Boston Celtics. What’s actually unhappy is that I might’ve used that line two different occasions within the final eight days.
It was fairly robust to think about that they’d be capable of prime the lifeless effort that they confirmed up at Scotiabank Area in Toronto on Wednesday, however they did. Boston’s thirteenth lack of the season had all of it: missed layups, poor protection, second-chance factors, questionable offense, and game-costing psychological lapses.
Let’s take a fast stroll by means of the home of horrors, lets?
The Cs truly began this sport fairly sturdy and left the primary quarter with a 12-point lead over Atlanta. Followers obtained their first warning that they could possibly be in for it early within the second when Boston SMOKED back-to-back fastbreak possibilities.
They spent the rest of the quarter lacking shot after shot because the Hawks flew previous them to seize the lead. The Celtics shot simply 5-21 within the interval and turned the ball over six occasions. It was a BRUTAL watch (as has been the final month and a half).
Although Boston recovered properly within the third quarter, they nonetheless sprinkled in some spectacular misses from point-blank vary.
Contemplating this sport went to extra time, these misses simply damage that rather more.
If you wish to speak about ache, look no additional than the fourth quarter. It wouldn’t be a January Celtics loss with out a fourth quarter letdown, now would it not?
Boston’s unfocused protection reared its ugly head as they allowed Atlanta to climb again as soon as once more.
It’s unbelievable. We’ve seen performs like those above in a number of of those current losses. There was completely no sustained change by some means. Positive, they appeared good towards the Orlando Magic on Friday night time, however that type of effort was nowhere to be discovered after they wanted it.
The lone vibrant spot on this sport was Payton Pritchard’s sizzling scoring stretch that fueled the offense within the fourth.
He poured in 13 factors on 5-6 from the sector, together with this behemoth triple at a reasonably necessary a part of the sport.
THIS WAS THE LAST SHOT THAT HE HAD.
HOW???????
The man simply injected life right into a crew that appeared useless for half the quarter after which he’s simply ignored?
The Celtics actually wasted a possession attempting to change Trae Younger off of Pritchard and onto Jayson Tatum, so Tatum might assault him, just for it to lead to a 30-foot heave.
Why wouldn’t they simply let Pritchard work on Younger?
In fact, everybody noticed, or not less than is aware of about, absolutely the catastrophe stretch on the finish of regulation. That’s proper, “stretch,” not “second.” This wasn’t only one mistake — it was a number of. After Onyeka Okungwu threw a foul move out of bounds, it felt just like the Cs have been about to dribble the clock out for his or her thirtieth win of the yr.
Then this occurred.
Boston was nonetheless in management and determined to take a foul to present the Hawks two free throws to guard the three-point lead. The second when the Cs misplaced management was when Jayson Tatum went 1-2 from the road on the next possession, solely transferring the lead again as much as two, somewhat than three.
Everybody knew what the distinction was, aside from Jrue Vacation, who unintentionally fouled Trae Younger and gave him a pair of free throws to ship the sport to extra time. The sequence of unforced errors erased a much-needed win from the win column.
What cemented it within the loss column was the lack to complete defensive possessions in extra time. I’m not going to go in and pull clips of this. What I can inform you is that the Hawks solely missed 4 photographs in OT. That they had three offensive rebounds, one in all which got here with an opportunity for Boston to safe possession and an opportunity to win the sport.
We’ve reached a degree the place the Celtics try to inform us who they’re and we’re simply going to need to pay attention. It’s going to take fairly a bit now to persuade me they’ve figured one thing out. Friday’s win was nice, nevertheless it clearly did nothing. All the unhealthy habits resurfaced as soon as the threes stopped discovering the underside of the web — the way in which it’s gone all season.
