The Nuggets came into Boston on Friday night looking to make a statement against the top team in the East: The Celtics may have a better record but the Nuggets are still the defending champions.
“You’re playing against the best team in the NBA,” Michael Malone said after the 102-100 Nuggets win. “It was like a playoff game. I know this is only game 43, 44, whatever it is, but kind of like a playoff game, playoff atmosphere, and two really good teams. You know, they were in the Finals two years ago. They were in the Eastern Conference finals last year. They have high hopes, as do we. Porzingis kicked our butts in that first quarter, so we switched our matchups up and it proved to be very effective throughout the rest of the game. It was a game that we were all in. We put all of our chips in and we were lucky enough to get the outcome that we desired.”
The Celtics took the Nuggets’ best shot and still had their chances to pull out the win. However, an ugly offensive draught over the final five minutes (1-of-9) shooting told the tell of a dismal offensive second half for Boston, mustering just 39 points after intermission, a season-low at TD Garden.
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Despite those struggles, Joe Mazzulla was pleased with the overall performance.
“I thought we did a lot of really good things well on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said. “We only turned the ball over three times, 12 offensive rebounds, got one more free throw than they did. I thought we had some really, really good looks both at the rim and from the perimeter. And they made a few more plays than we did down the stretch.”
Boston drops to 20-1 on the season at home as their franchise record streak to open the year comes to a halt. However, the Celtics were optimistic to learn from the loss and know they can go toe-to-toe with the best when it matters.
“They’re the champs for a reason,” Derrick White said. “They’re the champs until someone knocks them off. So they win games in many different ways and I think we’ve shown we can win games in many different ways. And we just didn’t make the right play or enough plays to win it tonight. So obviously that’s something we can look back and learn from and grow from. And we’ve got a lot of time so we’ve just gotta grow from there.”
Kristaps Porzingis did not get the best for Nikola Jokic in their head-to-head matchup but remained positive in what Boston gained even in the defeat.
“I love it even though we lost, it’s a great game for us,” Porzingis said. “There are many things I think that we’re gonna look at and we can study those things because this is, this is a real team, this is, you know, last year’s champs and that’s what we wanna be. I think from our side, their side, fans, everybody just kind of knew it was a big match up. There’s definitely things to take away from this one.”
Boston will get another crack against the Nuggets this year on March 7th in Denver.
