BOSTON — With 1.1 seconds on the shot clock late in the fourth quarter Wednesday, the Boston Celtics had the benefit of time on their side as the Philadelphia 76ers set up to run a sideline out-of-bounds play. Barring a breakdown, Boston should have had a great chance to at least force a tough, contested look.
A stop would have kept the Celtics’ deficit at 5 points, perhaps a manageable hole for them to overcome with more than a minute left. Joe Mazzulla’s team just could not avoid a costly defensive mistake.
“We just didn’t execute it,” Mazzulla said. “You know, the body position is important, and we just didn’t execute that.”
Payton Pritchard, initially defending the inbounder, switched onto Tyrese Maxey as the 76ers guard curled around a Joel Embiid screen. But Pritchard didn’t stay between Maxey and the basket. Nobody did. Maxey sliced straight toward the basket without a single Celtics player in the right place to stop him. He bobbled the ball but still had time to retrieve possession and finish a layup before the shot clock expired. Boston proceeded to fall 118-114 for its first two-game losing skid of the season.
That one defensive possession didn’t necessarily doom the Celtics. By the time it happened, they would have been in a rough situation regardless of how that single play unfolded. Still, their disregard for the details in such a key moment highlighted the state of their recent play. The steadiest team in the NBA since the beginning of last season, the Celtics have encountered ups and downs while losing four of their last seven games.
“We’re playing inconsistent basketball,” said Mazzulla. “So we’ve got to be better at both ends of the floor. Got to be more consistent at both ends of the floor.”
Al Horford called Mazzulla’s criticism fair. Jaylen Brown similarly echoed the sentiment. Jayson Tatum said the Celtics need to “get back to ourselves — our identity.” He believes they have not lived up to their usual brand of basketball lately. Those three players, all locker room leaders in their own ways, seemed to agree their team is working through a real rut.
“I think we’ve got to take some ownership,” Tatum said. “We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to acknowledge the things we’ve done that are not so great. We’ve got to look in the mirror and man up. We’ve just got to be better. We fully believe in ourselves, the things we can do when we’re fully locked in, and we’ve done it time and time again. We’ve just had some lapses recently and we’ve just got to get back on track.”
Jayson Tatum says Boston needs to man up and be better:
“We gotta be better. We gotta acknowledge the things that we’ve done not so great. We gotta look in the mirror and man up and we just gotta be better.”
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With a dangerous January schedule looming, the Celtics have fallen four games out of first place in the Eastern Conference. Their position in the standings likely doesn’t bother them as much as the truth that they haven’t regularly played up to their standard recently.
They rank ninth in defensive efficiency after finishing last season in second place. They have dropped from second to 15th in 3-point shooting percentage, an eye-opening stat considering the amount of great outside shooters on their roster. Over the last week, they could not handle the 13-17 Chicago Bulls, the 11-17 76ers or an Orlando Magic squad missing Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. (An illness sidelined Tatum during the loss to the Magic.)
“I just think that we have to really dive into our work a little more and understand that we can’t relax during periods of the game, no matter the circumstance,” Horford said. “We have to make sure that we’re a little better in that regard and with this group, I know that we’re capable of getting it together. Now, we have to look at this opportunity to play Indiana and come out and have a better performance with the effort and the intensity that it requires.”
The Celtics went 37-4 at home last regular season. They have now dropped five of their first 16 games at TD Garden this season. On Christmas, a lack of energy in the first half hurt them. The Celtics forced just one turnover before halftime. According to NBC Sports Boston statistician Dick Lipe, it was the first time since Dec. 12, 2014, that Boston played the first half of a regular season home game without collecting a steal or block. The Celtics drained 11 of their first 26 3-point attempts but still trailed by 16 points late in the second quarter partly because they couldn’t score anywhere else. They made just three shots from inside the arc and zero free throws over the first 21 minutes. Also with eight turnovers during that time, the Celtics found all sorts of ways to fall behind despite their strong outside shooting.
“I just think we just came out too casual,” Brown said. “I just think we was walking to our spots. Nobody was sprinting down the floor, just kind of hanging around, just trying to veer back to get the ball instead of just pushing it down the court and just being aggressive. I feel like we just started off the game just slow, and they took advantage of that.”
As poorly as the Celtics played during parts of the first half, the start of the fourth quarter crushed them. Without Embiid on the court, the 76ers started the period on a 26-12 run. Maxey and Caleb Martin hit a string of key shots to open a 108-94 lead. Though the Celtics upped their intensity to respond with 11 straight points, they failed to pull any closer than 108-105 down the stretch.
Tyrese Maxey drives past Payton Pritchard in the second half. (Michael Dwyer / Associated Press)
The Celtics’ 3-point shooting didn’t count as a problem against Philadelphia but has been surprisingly streaky lately. Even after shooting 20 for 49 (40.8 percent) on 3-pointers against the 76ers, the Celtics rank 22nd in 3-point percentage during December (34.2 percent). If they finish the month at the same percentage, it would count as their worst shooting month since the beginning of last season.
Even if they are due for some positive regression, the Celtics aren’t used to such struggles. They never lost more than two straight games during their run to the 2024 championship. They rolled through the playoffs without losing more than once in any series. Though Kristaps Porziņģis dealt with several injury issues, the other key players experienced good health. Tatum, Brown and Derrick White each played at least 70 games in the regular season and all 19 games in the playoffs. Pritchard and Sam Hauser missed a total of three games between them across the regular season and postseason combined.
“I just think that every year is different and it’s unique with the challenges it presents,” Horford said. “And for us, we’re figuring out being in this position (as the defending champion). And one of the things that doesn’t get necessarily talked about: Last year I felt like we were pretty healthy throughout. And I think this year has been a lot of in-and-outs, and guys filling in, and guys doing this and doing that. So there’s different dynamics. So, it’s just different. I just think we continue to figure it out.”
Porziņģis, who has only played 11 games after missing the start of the season due to offseason ankle surgery, dealt with more bad injury luck Wednesday when he tweaked his left ankle during the first half. Though he was able to keep playing through the pain early, he did not return after halftime, leaving the Celtics to start Luke Kornet in the third quarter.
Porziņģis did not appear to have much of a limp while leaving the Boston locker room after the game. Even if he avoided serious injury, his mid-game departure represented another setback for the Celtics. Brown, like Horford, suggested shifting lineups have produced some of the team’s rocky play.
A 22-8 record with the NBA’s third-best net rating (9.1) would represent a phenomenal start for most teams. For the Celtics, that start just doesn’t quite measure up to last season’s championship pace.
Their worst record in a calendar month last season was 11-5. They are 6-5 so far in December. Such a slide doesn’t necessarily mean much for an entire season, but has their attention now.
“There’s things that we’ve got to address,” Tatum said. “We’ve got to be better. It’s still a long season. Nobody’s panicking. We’ve got to navigate the emotional roller coaster of the NBA season. It feels a lot worse than it actually is.
“We’re not panicking or anything. We’ve just to to man up and look in the mirror and figure out some things that we’ve got to do better at. Everybody’s fully capable, and we’ve always done a really good job of responding, and I have no doubt that we will. So I’m not panicking, but we’ve got to be better, and we will.”
(Top photo of Jayson Tatum attempting a basket against Joel Embiid: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)
