BSJ Game Report: Grizzlies 127, Celtics 121 - C's put up a fight, but run out of gas

Everything you need to know about the Celtics loss to the Grizzlies, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

Jrue Holiday and Payton Pritchard handled the scoring load in the first but Boston fouls helped give Memphis a four-point lead after one. The Celtics fell apart in the second, missing almost everything they took but allowing Memphis to shoot 54% and take a 12-point halftime lead. Kristaps Porzingis dropped 12 in the third and Boston cut it to four heading into the fourth. They took a lead in the fourth but Jarren Jackson, Jr. took over and the Celtics never recovered. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Out of gas: I never expected much out of their sixth game in nine nights. 

“I felt like we didn't really have a rhythm to the game,” Joe Mazzulla said. “But we were able to take the lead, and I thought we just kind of ran out of gas there towards the end.” 

You could see it in the decision-making. They were doing uncharacteristic things. This wasn’t what we typically see.

- Leaving Jrue Holiday open: Memphis decided to test Jrue Holiday’s early-season shooting issues and it worked. They put a big on Holiday and sagged way into the paint to force the kick-outs. Holiday didn’t shoot well at all, which is a shame because instead of leading the Celtics with 23 points, he could have led them with 32 on their way to a win. 

- Hit your free throws! Boston was 19-28 from the line, a putrid 67.9%. It’s tough to lose by six and leave nine free points on the floor like that. They were 3-6 in the fourth quarter.  

TURNING POINT 

Jarren Jackson scored eight points in a 15-7 fourth-quarter run that turned a three-point Boston lead into six point deficit. The Celtics fought, but never led after that.

THINGS I LIKED

- The fight: I don’t really want to belabor this point, especially because I’ll be making it in full down below. Also, I know some people will scoff and sarcastically say “oh yay super-rich athletes tried!” But facts are facts and six games in nine nights is a bear of a schedule. They went 4-2. I’ll take it. 

- Payton Pritchard’s bounce back: After a zero-point, 0-3 night against Milwaukee, he finished with 22 points on 7-12 shooting (6-11 3pt). 

“I'm never trying to go for mine. But obviously, be aggressive,” Pritchard said. “I was just looking forward to today. That's the beauty of the NBA. You get to play another game the next day and redeem yourself."

- Jaylen Brown: Memphis’ game plan wasn’t just to see if Holiday could hit shots, it also took the ball out of Brown and Tatum’s hands early on. He didn’t hit a shot until well into the second quarter, but once he got going, he went 10-14, scoring 22 points and dishing six assists. He did, however, turn it over five times so that was a problem. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Holiday’s shooting: He was the king of the corners last season but he’s struggling there to start this one. This game could have been a repeat of the Warriors' decision to sag off Brown last season, but he couldn't capitalize. 

Congrats to him for hitting his 16,000th career point milestone, though. That's a very nice accomplishment.

- Jayson Tatum: He nearly had a triple-double with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists, but he shot 6-21 (1-10 3pt) and made some very questionable decisions down the stretch. I felt like I had to split him and Brown up in these categories, and his shooting was the tiebreaker. 

- Kristaps Porzingis: He was a catalyst in the third quarter, but outside of that he struggled with his shot and just looked a step slow.

- Transition points: Here’s where the fatigue really showed itself. The Celtics were outscored 22-4 in fastbreak points. 

“They had 41 points in transition and had a 28% transition rate,” Mazzulla said, citing an internal transition stat. “So some of that was from our turnovers, some of it was from our poor offensive rebounding spacing. … If you don't defend them in transition, it's going to be extremely difficult to beat them because they have the ability to score in the half-court when it's a close game.”

- Sam Hauser injury: He left the game with an adductor injury, which I used to call a groin injury. Mazzulla says he should be okay, though. It did impact the lineups Mazzulla threw out there. Interestingly, he went double-big with Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta instead of going to Drew Peterson or Jordan Walsh.

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- This actually went better than I thought it would. 

I’m not calling this a moral victory or anything because Boston doesn’t need those. I am, however, a little impressed by how much fight they had left in them at the end. 

I knew this week was the toughest stretch of the schedule. I knew this game would be tough no matter what, and that feeling was amplified by how hard they fought to beat Milwaukee. The Grizzlies, like every other team out there, had something to prove and doing it against Boston is a great way to prove it. 

The Celtics could have done a ton better, and I think they would have under different circumstances. But this also very easily could have been filed under “schedule loss” as we watched Memphis pull away late, but that didn’t happen either. 

Sometimes it’s more about the fight than the result. I appreciate that they still had a chance to win a jump ball and hopefully hit a quick shot to make it a one-point game with plenty of time to play the foul game. It actually says a lot that a team can shoot this poorly, make as many mistakes as they did, and look as tired as they were and still have a chance to win. 

- Marcus Smart’s return was a dud.

This story went nowhere. He did get a nice standing ovation when he checked in … 

Marcus Smart enters to a standing ovation

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— John Karalis (@johnkaralis.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 8:16 PM

And that's about where it ended. He did hound Porzingis a bit, reminding us of how much we loved watching Smart do that when he was in Boston. It didn’t feel quite good this time now that the situation was reversed 

Other than that, he did nothing. He shot 1-11 overall, 1-6 from 3, and only handed out two assists. I came into this game expecting to write a Marcus Smart story tonight and got nothing besides one attempted flop against Tatum. Blah. 

Next up: The Celtics mercifully have four days off before hosting the Pistons on Thursday.