It took 38 games for it to happen.
Nearly halfway through the 2023-24 season, with the ‘23 part disappearing over the horizon in the rearview mirror, Boston finally got their butts kicked.
“It’s gonna happen from time to time,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “I thought the intentions were great and the guys gave it all they had for as long as they could. It just didn’t go our way on either end of the floor.”
It was a beating so thorough that Mazzulla pulled his starters at the half, sitting them for the final 24 minutes of what ended up being a 33-point loss.
“I just thought it was in the best interest of our team,” Mazzulla said. “Just the way the game was going. Just kind of thought that was best for everybody.”
Hey it could have been worse. Portland lost to the Thunder by 62 tonight, so the Celtics didn't even have the most embarrassing night in the league. It wasn’t ideal to see everyone hanging out on the sidelines looking like they were about to head out to a Michael Rubin white party, but it was always a possibility with the way the schedule shook out.
I guess we should have seen it coming when Jayson Tatum mentioned it after the win over Minnesota, saying “I read somewhere that they said we got like the easiest schedule remaining. I don't know when that shit gonna start, but it's not right now.”
Jrue Holiday laughed when he was asked if the league could do something to avoid schedule issues like this, adding that he thinks they could, but he didn’t want to get into it. Whatever the league could do down the road doesn’t help the Celtics right now.
You might have heard that this was their fifth game in seven nights.
“We wanted to fight. We wanted to stay in there and play,” Holiday said. “But as players, sometimes you have to listen to your coaches too. And so I appreciate Joe for that because I think as a coach he definitely does care about our well-being. And he also knows we’re gonna fight to the end no matter what the score is.”
Maybe the Bucks did Boston a favor by being so desperate. They have not had the best 2024 so far, losing four of five games heading into this one. They have losses to Houston, Utah, and two to Indiana in that stretch, and the win over San Antonio was a hard-fought four-point game. They had two days off to stew in the juices of a 16-point loss to the Jazz, getting to watch Boston’s frantic overtime win over Minnesota from their own couches.
Maybe Jayson Tatum only playing 15 minutes was a blessing in disguise in the midst of this schedule crunch. Same for all the other starters getting no more than the 20:56 Kristap Porzingis logged.
Now they can flush the game film into the Milwaukee River. It serves Boston no purpose at this point other than to cause more heartburn than cheese curds and brats. These guys will see enough of this game on Shaqtin’ a Fool, they don’t need to be intentionally subjected any more.
The most important thing for the Celtics is to move forward as fast as possible. Play a movie on the plane ride home. Give Luke Kornet an open mic night to try some material. Make tonight about erasing the memory of the game, and make tomorrow about focusing on the Houston Rockets.
“I’ve been on this end of it before,” Holiday said. “But I think the type of team and the resiliency that we have, how we play, we feel like we play the right way, we’re gonna come out and play … we know when we step onto the court we’re gonna give it our all. We’re not worried.”
Nor should they be. Championship teams have rough nights from time to time, and I truly believe this is a championship-caliber team. For a team like this to only truly get blown out once so far is a testament to how hard they fight on most nights.
“What you have to look at is the trends that we're developing and the habits that we’re developing over a long period of time,” Mazzulla said. “And over a long period of time, we've developed really good habits … You take a look at the last game, 80%/20% we played Celtics basketball, so can we do that over the course of long stretches?”
Before the game, Mazzulla paid tribute to Bill Belichick by wearing a hoodie with cut off sleeves. Now he’s channeling the now former Patriots coach with a simple attitude. We’re on to Houston.