BSJ Game Report: Warriors 123, Celtics 107 - Offensive dud on the national stage

Everything you need to know about the Celtics loss to the Golden State Warriors, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

This was a struggle from the start for Boston, who could never get many of their weapons going in this one. They gave up too many second-chance points early, then Klay Thompson got cooking, and THEN Steph Curry got going. The Celtics stayed within striking distance, though, going into the half only down five and even cutting a big lead down to eight late in the middle of the fourth. But Jayson Tatum could never get it going, and neither could anyone shooting from deep.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Tatum struggles: Not much more that can be said about his game other than it was just a horrible night all around. 6-21 shooting, 2-9 from 3 … even 4-7 from the line is perplexing. The Warriors loaded up on all his drives and he just never could get comfortable. 

Offensive struggles: A lot of the places Boston has been able to turn for offense just couldn't get going in this game. Tatum’s struggles have been documented, but Grant Williams only scored 4 points, Derrick White had just 6, and Sam Hauser was just 1-3 for 3 points. Malcolm Brogdon kept Boston close in the first half but then only played 8 minutes in the second, which is weird. The only Celtic that was his normal self was Jaylen Brown. 

Coaching struggles: The Brogdon thing was weird, and so was Joe Mazzulla’s insistence on playing Blake Griffin and letting Curry and Thompson walk into shots. Twice in the game, we saw the Celtics go on runs of forcing consecutive turnovers when Blake Griffin was out and the Celtics could go to switching and trapping. 

TURNING POINT

The Warriors answered an 11-2 Celtics run, which cut the Celtics lead to 8 in the fourth quarter, with a 7-0 run to squash any hopes of a Celtics comeback. 

TWO UP 

Jaylen Brown: He seemed to be the only guy consistently able to get a good shot off. He finished with 31 points on 13-23 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and 2 turnovers. He got to spots where he could get clean looks, he didn’t try to force too much, and he drilled a lot of mid-range shots. I thought his approach was the right one against the Warriors' defense. 

Malcolm Brogdon: 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. He shot 6-10 from the field, 2-4 from 3, and 2-2 from the line. I don’t know why he only went 22:48 in this game. 

FIVE DOWN 

Jayson Tatum: 18 points isn’t his lowest scoring output of the season, neither is the 28.6% shooting (he put up 14 points and 27.8% against Miami last week), but this is two high-profile duds in a short timeframe. It happens, but putting up this kind of line on national TV is going to activate some of the louder, tougher critics. 

Marcus Smart: He tried to do too much at times and it turned into a 4-12 shooting night. It felt like one of those games where he saw other guys didn’t have it and he tried to make up for it. On nights like this, he needs to do a better job of trying to find the cold star for easy shots. Granted, Tatum missed a bunch of layups too, but either way, not Smart’s best night.

Grant Williams: He did a couple of good things but he went back to playing passive. He needs to let shots fly against these guys, and he only took one 3-pointer. He also got tossed for punching the ball into the stands, but that actually looked pretty benign. Looking at the video, he barely did anything, but the rule dictates an ejection in that situation. 

Derrick White: 1-7 from the field, 0-4 from 3. A bit of regression? 

Luke Kornet: Probably not the right matchup for him. The Warriors are too fast and too athletic. 

TOP PLAYS 

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER 

- Daring shooters to beat you is bad 

The Celtics didn’t have a lot of great choices when it came to the defensive game plan, but playing Griffin against the Warriors was not the best idea. 

He did fine offensively. He put up 13 points, 7 rebounds, and hit 4 of his 5 shots (including a 3-pointer), so it’s not that he didn’t play well. What I didn’t like about the game is how much of a runway his drop coverage gave Curry and Thompson, and how much that opened up for the rest of the Warriors. They combined for 66, and Curry ended up with 7 assists on top of that. 

After the game, Mazzulla said what Boston needed to do was “take away all the other stuff that's more controllable than that. So, the leak outs, the cuts, the offensive rebounds.” And he does have a point. The Warriors had 19 fast break points and 21 second-chance points. They turned 11 offensive rebounds into 21 points, which is an outrageous number. 

But the whole offense flows off Curry and Thompson. I’d say letting Thompson get going was the more egregious error. They could have survived Curry if Thompson had been held to a lower number. 

Mazzulla’s decision to start the third quarter with Griffin was a bad one. I can understand going to him to start, and I can understand thinking that his rebounding and scoring was doing enough to minimize the damage early on, but it became clear in the second quarter that Golden State was feasting too much on that defense. The Celtics survived it down only 5 at the half, but tempted fate for too long and it burned them. 

Next up: The Celtics head to Los Angeles for a back-to-back, starting with the Clippers on Monday at 10:30 p.m.