They must face their flaws
PHOENIX — Perhaps the luster has been knocked off the Celtics’ run to the NBA championship, prompted by a horrible fourth-quarter meltdown in Cleveland and the miscues committed against the defending champion Nuggets.
What these losses have taught the Celtics is they are not without room for improvement. They regained their footing and took a step forward Saturday in their 117-107 win over the Suns at Phoenix’s Footprint Center. Boston is now eight games ahead of the second-place Cavaliers and its magic number is 11 to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
There’s still plenty of reason for optimism. But the Celtics should be upset about losing the previous two games. The Cleveland loss displayed a lack of concentration, some poor game management by coach Joe Mazzulla, and missed defensive assignments in the final minutes.
The Nuggets, however, seemingly had an answer for every Celtics run and Boston guarded poorly in stretches, allowing the Nuggets to score 66 points in the paint. They were bewildered by two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who drew defenders because Kristaps Porzingis wasn’t strong enough to check him in the paint, and then tossed the ball to a leaping Aaron Gordon for dunks.
Of Gordon’s eight baskets, seven were dunks and the other was a 3-foot finger roll. The Celtics had no answer for Gordon lurking in the dunker’s spot and he was the beneficiary of either Jokic or Jamal Murray penetrating, drawing two defenders, and dishing. On several occasions a Celtics player just didn’t account for Gordon, choosing to help on defense and leave one of the league’s more athletic players to make highlight plays.
The Celtics were determined not to allow the Nuggets to shoot 3-pointers and they succeeded, but Denver countered with dribble penetration to occupy Porzingis, Al Horford, or Xavier Tillman and then opted for a layup from Jokic or a lob to Gordon.
“Too many mistakes,” forward Jaylen Brown said. “Against a good team, you’ve got to take advantage. Missing defensive assignments. We’ve got to be better at that and it starts with me, starts with the top, it starts with Jayson [Tatum]. We made too many mistakes and it cost us the game.”
Denver shot nearly 60 percent on 2pointers and its offensive approach challenged the Celtics’ rim protection. Neither Horford nor Tillman are rim protectors. Boston also had no one to match up with Gordon, who is the size of a power forward with elite athleticism.
Mazzulla and his staff have three months to work on a potential rematch with the Nuggets, but other clubs will adopt Denver’s recipe.
The Celtics’ offense was stagnant those two games, save a marvelous 41-point effort from Brown against Denver. After scoring 14 points in 20 minutes in the runaway win over the Warriors, Derrick White combined for 10 in the two losses on 4-for-13 shooting, including 0 for 6 from the 3-point line.
When White is offensively ineffective, the Celtics struggle to find easy baskets.
Tatum, who was never offensively engaged against Denver, entered Saturday having shot 6 for 25 from the field and 2 for 8 from the 3-point line over his last six quarters. He bounced back with 29 points (22 in the second half ) along with 10 rebounds and seven assists. Against the elite teams, Tatum must be a constant offensive threat.
When asked what the Nuggets did to hold Tatum to 13 shots, Brown said: “I’m not sure. I think they were just trying to break his rhythm a little bit, not allow him to get going, make him settle for isolation shots. That’s why we’ve got to find different spots to help him out. But also, when you do get those opportunities, you’ve got to be more aggressive. In transition opportunities, when you do get the mismatches, you’ve got to go right away.”
The Celtics’ schedule gets considerably easier. Of their final 19 games, two against the Bucks, a rematch with Phoenix, and home games against the Thunder, Kings, and Knicks are the most difficult.
The focus has to be avoiding too much stagnant offense while also improving bench production. The Boston reserves combined for 23 points in the losses to the Cavaliers and Nuggets. When Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Horford aren’t scoring, that places more pressure on the starters. The Celtics have to avoid being too top heavy.
The issue is lack of opportunities. The Celtics are 28th in the NBA in bench scoring but fifth in bench shooting percentage and third in 3-point percentage. The reserves are producing but aren’t playing as much as other clubs. The reserves are 29th in the league in minutes played. So when the starters aren’t producing, especially against elite teams, the Celtics’ offense suffers. An offense averaging 120.8 points per game, third in the league, scored just 106.5 in their most recent two losses
The bench was a major factor Saturday, combining for 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting, including 14 points from Luke Kornet. Saturday was considered progress after a stagnant previous two games.
“That’s what basketball is about, that’s what the journey is about,” Brown said. “It’s about growth, it’s about improvement, it’s about team, and we’ve got to embrace the journey. We’re not perfect. We expect that [we need to improve]. This is an opportunity for us to learn. Things didn’t go our way, but the environment was great, the intensity level was great, we played hard, and we had opportunities to win.
“We have to be able to be smart.”