BSJ Game Report: Jazz 117, Celtics 109 - Depth, late mistakes cost Celtics

Everything you need to know about the Celtics’ 117-109 loss to the Utah Jazz with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

JAZZ JUST TOO MUCH: The Utah Jazz are a very good, very deep team. The Celtics mostly played well, but a team can only make so many mistakes against the Jazz before they torch you. 

“We had too many moments where we hit screens at the top of the key on ball screens, and they made us pay,” Brad Stevens said of his defense that has died a little too much on screens all season long. “We ended up going under a screen when we needed to chase and challenge. … But your margin against them is, if you don't do that, they make it.” 

The Jazz bench outscored Boston’s 45-21. On a night where Utah outscored Boston by 27 behind the arc and by 19 and the free-throw line, getting blown out by their bench was just one thing too many. Boston might have been able to survive one of those things. Maybe two. But not all three.

STILL, THIS LOSS WAS BETTER THAN SOME FEBRUARY WINS: No one wants to hear about moral victories, but if you look at this from a “process” standpoint, the Celtics did a lot of good things. They didn’t let the Jazz run away in the fourth quarter. They answered Jazz runs. 

It was a three-point game with 2:35 to go but the Celtics couldn’t make plays while Utah did. Boston just isn’t at Utah’s level.

“(I) thought we had some really good defensive possessions, just not enough of them,” Stevens said. “But that's a combination of tremendous coaching, tremendous skilled players, tremendous quick decision making, and a 7-foot-4 guy rolling to the front of the rim every time.”

TURNING POINT

Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley hit 3-pointers on consecutive plays with about three minutes to go to turn a one-point game into a seven-point game. It was just too much for the Celtics to overcome.

SECOND GUESS

Grant Williams' fourth-quarter minutes were not good. It felt like Stevens went with him for a couple minutes too long.

TOP PLAY

Jaylen Brown with a Hakeem Olajuwon impression?

[embed]https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1371998410916597761[/embed]

FIVE UP

Jayson Tatum: He held things together in the third quarter, scoring 12 of his 29 points. Scoring is his thing, though. What was really impressive in this run was his defense. He had three steals in the game and did a great job challenging shots and rebounding.

Daniel Theis: He hits shots against Utah. He was 7-13 for 15 points, and he was mostly matched up on Rudy Gobert in an effort to pull the Jazz center out of the paint. When Gobert didn’t bite, Theis made them pay with open jumpers.

Jaylen Brown: He bookended big quarters on his way to 28 points with 10 in the first and 13 in the fourth. He hit some tough shots late as the Celtics were trying to hold on. 

Robert Williams: He wasn’t quite as good as he was against Houston, but his 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks were good enough to earn him closing minutes in the fourth quarter. After initially being matched up almost exclusively against Derrick Favors, he got crunch time minutes as Boston tried to steal a win.

Marcus Smart’s defense: He made a lot of big plays, including baiting (some might call it flopping) Gobert into two big offensive fouls. It’s obvious the kind of impact he has on this team. 

FOUR DOWN

Marcus Smart’s offense: A rough shooting night for Smart, who went 2-10 and scored just 5 points. 

Jeff Teague: Teague has played better lately, and I don’t really want to crush a veteran minimum guy too hard anymore, but the “veteran” part of that should make a better play on the fast break than this.

[embed]https://twitter.com/RedsArmy_John/status/1371992341553283077[/embed]

Even if he felt he couldn’t squeeze that pass to Tatum, Brown was trailing the play and had a full head of steam. The one guy who SHOULDN’T get the ball here is Kemba Walker. 

Grant Williams: As noted earlier, this was another rough game for Williams. He’s struggling with more of a transition to the 4 and more work on the perimeter. There was no offseason and there are no practices for him to work at it, so he’s trying to learn on the fly and it’s not going well.

Semi Ojeleye: Ojeleye can be hit or miss. He didn’t score in this game or take a shot.  

THREE TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

Time to stop using Grant Williams wrong. Williams is basically being asked to be more of a wing player this season, and asked to do so without benefit of an offseason or any practices at all. If he's not going to get a fair shot at doing what he's asked to do, then it's best to not play him at all.

The best-case scenario for Williams is that a center is moved for wing depth, and he can come in and play some small-ball 5 off the bench when the matchups call for it. His time on the wing has been rough, which hurts the Celtics and him.

Williams was already going to be somewhat specialized in the NBA, but he can have a long, productive career in the right situation. Unless he gets, and makes, a bunch of good looks at 3-pointers, he's generally going to struggle if this continues.

Danny Ainge owes these guys a move. I get that he's probably waiting for the offseason to make the big splash, or at least a bigger move, but these guys are working too hard to get no help. Something that at least gives the Celtics some more reliable bench help could be a move that wins a game like this versus loses it. That's good for team confidence and morale, and it could pay off if another team in Boston's way is hit by an injury.

There was a lot of good in this game. People hate reading about "moral victories," but the Celtics played better in this loss than they did in a bunch of wins. If they play with this level of effort moving forward, there is a good chance they could put another winning streak together.