Everything you need to know about the Celtics 107-104 buzzer-beating loss to the Dallas Mavericks with BSJ insight and analysis.
Oh Luka Doncic, why must you be so cruel?
The Boston Celtics came out slow and cold in the first half, falling behind by as much as 19 points.
“Felt our energy wasn't the best in the first half, especially the first quarter,” Ime Udoka said. “Felt like we were in slow motion a little bit, offensively more than defensively, although we didn't guard with the same intensity as in the second half. I told them about that at halftime and, to their credit, came out and played our asses off in the second half.”
That they did, and behind a monster night from Jayson Tatum, they came all the way back to take their first lead of the night late in the fourth quarter. But in a tie game and time to take a final shot, Marcus Smart made a major mental error with a foul on Doncic that reset the clock for Dallas. Doncic took that opportunity to drill a fall-away 3-pointer on the left sideline over three people at the buzzer.
HEADLINES
Overall, still a successful road trip: Let’s accentuate the positives here: Boston went 2-1 on the trip, beat up on a bad team, blew out a great team, and lost on a buzzer-beater without Jaylen Brown. They showed fight in moments where there wasn’t any prior to the trip, they persevered through cold streaks, and they have figured out a lot of the defensive issues. This is progress.
Udoka figuring things out: You can quibble with some of his lineups, but some of that is still out of necessity. He’s adding more wrinkles to the defensive gameplan and he’s deploying them more often. The adjustment to double Doncic was paying off. He got his team to turn it around after the half. It’s a reminder that this is a slow process and you can’t rush it.
Tatum is fine: We can stop worrying about Tatum, everyone. He shot 63% and was basically the sole reason why Boston even had a shot in this one.
TURNING POINT
The Dallas Mavericks inbounded the ball with 8 seconds left on the shot clock and 11.4 seconds on the game clock, meaning that no matter what happened, they’d get one more shot. Then, inexplicably, Marcus Smart took a foul on Doncic that gave Dallas the full clock. Doncic took the clock down to the end and hit his shot.
THREE UP
Jayson Tatum: A superstar game from Tatum, who dropped 32 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Do not be fooled by the two assists. He was moving the ball well. The real fun part about Tatum’s game is that you can see how much he still has to improve, and if he hits that overall ceiling, then watch out. He was phenomenal.
Robert Williams: My only criticism of Williams is that it would have been nice to see a couple of those free throw misses fall. He did a great job putting pressure on the rim and drawing defenders to open up the floor.
Dennis Schröder: Aside from his 1-6 night from behind the arc, Schröder was great attacking the rim.
TWO DOWN
Aaron Nesmith: What a terrible night to have a terrible night. He just didn’t play well at all. He missed open shots and made poor defensive decisions. If he gave them half of what he gave in Miami, Boston could have won this game.
Grant Williams: Another tough night for Williams, who has cooled off a bit after a hot start. He just looked a little lost in this one.
TOP PLAY
Tatum's got it going 🔥 pic.twitter.com/L1Hhll4uB3
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) November 7, 2021
ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET
Marcus Smart is rightly getting roasted for making a brutal mental mistake and fouling Doncic. If Dallas had already had the final shot and there was no chance for Boston, then that would have made sense. Instead, he gave Boston no chance to answer.
But I want to be fair to Smart.
You can say what you want about him (and many of you do), but he almost never makes a mistake quite like this. This is a game-awareness mistake and generally Smart’s mistakes have to do with emotions getting the best of him. I’ve never seen him make a time/score type of mistake like this.
OK, so it happens sometimes. Like I said, he’s going to get the appropriate amount of deserved roasting for it. But also, let’s understand a few things.
- The foul didn’t cost Boston the game. It was a tie score. It cost Boston a chance for an answer.
- There’s no guarantee that if Smart hadn’t fouled, that Doncic would have missed the shot. He very well could have ripped Boston’s heart out a different way.
- There’s no guarantee that, had Boston had the final shot, that it would have fallen. This still could have been a loss either way, or it could have been another one of those double-OT joints the Celtics love so much this season.
We can get into a whole glass houses and throwing stones conversation, but really, what I want to be is fair. It was a dumb mistake and he’ll admit that. There's no excuse for a mistake like that. But Luka still had to make a ridiculous shot over three people. People want to pile onto Smart for their own reasons, but Boston’s chances to win this game were lost in the first half when the Celtics were slow and sloppy.
