BOSTON — The final seven seconds packed everything that killed the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night.
They gave up an offensive rebound. They committed a turnover. They still had one final chance to overcome the short-handed Atlanta Hawks after stealing an inbounds pass with some help from an inadvertent whistle, but couldn’t quite summon the level of shot making necessary to overcome their other blunders.
Jaylen Brown failed to find the bottom of the net with a hanging jumper that would have given his team a win. Jayson Tatum and Joe Mazzulla believed the outcome, a 117-116 loss for the Celtics, was a just one.
“We didn’t play well enough to deserve the win,” said Tatum.
“They outplayed us,” echoed Mazzulla. “Every facet of the game. Beat us on all the margins. They deserved to win.”
For as much talent as the Celtics possess, they often win games because of how sound they are analytically. Their ability to create 3-point attempts draws most of the attention, but they usually give themselves mathematical advantages in several key categories. Entering Tuesday, they ranked second in turnover rate, second in opposing free-throw rate and ninth in defensive rebound rate. They pride themselves on being the smarter, tougher team. When they are both of those things, they squeeze out extra possessions by playing sharper basketball than their opponents.
During a comeback win Saturday in Milwaukee, the Celtics won despite shooting worse than the Bucks from the field and the 3-point arc. Boston produced five more field goal attempts, 18 more 3-point attempts and six more free throw attempts than the Bucks. It would have been hard for the Celtics to lose that game. They had math on their side.
In an outlier performance, Boston botched some of its usual advantages against the Hawks. The Celtics committed 20 turnovers, five more than their previous season high. They gave up 20 offensive rebounds, four more than they had allowed in any game this season. They outshot Atlanta from the field (50.7 percent to 50.0 percent) and the 3-point arc (40 percent to 31.3 percent) while making 15 more free-throw attempts, but still lost for so many of the reasons that often lead to their victories. Atlanta produced 25 more field goal attempts than the Celtics.
“You let a team outshoot you by a shot margin like that,” Mazzulla said, “and you’re not going to win.”
The Celtics didn’t recognize themselves during the opener of the NBA Cup group stage.
“Just I think mentally we were careless tonight,” said Brown. “We expected to win. Too careless and it showed. I think the No. 1 category it showed in is our turnovers. Uncharacteristic of us to have 20 turnovers in any circumstance. I think that just displayed that we weren’t in sync like we normally are, so we’ve got to be better at that, and I’ve got to be better at that.”
Brown scored 37 points but committed six turnovers. Tatum added another five turnovers, giving the two All-Stars 11 combined.
“I still give Atlanta credit,” Brown said. “They came out and played physical. But me and JT need to be better.”
How bad was Boston’s loss? The Hawks were severely banged up with Trae Young (Achilles) joining Bojan Bogdanovic (hamstring) and De’Andre Hunter (personal reasons) all sidelined. That left them thin enough to start Keaton Wallace, a guard on a two-way contract. Asked how much all of the backcourt attrition would impact the team, coach Quin Snyder said it would be like a football team missing its top three quarterbacks.
“You run the ball,” Snyder said.
The Celtics let them run it right up the gut like Derrick Henry. The Hawks only made 10 3-pointers, eight fewer than Boston, but more than made up for it with 68 points in the paint. Four Atlanta players racked up at least three offensive rebounds: Clint Capela (six), Zaccharie Risacher (five), Onyeka Okongwu (four) and Jalen Johnson (three). Even with Young, the Hawks have been a subpar outside shooting team this season. The Celtics must have known they mostly just needed to pack the paint, but still couldn’t keep the Hawks from scoring down low and dominating on the glass.
“We’re a team that likes to be able to switch, but you’ve got to rebound and you’ve got to be able to fight,” Brown said. “Some of those bigs, they got a lot of seals tonight. Okongwu and Capela did a good job offensive rebounding and sealing some of our switches and made us pay for it. We’ve just got to fight better. We didn’t fight how we normally do tonight.”
BIG O FOR THE WIN pic.twitter.com/yGZnbvcuRb
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 13, 2024
Even in the final minute, the Celtics failed to execute with their usual level of focus. After they took a 116-113 lead, an apparent miscommunication between Brown and Derrick White allowed Wallace to walk into an open floater. His bucket pulled the Hawks within one point. Tatum rattled out a wide-open 3-point attempt from the corner on the ensuing Boston possession, leaving Atlanta with a chance to take the lead. Dyson Daniels missed a floater in the lane, but Okongwu tipped it in with 6.1 seconds left to put the Hawks ahead 117-116.
Following a timeout, the Celtics committed another crucial mistake. They tried to inbound the ball to Tatum, but Jrue Holiday’s pass skidded out of bounds. Tatum complained to the referee in the moment, but later pinned the turnover on himself.
“I gotta grab the ball,” Tatum said, “so that was on me.”
That play counted as Boston’s 20th turnover. As much as the Hawks missed Young’s offense, they were longer, more athletic and more disruptive without him. Daniels, who finished with six steals, easily leads the NBA in that category. Risacher, the No. 1 pick, stands as a 6-foot-9 wing. He and Jalen Johnson, another big and bouncy forward, each had three steals.
As irritating as those players can be on defense, the Celtics were to blame for many of their own mistakes. They normally take great care of the ball but coughed up seven turnovers in the first half, then another five over the opening five minutes of the third quarter. They were still able to open an 81-66 lead midway through that period, but the signs of the coming collapse were already evident. The Celtics nearly rode their superior shot-making to a win anyway but did not manage the game the way they normally do.
The loss left them 0-1 in the group stage of the NBA Cup with games still to play against the Cavaliers and Wizards. Though the Celtics will now need to make up a deficit to advance to the elimination round of the tournament, they seemed more upset by their failure to live up to their personal standard. White said the team’s recent starts have not been up to par.
“It’s not really like us to come out and have to question our, like, readiness, especially like the group we have,” White said. “So we have to start games better for sure.”
Jaylen Brown reacts after missing a shot against the Hawks during the second half. (China Wong / Getty Images)
The Celtics didn’t lose Tuesday solely because of their start. They sputtered for most of the game. After Tatum failed to catch Holiday’s inbound pass in the waning seconds, Brown produced one more chance for his team by stealing the ensuing Hawks inbound. The referee initially blew that play dead, apparently because he thought Brown would step out of bounds, but eventually gave the Celtics the ball with 3.7 seconds left on an inadvertent whistle call.
“I guess he blew the whistle thinking that I was out of bounds, but I wasn’t,” Brown said. “I was able to get that steal, but I wasn’t able to convert on the offensive end.”
Without a timeout left, Boston did well to find Brown in a decent position to create a shot. He couldn’t convert a well-contested jumper, but the Celtics had bigger problems to dwell on Tuesday.
They want to chase greatness. They want to maximize their championship chances for however long this window lasts. A single loss in November won’t destroy their hopes of that, but they don’t want to let slippage creep into their play.
“This is a part of the journey,” Brown said. “We’ve got some stuff to clean up. We’re not a perfect team. It’s a new season, a new journey, and we’re looking forward to embracing those moments. We’re going to watch it and we’re going to address what needs to be addressed. We’ve got to be able to move forward. We can’t let it turn into a habit. We’ve got to be able to respond well. So I’m looking forward to film. We’ve got a back-to-back coming up, we’ll put it behind us. But we’re going to learn from these situations and we’ll be better.”
They will need to be.
(Top photo of Jayson Tatum being defended at the basket by Onyeka Okongwu and Zaccharie Risacher: David Butler II / Imagn Images)
