Lessons The Celtics Learned From Their Humiliating Loss Against The Nuggets.

Lessons The Celtics Learned From Their Humiliating Loss Against The Nuggets.

The Boston Celtics suffered their second straight loss of the season on Thursday night, losing 115-109 to the Denver Nuggets in a thrilling game that taught the NBA’s most successful club a few important lessons.

Throughout their first 48 victories, the Boston Celtics haven’t had many noteworthy cold streaks,

but following consecutive losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets, they could have finally established one.

Derrick White was benched, Jayson Tatum was embarrassed, and the bench scored just 10 points of offense.

According to an NBC Sports Boston video, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters,

“We had a wide-open shot, a great shot, and we just didn’t make it.” The team had a chance to take the lead with 40 seconds remaining in the game.

And they even gave us a wide-open three there with, I believe, 12 seconds remaining on four points.

We therefore had our opportunities, and those are amplified when you play a superior squad.

That won’t be enough to defeat many formidable teams or the reigning NBA champions, who stand in Boston’s path of hoisting Banner 18.

The Celtics should keep the following three things in mind going forward:

1.) Basketball played well wins out in the end.
Denver has been the gold standard for effective basketball in recent years.

They find opportunities that allow for easy scoring by tricking defenses with a lot of cutting, movement, and off-ball screens.

Although the Celtics were never behind the Nuggets by more than 12 points, Denver’s lead was always securely maintained.

Despite missing three 3-pointers in a row in the second quarter, the Nuggets managed to outscore Boston 32–26 in that period.

Instead, all of Denver’s second-quarter points came from inside the arc,

including a buzzer-beater bank shot from Jokic that gave Denver a 62-54 advantage at the break.

Boston had a few chances, but they were not very good from three, going 11 for 38 and occasionally being too careless.

The Celtics only scored eight fast-break points while committing 12 turnovers. Boston found it difficult to adjust to a more flexible offensive strategy when it was necessary,

and it is even more difficult to do so when facing a club that is the NBA’s best in scoring variety.

2.) Margin of all kinds should always be considered
Looking at the box score alone, it’s easy to see why Denver controlled the most of the 48 minutes against Boston.

In a number of categories, including field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, assists, steals,

and points in the paint, the Celtics fell short of the Nuggets.

It’s difficult to fall into such a big deficit, miss nine free throw opportunities,

shoot only 28.9% from three, and yet have a chance to win all four quarters.

To Boston’s credit, though, Mazzulla’s team accomplished just that.

With fewer than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter,

Boston managed an encouraging 12-point run to trim Denver’s lead to 109-106, but they were still defeated.

With less than a minute remaining on a three-on-two, the Celtics lost a good opportunity to tie the game at 111-111.

Instead, they fed Tatum open in the corner, where the 26-year-old failed, allowing the Nuggets a chance to extend their lead, which they did.

That was the biggest chance to apply some late-game pressure on Denver,

but instead, Boston sold and found a way to abuse a perfect opportunity.

3.) In key matches, Jayson Tatum’s aggressiveness must come naturally; it cannot be forced.
Tatum’s last-second shot attempt summed up his worst weakness from the disastrous playoff run he had the previous season.

Tatum was virtually invisible in the third quarter, making only two attempts at a crucial period of time, one of which was an unsuccessful open layup.

That continued until the fourth quarter, evoking unsettling memories of the latter portion of the Eastern Conference finals series against the Miami Heat from the previous year.

Tatum doesn’t need to be reminded anymore of when the Celtics need him to turn the game around.

Tatum went 2-of-7 from the field to end the second half, missing the game’s biggest shot for the second straight time.

Simply said, Boston’s top option failed to perform, which ultimately gave the Nuggets the opportunity to sweep the season series.
Tatum finished 39 minutes with a team-high five turnovers and just 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting. In the end,

that held the Celtics back and put them to the losing column for the fourteenth time this season, but the gap it left was mostly sustainable.

As was the case after Boston’s loss to the Cavaliers on Tuesday night, the Nuggets supplied plenty of reasons for the Celtics to self reflect and recalibrate with now 20 games left to go before the playoffs commence.

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