BOSTON — As the game slipped away from the Celtics in the third quarter against the Clippers, it was evident their frustrations caught up to them. The game started off fine enough even as the Celtics missed droves of shots, including starting 0-for-10 on 3-pointers. But the all-important process was still intact as the C’s were generating good looks — they just weren’t going down.
But as the Clippers’ lead ballooned to 36 points in the third quarter, the Celtics’ tough night caught up to them. The inefficient offense put way too much pressure on the defense, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla said, as they never recovered. It was a rare moment where the C’s looked human as the best team in the league will have nights like Saturday in a 115-96 loss to the Clippers at TD Garden.
And no, there’s no need to panic from one of the Celtics’ 82 data points over the course of a long season. The C’s are just coming off a dominant win over the Heat where the 3-pointers went down with ease. So while the Celtics talk all the time about not letting their offense dictate their defense, they’re not perfect and showed they are indeed human.
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“Definitely humbling, I think, to be able to kind of come home and get your butt kicked,” Jrue Holiday said. “But we know it’s a long season. We know we can learn from this and just kind of hold it in our back pocket. It’ll always be in the back of our head when we have a good game the game before.”
The Clippers should also get plenty of credit as their defense stifled the Celtics. While the C’s generated good looks in the first quarter, the Clippers also made them uncomfortable to knock them off-rhythm. There’s a reason Los Angeles has stormed to a 30-14 record after a slow start, looking like a force in the West.
The Celtics also couldn’t get shots to go down, whether they were open 3s or layups. They were stuck at zero second-chance points for most of the game before the bench players helped smooth out the score as part of a solid 36-24 fourth quarter. But when the Celtics were mounting a comeback attempt, they just couldn’t generate enough makes or momentum.
“They did a good job of messing up the timing of every one of our passes with their active hands,” Mazzulla said. “And so what looked like a guy open, we missed it a half a second because of their activity and their active hands, and it kind of messed up the timing and rhythm of our offense, especially when we got into the paint. But I just thought we missed shots, and I thought they forced us to execute. and they played well.”
Mazzulla pointed out the Clippers are a similar team to his own, employing talented wings and defenders like Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Celtics also blew out the Clippers in Los Angeles last month in a 145-108 victory, so there are some parallels to draw there. Now, the Celtics will look to leave Saturday’s loss behind them as they regroup for the rest of their seven-game home stand.
“There’s no coincidence that the two extremes happened one after another, and I think those can be gifts when you look at them properly, and keep you balanced, and keep you humble, and just keep you in check,” Mazzulla said. “You’re never as good as you think you are, you’re never as bad as you think you are. And I think it’s important. We always talk about adversity, and adversity is always looked at as something negative happens to you.”
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