Celtics defeat by the Hawks Top Star Player Post-Season, Who Displayed Dangerous In The Season Due To..;
Watching the Boston Celtics lose two games in a row is jarring. It’s only happened three times this season.
Watching them lose twice in a row to an Atlanta Hawks team that’s missing their All-Star point guard after blowing a 30-point lead in the first game is downright brutal.
But what can really be taken away from these games?
The Eastern Conference has been locked up, and the Celtics are in prime position to secure the title of “best record in the NBA,” too. It’s difficult to get up for meaningless games, yet the pressure of playing in Boston dictates that they do. During their two-game road trip in Atlanta, they did not.
On Thursday night, it all came down to their lackluster effort on the offensive glass.
“That’s where the game is,” Joe Mazzulla said. “You can take a look at all that, but they had 17 offensive rebounds for [28] second-chance points. That’s the game right there.”
Atlanta grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to the Celtics’ nine, outscoring them 28-8 on second-chance opportunities in a game decided by a single point.
Some of the offensive boards were unlucky, the result of long rebounds falling in the laps of Atlanta. But others were a matter of effort. The Celtics failed to mark a man and allowed them to sink their teeth into the possession.
That’s an issue of effort, and how much of that can be attributed to the time and place of the game? Are the Celtics going to play at full throttle for a meaningless game in March? Probably not. It’s ugly to watch and leaves a bad taste in fans’ mouths, but it’s not a representation of the team at its best.
The Celtics rank first in defensive rebounds per game (35.7) and 11th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage (76.3%). Giving up a million offensive rebounds hasn’t been their biggest problem this year. Not by a long shot.
So if that can’t be extrapolated into a bigger talking point, then perhaps their defense on Dejounte Murray can, as he poured in 44 points.
But it took him 44 shots to get there.
He nailed the game-winner against Jrue Holiday, but it was contested, and one of the best perimeter defenders in the league was in his face.
“I think he had a good take,” Holiday said. “I mean, obviously, I feel like it was a difficult shot, but he had been making difficult shots all night. So, get it to the man and he knocks it down for a game-winner.”
Even when Murray was sinking tough shots over Kristaps Porzingis in overtime, that was something Boston was willing to live with.
If not for the sake of playing the best defense, then for learning and practicing for the playoffs. In a close, back-and-forth, overtime game, Boston was getting in reps for the postseason.
“We went to that on purpose,” Mazzulla said. “We have an opportunity to practice stuff that we’re going to need to get to, and we haven’t done a lot of 15, one-through-five switching with KP on the floor. So, I thought that was a good opportunity for us to just work on that and get reps in that and get it on film.”
So, would the Celtics get burned that way in the playoffs? Or would they go to something else? Or is this the practice that will help Porzingis perform better when challenging guards off the dribble?
Murray came up big for the Hawks, but he was inefficient. Mazzulla was pleased with Boston’s defense on him, and even when he was cooking them in OT, it was partially so they could get some experience in a defense he wants to have in his toolbox.
If there’s anything that can be significantly pulled from this game, it’s the late-game offense, which continues to spawn question marks. Just a few days after coming up short after blowing a 30-point lead, they went to a similar play design.
“Give JT the ball and have him make a play for us,” Mazzulla said.
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The Boston Celtics suffered two brutal defeats to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday and Thursday, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t learn anything. Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was experimenting in those losses and trying out new things ahead of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
“Those were good reps for us. We went to that on purpose,” Mazzulla said when asked why Porzingis was guarding Murray. “We have an opportunity to practice stuff that we’re going to need to get to. And we haven’t done a lot of 15, 1-through-5 switching, with KP on the floor. So I thought that was a good opportunity for us to just work on that and get reps on that. And just get it on film.”
The 7-foot-2 center had a hard time staying with Murray, who’s a shifty guard who can easily create his own shot. Yet, that didn’t deter Mazzulla’s strategy, as Porzingis was rarely switched off the Hawks’ primary option, even in a one-score game.
With less than a minute to go in regulation, Porzingis’ length helped force a bad shot from Murray, however, De’Andre Hunter was there to grab the offensive board and feed the sharp-shooting Bogdan Bogdanovic for a game-tying triple.
Late in overtime, Mazzulla decided to move away from this experimental tactic. For instance, on Atlanta’s final possession of the game, Celtics guard Jrue Holiday stayed on Murray. This is the matchup Boston wanted, as Holiday has made the NBA All-Defensive First Team three times and is considered one of the league’s best on-ball defenders. Unfortunately for the C’s, nothing was slowing down Murray.