Watching the Celtics slowly crumble against the Washington Wizards, it felt like a movie we’ve seen before.
They came out well enough, they stopped doing some of the things that worked, they didn’t do the little things they would normally do in wins, and when they started trying again, the other team was already hot and full of confidence so there really was no comeback to be had.
It’s the same frustrating song and dance for the Celtics, but while fans and analysts alike were bemoaning yet another bad loss to a bad team, and at a really bad time, the Celtics came out of the Capital One Arena basically shrugging and saying ‘pobody’s nerfect.’
“We've been playing really good basketball for a good stretch of time. Tonight was just an off night.” Joe Mazzulla told reporters in Washington. “Very rarely has that happened to us, so we just have to continue to move on and just kind of control the things that we can.”
Jayson Tatum used the term “one of those nights” twice in his postgame media availability. Jaylen Brown chalked it up to an off night as well, saying “tonight it just seemed like everything was going right for Washington, everything was going wrong for us.”
And, if we’re being fair, there certainly was some element of an off night at play. The Celtics don’t often get 12 combined points from Derrick White, Al Horford, and Robert Williams. A lot of their 44 3-pointers were decent looks that didn’t fall. That’ll happen from time to time.
But this outright dismissal of this game as just an off night just doesn’t sit well with me.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t come out of this game feeling horrible about the team. I really don’t think it should impact how they will perform in the playoffs. At the same time, the ‘eh, no big deal’ attitude come out of the Celtics locker room in this game is off putting, and it excuses away a lot of the things that could have changed the course of things.
Monte Morris is a solid player who averages 10.4 points per game on 48.2% shooting. He dropped 19 on 60% shooting against Boston. So how does someone like that nearly double his scoring output on such high efficiency?
It starts with plays like this:
An easy blowby past White, a half-hearted switch by Brown who doesn’t even challenge the floater, and an easy look at a first basket for Morris.
Then he fakes Williams out of his shoes without even throwing an actual upfake.
The Wizards got hot from deep. How does a middle-of-the-pack team get hot against a team generally good at defending the 3? By getting looks like this:
Pay close attention to Brown, who saunters into the screen with :16 showing on the shot clock. It took him eight seconds to get to the 3-point line after missing his layup. He didn’t fall or anything, he just took his time.
And then there's this transition “defense” by Tatum.
The Celtics scored 111 points in this game, which is fine. The Wizards average 113, so a little defensive effort from what’s supposed to be an elite defensive team should knock that down some.
Instead, the Celtics gave up 130.
At least Tatum copped to some of this in his dismissal of the result.
“(They got) a lot of points and transition points off turnovers, even when we scored they was getting out and running,” he said. “And we just didn't do a good enough job of stopping the ball. And then they started feeling good and hitting some tough shots or whatever. So it was just kind of tough.”
Yes, it was tough, because as usual, the Celtics made it tough on themselves. Under normal circumstances, this would be considered a trap game. The Celtics had three straight great performances and they're taking on the Bucks on Thursday in a huge game … though maybe not quite as huge after this loss. Overlooking the Wizards was a concern.
But as Brian Scalabrine and Eddie House said during the broadcast, considering Boston’s push for a top seed, every game is a must-win. There should be no traps. There should be no letdown. ‘Just one of those nights’ shouldn’t exist.
Hey, it’s not me saying it. It’s guys who have been in the league saying it. It’s guys who have been on a championship team saying it.
Does this loss mean the Celtics are screwed in the playoffs? No, not necessarily, but the attitude they showed after this loss could be a contributing factor to things not going their way.
This wasn’t just some off night. The Celtics let a bad shooting night get to them again, and their poor defensive effort cost them when the other team got hot. The Celtics did this to themselves.