And just like that, the streak is over.
That’s pretty much how these things go in the NBA.
It doesn’t excuse poor execution on both ends of the floor.
The game may not count, but those things still happened.
One stinker after ripping off 9 straight doesn’t really change that.
With that said, let’s dive in.
To no surprise, Luke was great.
You do the math.
The second he stepped off the floor, everything pretty much cratered.
This is not a gimmick player.
This is arguably the best back up center in the entire league.
If he’s not the best, he’s on a short list that’s for damn sure.
I could make the case that he’s the best screening big man on the entire roster.
You should never, ever, overlook the importance of setting good screens.
The first is his pull up 3.
It’s why everyone from Jaylen to Tatum to Derrick have to keep taking these bang out of shots.
Not only are they momentum shifters, they open everything else up.
The next part is the midrange.
This is the Jaylen bread and butter.
We saw multiple midrange/paint jumpers in this game, with Jaylen finishing 4-7 from the paint (non-RA).
That sequence above is a great example of what I mean.
He doesn’t turn the ball and give up on the play.
He turns the ball over and sprints like hell to get back and correct his mistake.
We watched the Celts play right into the Miami Heat Dark Magic formula.
By now, you should all know this well.
When you play a Coach Spo team, you cannot do a series of things
1.
Be careless with the ball / allow high points off TOs
2.
Miss all your 3s
3.
Be unable to defend without fouling
Do we want to guess what the Celtics did in this loss?
We see this exact formula in every single loss to MIA.
turnovers, Tatum had 2 himself.
- Just how bad were things defensively?
Last night, you watched the worst defensive performance in the last 30+ years.
We’ve seen the Celts go cold shooting, but they’re still able to lock in defensively.
Last night, there was none of that.
Just poor execution on both ends of the floor.
- Classic Tyler Ford experience.
Would you believe who worked the last time the Celtics lost a game?
The OKC game at home?
Ah that’s right, Tyler Ford.
What was the story of that game?
Inconsistent physicality being allowed, uneven foul totals, and a bullshit Tatum tech.
That’s right, Tatum was once again given a tech for clapping.
Someone, yo make this make sense to me.
Hauser only finished 2-5, had 4 fouls and was a -12 in his minutes.
Kyle Anderson had his highest scoring game of the season.
The Heat reserves as a group finished with 45 points while shooting well over 50%.
But Pritchard and Hauser?
This is what that looks like
Zero stops on one end, zero buckets on the other.
Instead of capitalizing on that, things went the other way.
Poor defense, some bad offense/shot selection and that was that.
That also sort of tells you where his engagement level was in this game.
Just compare it to his previous performances and it’s night and day.
Especially with the quality of basketball he’s been playing lately, which has been sensational.
At the end of the day, the Celts learned a valuable lesson.
Play like shit and you might get your ass rocked.
Make no mistake, this was an ass whooping in pretty much every facet of the game.
A performance that gave us a result they deserved.
Use this frustration as fuel, and confirm you don’t do it again.
