BSJ Game Report: Mavericks 127, Celtics 120 - Another sloppy home loss

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

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics played well enough in the first quarter, but they gave up 10 points off turnovers and ended the first down nine. Klay Thompson was on fire in the first half, dropping 23 points on 10-13 shooting to get the lead up to 18, but a late C’s run cut it to 11 at halftime. The Mavs pushed it to 21 as the Celtics continued to play sloppy in the third, and the 24 early in the fourth when Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters. The bench cut into that lead with a huge late run, but they didn't have enough to pull off the miracle.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- ANOTHER home loss: The Celtics fell to 16-10 at home this season, joining Miami as the only other of the current top-six East teams with double-digit home losses. It’s stunning for a team that lost only six home games, including playoffs, all last year. 

- Turnovers killed them: They turned it over 14 times for 16 Dallas points before garbage time. The Celtics have been pretty good this season at taking care of the ball, but those games when they're not, they really kill themselves with live-ball turnovers that get the other team going. 

- Trouble finishing: The Celtics were 15-27 in the paint in this game. 

“We were 8-for-18 on layups in the first half. A missed layup is just as dangerous as a live ball turnover because of the ability to get out in transition,” Joe Mazzulla said. “So just a combination of Thompson getting hot, us not doing a great job on him, and then a combination of our 8-for-18 on layups, and the live-ball turnovers. So that played a part in it.” 

TURNING POINT

The 10-2 Dallas run to start the third quarter killed all the momentum Boston had to end the first half. A different start to the third could have changed the game, instead the lead went from 11 to 19 in a couple of minutes and the Celtics never could make a good run after that until the bench came in at the end. 

THINGS I LIKED

- The end of bench run: I wish Mazzulla would dip more into one of these guys as an energy shifter in these situations. If the trade deadline was tomorrow, then maybe Jaden Springer would have been around to be that, but there's no reason why Jordan Walsh couldn't get a turn on Klay Thompson in the second quarter just to throw some fresh legs and length at him. Still, I appreciate the fight from the end of bench guys to make this look more respectable than it was. 

- Derrick White: He was hustling out there. He was going for it. I wanted more of White in this game. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Giving in to the excuse: As much as I understand it, I’d love for these guys to fight through these low-energy games at home off road trips. I’ve talked about this before, but this is a really annoying trend for them. It’s one of those things that drive you nuts, but you also realize that they won’t have that in the playoffs, so I’m not sure it matters. 

- A loss at home: That said, how many of these kinds of games does the home crowd have to endure? These fans deserve a little better focus from this team. 

- Jayson Tatum: I’ll have to go back and look, but this might have been his worst game of the season. He was 2-7 on 2-pointers, and six of those came in the paint. He also turned it over four times. Weirdly, Tatum was 3-5 from 3. When has he ever shot well from 3 and not tried 10 of them? 

- The bench (before the late run): Payton Pritchard’s stat line was rescued by the late run. So was Sam Hauser’s. Luke Kornet wasn’t so lucky. Kornet has been great this season, but he’s not right for some matchups. I don’t know if Neemias Queta was a better option or if going small with Tatum at center would have been better. This was not Kornet’s night, nor was it the night to go double-big. 

- Klay Thompson’s start: They lost him too often, he got going, and he torched them the whole first half. But when they doubled him, the rest of the defense was terrible rotating over to help. They got the ball out of Thompson’s hands, but it just led to layups. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Just get to the damn All-Star break in one piece.

This quote from Jaylen Brown says everything about where the Celtics are. He was asked if the Celtics need the All-Star break right now. Here it is in full:

“I think it's good for our guys. It's been a long journey, even from last year, so we even just to get a little bit of a mental reset will be good for us. We just gotta finish strong. We got like what, three or four games left? We just gotta make sure we run through the finish line. We're playing some good basketball. Tonight, first game back off a tough road trip, and our energy wasn’t there and the Mavs kind of just jumped on us to start the game. We just gotta run through the finish line. Nobody is making any excuses. We wasn't as good as we needed to be tonight defensively. We played a little slow. We just gotta keep pushing through the break.”

I’d love to see them rip through these next few games like Brown said, but I’m sure there will be one more tough one in there. 

At this point, it’s just about getting there, taking some time off, and coming back to finish strong. 

- Probably should have shot more 3-pointers.

Boston was 16-37 (43.2%) from 3 and 30-52 from 2 (57.7%). They scored 1.3 points per 3-point attempt and 1.15 points per 2-point attempt. So as much as the percentage looks good for Boston inside the arc, this actually ended up being a night where they should have launched a few more from deep. 

If we’re going to apply the logic of “they’re not hitting this shot, they should try something different,” then we should apply the missed layups to trying something different, too. 

Next up: The Celtics head to New York for an 8:30 p.m. ABC game