This game very much had “Friday before a vacation” vibes.
You can get mad if you want, but don’t tell me you’ve never done the “walk around the office with a stack of papers looking busy” trick the day before you were out for a week. You’re not going to sit there and tell me to my face that you have never sat in an office with a phone to your ear and no call on the other end, or gone to the bathroom just to sit there when you didn’t actually have to go, just to kill some time before your PTO started.
But the Celtics got busted cruising through the home stretch. Losing to the Detroit Pistons is the equivalent of a manager needing help on something and not finding you for an hour then asking where you’ve been.
Jaylen Brown turning his head and letting Saddiq Bey fly in for an offensive rebound is just like you stammering through the fake explanation to cover your goofing off.
“Going to leave a sour taste for sure,” Ime Udoka said. “Kind of look back and reflect on the things we did well over the streak. Didn't do it tonight.”
Nope. Not at all.
“It definitely leaves a bad taste in your mouth before the break, definitely a game that you have to find a way to win,” Brown said. “Detroit though, give credit to them. They came ready to play. They made some tough baskets down the stretch, Saddiq Bey tough step-back jumper at the buzzer, Jerami Grant turnaround with the game on the line, they came to play. They were the more deserving team tonight.”
It’s been a while since the Celtics have been on the receiving end of a lesson like this; the “remember, you have to work hard for most of the game to win.” The energy and effort weren’t there long enough for the Celtics to come away with a win. They barely did enough to get the final shot, but it was fitting that it didn’t fall. Jaylen is right about who was more deserving.
The Celtics allowed 18 offensive rebounds in this game. The NBA’s best offensive rebounding team, Memphis, averages 13.9. Boston was outscored 17-2 in second-chance points in a game they lost by one.
“Disappointing when you shoot 54 percent, 29 assists and 40 percent from three feels like a wasted effort,” Udoka said. “When you come alive in the second half and don't guard the way we could have, but at the same time in the first half, our offense wasn't as crisp as it could have been for sure.”
Boston is now 40-2 in games where they shot 54% from the floor.
The Celtics were searching for that bare-minimum line of effort all night long. They’d play some good defense and then hope it was enough when one more rotation was necessary. They’d challenge a shot and then not box out, just hoping the rebound would go their way.
Meanwhile, the Pistons came into Boston with fire in their eyes. They are not good record-wise, but they have talent and strength and energy and pride. Hard work is a great leveler in the NBA, a lesson once again hammered home in Boston after a bad loss.
“Just continue to learn and grow. Continue to learn from our mistakes,” Brown said. “Personally, continue to learn and grow from my mistakes. Know when to be aggressive, when to be observant, when to make the right plays, et cetera. Basketball is a game that you never can stop getting better at. So as a team, as an individual, you just continue to learn and grow. And I think when we get to those moments where everything is on the line, all our experiences that we have, being in tough, tight games, et cetera, hopefully, when the biggest moments come, we’ll be able to stand tall.”
This shouldn’t deflect the attention from what has been a very successful January and February. Boston is 17-6 in the calendar year 2022. They're 34-26 and just two games out of the fourth seed. They have the East’s best point differential and the league’s second-best defense. These are real accomplishments.
“I did tell them it was congrats on what we've done. Obviously, it would be nice to finish it off the right way,” Udoka said. “Take a rest on your bodies and minds, and think about what we have coming forward. Nine is done. It would've been nice to finish it off the right way, but we still got big things coming up."
The Celtics head into the All-Star break with a bad taste in their mouths, and that's not a bad thing. This is a reminder of what it takes to win on a consistent basis, and the consequences of slacking off.
This team has rarely been able to survive a night where they relaxed. One more reminder of this might be what they need to keep that focus moving forward.
“There's got to be an edge to us coming back, that's kind of the mindset … we understand that we have to hold that standard and continue to play at a high level,” Al Horford said. “Looking forward to that second half once we get going, because this is when the fun starts. We start getting these games—we have 22 left, and they start taking shape for the fun stuff.”
