Championships are not won or lost on January 3. Losses by 30 still only count as one loss. Sometimes this happens in the NBA.
Those are all true statements. Boston’s ability to win a championship isn’t dented by this one performance. They don’t get dropped to the bottom of the standings for getting blown out by a bad team missing its one star player.
However, that doesn’t mean that this team shouldn’t have to wallow in the filth they created Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.
This was a trap game if there ever was one. With a tough loss to the Nuggets with a matchup against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks around the corner, the worst news Boston could have gotten was that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was out.
But the Celtics went beyond relaxing and taking a Thunder team lightly. They’ve done that before and won. The Celtics showed no regard for their opponent, their coach, or the sport with their cavalier approach to the final three quarters.
“It shouldn’t result in that,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “I would imagine there's always a let-up when something like that happens but it shouldn't be that much.”
It shouldn’t, but this Celtics group has had a history of being unable to handle success. They tend to manage adversity fine, but the worst thing this team can be is in the lead. They are the NBA’s hare, loving naps in their races with tortoises, but never quite fully taking the lesson to heart.
“You come out, you take it for granted, that's what happens, and we probably had it coming to us,” Jaylen Brown said, putting it out there in frank terms. “We came out our last couple of games, we pick and choose when we want to play, we wasn't connected, didn’t have each other’s back out there, no help-side defense, we didn't guard our yard. And those young boys over there came out and they made us look bad, and they embarrassed us. They kicked our ass.”
In a way, it’s refreshing to hear a player admit this. We didn’t just get the canned answers about watching film and other assorted cliches. In another way, though, it’s frustrating to hear a team fully understand what it’s doing, yet do nothing to stop it.
“For whatever reason today we let go of the rope completely, which I haven't seen from our team in a long time,” Brown said. “You can't come out and expect teams to just give it to you … teams are coming out, they ready, they amped to play, and we thinking we just gonna stroll out and just figure it out.”
That was never going to be the case. I don’t know if it’s hubris of extreme talent and youth, but this Celtics team has not yet earned the right to coast through games like the Warriors or LeBron James-led teams. They haven't won anything. They haven't proven much beyond being very good under very specific circumstances, and almost always only those circumstances.
“We gotta get back to our identity,” Jayson Tatum said. “I think when we were playing at the best, at the highest level, we just played faster. That's like some point-5 basketball, shoot it, pass it, or drive it. Because when we play like that, we’re damn near unguardable.”
That is the only time they are, as a team, unguardable. Under no other circumstances are they a juggernaut. In fact, in all other circumstances, they range from decent to good, and not far beyond that.
This is not a secret. I can see it. You can see it.
The Celtics are an incredibly talented team with two of the NBA’s best players. They have supporting players with incredible skills, ranging from a Defensive Player of the Year to a starter-worthy sixth man, to some of the most deadly shooters in the world. But we can only see that if they play a certain way.
It’s like the old antenna TVs that needed to be perfectly tuned to get that Creature Double Feature on Channel 56. Turn that dial too far one way or the other, or if the rabbit ears were off just slightly, and you had no idea if that was Gamera, Godzilla, or an ad for Skippy White’s.
The Celtics have to be completely dialed in from top to bottom to be their best. When they are, they cannot be beaten. There is no team in the NBA that can take the Celtics out, especially not in a series, when they're moving the ball, attacking, and playing connected defense.
When they aren’t playing like that, Isaiah Joe, Tre Mann, Josh Giddey, and Lu Dort drop 90 points -- that's four guys matching Boston’s starting lineup and top two bench guys combined.
“You have to play with a sense of humility every night knowing that your opponent wants to beat you,” Mazzulla said. “We have to match that and we didn’t, and we got outplayed in every aspect of the game.”
Humility was the missing piece in this game. Respect for the other guys on the floor wasn’t there. An appreciation for the opportunity at hand fell by the wayside.
If they had humility, they would have known that the Thunder were going to play like this, because the Thunder already played them like this once and nearly beat them at home. Humility would tell the Celtics that any team can win on any night, and that NBA players are in the league for a reason.
If they had respect for their opponent, they would give teams like Oklahoma City their best shot. By not giving it their all, they send the message to the Thunder that whatever work they're doing is meaningless compared to the sheer talent of the Celtics.
If they had appreciation for the opportunity, they would fight for these wins so they can build a lead on the hard-charging Nets, give themselves a better chance at the top seed, and play more home than road games in the playoffs to capitalize on their unique home court advantage while saving their legs and bodies from added travel.
Losses happen in the NBA. Bad losses happen, too. Losses like this one come along from time to time. Even with good teams like the Celtics.
How good the Celtics can be is completely up to them. We lauded their choice against the Toronto Raptors last month because it represented a recognition of all these things. But these choices have to be made on a daily basis. Each game represents another chance to make the right or wrong one.
“I'm not concerned, but we have to coach in the short term and for the long term as well,” Mazzulla said. “May not be the most popular thing to say, but you gotta go through some shit if you want to get to where you want to get to, whether it's good or bad, and that's just how it is.
“And so we have to go through it and we'll be judged by how we handle it and if we handle it the right way, then it'll be good for us. And if we don't, then that's something that we have to address.”
