SAN FRANCISCO — The Celtics had their chances to put the Warriors away Tuesday as they built up a 17-point third quarter lead. But the Warriors were relentless in their comeback attempt, forcing overtime before a Stephen Curry rainbow dagger ended the Celtics’ night in dramatic fashion.
C’s coach Joe Mazzulla said he was happy with the team’s overall process. Sure, there were roughly 15 possessions where the Celtics wanted to be better. But they generated plenty of great looks on 3-pointers — they just didn’t fall. Mazzulla pointed out the 21 missed layups and the franchise-record 41 missed 3-pointers where the execution didn’t match the process to get those good looks.
Jaylen Brown said the Celtics could’ve been a little bit more aggressive when it came to their shots in the 132-126 overtime loss to the Warriors. But still, much like Mazzulla, he reiterated that the Celtics’ offense did generate those open looks at the rim.
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“We had open looks, and we encourage our guys to take those looks,” Brown said. “But I do think at times we have some numbers, we have an advantage, and we could have got layups and we settled for 3s. But I felt good about, for the most part, with our looks tonight. We just missed some easy ones. I missed some layups. Our guys missed some layups and they made some incredible plays defensively.”
Brown said they could’ve gotten to the paint a few more times. But still, it comes down to the Celtics missing shots, whether it was from behind the arc or near the paint. There were multiple looks down the stretch where the C’s had a great look at the rim, but they still couldn’t get the ball through the hoop.
So the Celtics will look to regather as they fell to 20-6 on the season. Fortunately, they have a game coming up at 10 p.m. Wednesday against the Kings in Sacramento. That’s where they’ll look to improve on their 6-6 road record thus far this season.
“We had open looks; they were wide open,” Brown said. “But sometimes when you have numbers or you’re in a transition situation, rather than taking a 3, just penetrate and go to the basket and get fouled or you get a layup. And I think we could have gotten to the free throw line a lot more.”
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