After Getting Embarrassed By The Nets On Their Home Floor, It's Quite Possible The Celtics Have A Humiliation Kink

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

Ah, much better. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, that's just my body's natural reaction to watching the Boston Celtics, playing at home on 2 days rest, essentially get their doors blown off by the 2 win Brooklyn Nets. Look, I don't care if this is a gap year, a tank year, a transition year, whatever the hell you want to call it. There is still a baseline of expectation, and I don't want to be too much of a hard ass, but for me, that baseline is that the Celtics regardless of who is available or not available should be able to handle one of the worst teams in the NBA on their home floor while coming off 2 days rest. 

I know, I know, that's expecting a lot, but I can't help it. 

In any other type of season, last night's disaster would have had me crashing out. I mean we've seen the Celts have some bad losses over the years, but this is somewhere high on that list, even given their current situation. I don't know what it is, but the second the Celts are deemed a double-digit favorite, this is always what happens. That shit dates back years. So far this season, we saw it in the UTA loss at home, and now again last night. At some point, if you are trying to have a real season you need to be able to beat the worst teams in the league on your own floor. That's like Step 1. Beat the bad teams.

So far, this has pretty much been the story of the Celts season. Just when they start to build some momentum and take a step forward, they regress. After the 3 wins in a row to get to 3-3? They lost 3 of their next 4, including that UTA loss with 2 of those losses coming at home. After another 3 wins in a row to finally get over .500 and an opportunity to build momentum before a tough stretch in the schedule? We get this brutal loss at home. I hate to break it to you, but good teams, teams that win in the mid 40s, don't do that. The Celts so far are 4-4 at home and 4-4 on the road, or as one might call it, perfectly mid. 

After the first 10 games (UTA loss), the next set of 15 games was going to give us a good idea of who this team is, given our sample of games would then sit at 25, or basically a quarter of the season. They needed to finish that set 9-6 to be on an above .500 pace. Here was the schedule

After last night, the Celts now sit at 5-3. Not great! That means of the ORL/DET/MIN/CLE/NYK/WSH/LAL gauntlet, anything other than a 4-3 finish means this team will be on an under-40-win pace through 25 games. That's why giving away games against the Nets is problematic. Those are the ones you can't lose. 

Even though my brain knows that a loss like this in a twisted way helps you both from a Nets win total standpoint and your own potential pick, I still can't sit here and tell you losing to the worst team in the NBA is OK or shouldn't piss you off. The Celtics are trying to win at the moment, which is what makes this so embarrassing. 

Alright, I think we all get it. Let's dive in.

The Good

- New blog rule. If you lose at home to a 2 win team coming off 2 days rest, you do not get a Good section spinzone. 

You don't think I want to talk about Jordan Walsh clearly having a very real moment right now? You don't think I want to finally give Anfernee Simons some credit for playing pretty well? You don't think I want to talk about Queta's development? Of course I do, but we have to draw the line somewhere, and a performance like last night does not earn you the opportunity to be praised.

Let this be a lesson that I'm sure will have a real impact moving forward. 

The Bad

- OK, where do we begin. If it's alright with you, I'd like to start on the defensive end of the floor. For the most part this season, the defense has actually been a pleasant surprise. As someone that expected a bottom 3rd ranked defense, the fact that the Celts have had a top 10 defense so far this season was pretty impressive. 

But a game like last night reminded me of why I had my worries about that end of the floor. Allowing 113 points on 52/39% splits is disgusting. In fact, I'm pretty sure this was the best offensive performance of the Nets season, which is both hilarious and annoying as fuck. Things first started to flip in the 2nd quarter which saw the Celts allow 40 points to one of the lowest ranked offenses in the NBA. I mean what the hell is this defensive effort??

The worst part was things were tied at around the 2:30 mark and then a 6 point game with 1 minute left to go in the quarter. Not great, but just survive the final 60 seconds and regroup. What happened? Minott came in for Garza so the Celts were playing small, and boom, more disaster.

Not to worry, the Celts would follow that bullshit up with another gross 12 minutes in the 3rd, this time allowing 30 points on 55/42% splits. I'm sorry, but giving up 70 points to the Nets in two quarters on your home floor is so indefensible I don't even know what else to say. It's the very definition of bad basketball. As we know, in the NBA if you don't defend, you die. It doesn't matter who you play.

Once again, the Celts could not defend without fouling. I know their turnovers are up and that's maybe the price you pay for that approach unless you're OKC, but the fact remains that this team is complete dogshit when it comes to defending without fouling. Every opponent's drive is a foul. And I'm not even suggesting the Celts are getting a bad whistle on those plays. They are fouling. Last night marked the 16th straight game the Celts lost the FT battle, which is now the 2nd longest active streak in NBA history.

In the end, the foul difference was 25-17. That should surprise nobody, considering the Celts rank 27th in fouls per game at 23.6. This doesn't just matter in terms of FTA, but also in terms of what it then does to the rotation and the roster. Jaylen's 5 fouls were massive (even if the 5th was bullshit), because it forced him to leave a 3 point game in the 3rd quarter, which then got away from the Celts.

Queta's foul trouble meant we had to rely more on Garza, which is never ideal considering his limitations and love of committing AND1 fouls. It feels like every time a player attacks Simons, he fouls. Until the Celts figure out their fouling issue, things like this will continue to happen.

And when they weren't fouling? They had no answer for MPJ coming off a high screen. The Nets kept spamming it and the Celts had no answer for it outside of the Hugo minutes. Almost no point of attack resistence, bigs sagging way too far off their man which allowed easy passing lanes, it was all bad.

- I know there are a whole lot of people who refuse to accept it and don't want to hear it, but the Celts need to be taking more 3s. Just 34 3PA in this game once again proved not to be enough (they lost the 3PM math). Another game in which the majority of their FGA were 2s (63%), and once again, they struggled to break 100 points and lost a game they had no business losing.

If that feels familiar, it's because that has been the formula in each of their last 3 losses (ORL, PHI, BKN)

vs ORL: 37 3PA

vs PHI: 38 3PA

vs BKN: 34 3PA

This approach also exists in a handful of their earlier losses in the season as well. Trading 3s for contested 2s is not smart, especially when those 2s are contested midrange/paint FGA. I do always find it funny that so many people cry about 3pt volume and playstyle when they lose a game with a high number, but you never hear a WORD about things when they lose a game taking sub-40. The individual shot creation outside of Jaylen is not good enough to rely on contested 2s. Period. 

- At some point, Sam Hauser is going to need to snap out of his funk. It wasn't just the 0-3 (0-3) performance, but it was also the fact that his struggles are starting to bleed into other areas of his game. Poor defense, poor decision making, he was virtually unplayable last night, which is a tad concerning. If the threes aren't dropping then you need to find a way to make a winning impact in other areas, and that most definitely did not happen. If anything, he only made things worse.

Perhaps this is where we could see more Minott/Hugo, but at the end of the day, Hauser simply needs to be better. All that weight should not have to be put on a minimum unproven wing and a 19 year old rookie.

- Being down by as much as 18 points at home to this Nets team, I mean have some goddamn pride. Woof.

- After struggling in his first audition for Brad Stevens, Nic Claxton was MUCH better this time around. Queta had no answer for him defensively as he either finished right through him or got to the line. Garza definitely had no shot in that matchup, and who knows maybe this was enough for Brad to decide to save Claxton. He tends to remember when guys go off against the Celts, so we'll see.

But 18/11/12 is a little much. Most of those assists were just handoffs to MPJ, but whatever. The bigger point was that nobody had an answer for Claxton in this game, and that was concerning. 

- If getting down by 18 wasn't annoying enough, the Celts actually clawed their way back and made it a 96-94 game with 5:16 left. Plenty of time to close the game outt and avoid a brutal loss. How'd things go from that moment on?

A 17-11 BKN close. The Celts scored just 3 points in nearly 3 minutes after Walsh cut the lead to 2, and it was nothing but poor execution on both ends. Missing open looks, allowing open looks, missing FTs, lazy defense, it was everything you absolutely cannot do when you're trying to win a game in the 4th quarter. 

So bad. So, so bad.

The Ugly

- It's no secret that in the NBA, guard play is so important. On this team, given the guards are the #2 and #3 options, I'd say its even more important than usual. Unfortunately for the Celts, their guard play was complete and utter ass.

Derrick White: 2-13 (1-7) 

Payton Pritchard: 5-13 (3-9)

While Pritchard has started to snap out of his funk, the same cannot be said about Derrick and his struggles are really starting to impact W/Ls. Through 16 games, White is now shooting 34/29% from the floor, which isn't even in the same galaxy of what his role requires. His production is too important to no show like this, and while it's true he's been AWESOME defensively, it's also true that his offensive struggles have been a major factor in a handful of these early season losses. It can't all just be Jaylen Brown when it comes to consistent scoring production. 

The worst part? It wasn't just the 3PA. DWhite really struggled on his 2s, including his brutal smoked bunny in a huge spot

I don't really care that being a #2 may not be White's ideal spot in the pecking order. That is the reality of this season, and I don't think that should have anything to do with his ability to finish layups and open 3s. But as he continues to struggle, you're going to have results like this. 

It also doesn't help when you get a Pritchard no-show at the same time. There's just not enough scoring on this roster to make up for the #2 and #3 guys going a combined 7-26 (4-16). It doesn't matter if you're playing OKC or BKN, you're not going to overcome that lack of production. It's not like either guy was getting to the line either (a combined 2 FTA), and even when they did, Derrick went 1-2. 

For as long as those two struggle or are inconsistent, the team will be inconsistent. Jaylen did his part with 26 points on 9-18 shooting. Walsh was great in his minutes. Queta gave you an efficient 16 and even Simons was holding up his end with 23 off the bench on 10-16. 

To me, the backcourt struggles are what hurt the most, and that's how you lose a game you most definitely should not have lost.

Given the gauntlet on the horizon, this is a bit of an inflection point in the Celts season. We're about to get a good idea of which direction Brad Stevens will take this team coming out of these next 7 games, and if we get through 25 games and the Celts are like 6 games under .500? Well that pretty much tells you what direction they'll go. If they have a great run and finish it 4-3 and are over .500? The opposite will be true. 

But if they play like we just saw last night, I think we all know which one of those two options they'll fall under.