MEMPHIS -- Nothing went the way it was supposed to go in Memphis on Sunday night.
This was supposed to be an on-court reunion between Marcus Smart and his former Celtics teammates. He was supposed to be playing for a decent Western Conference team that was holding things down until their superstar Ja Morant returned from suspension.
This column was supposed to be about that game, with quotes from Smart about facing his old team, the next phase of his relationships with his former teammates.
But Smart was hurt, and aside from a brief television appearance, he avoided the media. Half the Grizzlies are hurt too, leaving them in shambles with only three wins in 13 tries.
With the Smart angle gone, this story should have been about a Celtics team that maybe took things a little too easy but then figured it out, rested in the fourth quarter, and cruised into a back-to-back.
They didn’t play along with that, either.
“I think we were just, um, maybe a little bit of a lack of focus in some situations,” Kristaps Porzingis said. I had asked him if the Celtics took Memphis too lightly and he initially refuted that, but as his answer wore on, even he couldn't keep up the ruse. “They played hard. They played really hard. And they came to win. I think it was just a bit of discipline, a little bit, you know, maybe we have that feeling that we’re going to win anyway, you know? A little bit of that feeling is creeping up and we have to stay even sharper in those situations, in those kind of games. So it could be that.”
Yeah, it was that.
The Celtics’ heads weren’t in the game. They had plenty of moments where they looked like they played hard. They had stretches where they looked like a decent version of themselves. But it felt like they were only doing just enough to get a little separation, not to win the game.
When Jrue Holiday got the ball with 11.8 seconds left, 10 on the shot clock, he took the ball to the rim and missed a dunk. He didn’t dribble out the clock or wait to get fouled. He made a mistake that should have cost his team the game.
When Santi Aldama got a wide-open look from 3 in the immediate aftermath, I could feel that the shot deserved to go in. Aldama had taken advantage of Boston’s lack of discipline all night to pour in 28 points, and this one was going to be the cherry on top of a big, fat sundae for a Grizzlies team about to pull off two straight comebacks.
That shot needed to go in. Boston had done everything in their power to earn that loss in the most excruciating way possible. Unfortunately for Aldama and the Grizzlies, the Basketball Gods took the night off.
“We got lucky to win that game,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Sometimes you’re OK with a loss because you did the right things and sometimes you’re pissed because you didn’t deserve to win. I didn’t think we deserved to win the game because of a lot of the stuff that we did. And so at the end of the game you have to make the layup or get fouled. That’s just how it is. You either make it or you dribble the clock out and make your free throws and the game’s over. Credit to the Grizzlies for the way they played. I thought they just outplayed us at times.”
Outplayed, out-thought, out-everythinged, really. Other than the 25 free throws Boston took, it’s hard to find a real advantage Boston could lean on in this game.
And that's especially true of their shot selection. For once, this was going to be a game where everyone would have understood the Celtics taking every 3-pointer they could. The Grizzlies actually protect the rim well, but they give up way too many good looks from deep. Before the game, Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins bemoaned how many corner 3-pointers they give up every night. Boston took six all game, and just one in the fourth quarter.
Boston is a team that loves 3-pointers more than Taylor Swift loves attention and they took 31 in this game, the fewest this season. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they actually went to the rim too much.
“I think it's just like a matter of the discipline to make the right play,” Mazzulla said. “They're one of the best teams in the league and protecting the rim and they give up the most threes in the league … something had to give there and when you don't make the right play at the rim, it puts you at a disadvantage. I thought that was the catalyst to some of their baskets and their offense and some of the runs that they went on.”
Nothing went the way it was supposed to. Sometimes it’s good that it happens and it becomes a learning experience. Other times it’s just like Jimi Hendrix said, “manic depression is a frustrating mess.”
This game was manic alright, and even though it was a win, there's certainly a depressing tinge to it.
“I can’t have the expectation of perfection that we’re always going to play well. That’s just not reality; there’s 82 of these things,” Mazzulla said. “It doesn’t mean I’m happy. Like, I’m not happy about it. I was happy with the way the game went against Toronto and tonight I’m not happy about it. But I understand that it’s going to happen and that’s just building basketball character…
“Every team needs to learn different things and go through different stuff. It’s easy to say you want to be a certain team and then it just gets harder and harder to live that way. So the standard is very high for us. The guys in the locker room set a high standard for themselves and you’re not always gonna meet it. So I understand why a game is gonna go like this. It’s not gonna be the only time. But I don’t have to be happy about it.”