Boston Celtics: Takeaways from 98-86 Loss to Jazz
By Thomas King
Celtics Letdown
Most times, NBA players will say no regular season game is more important than any others, but the Boston Celtics players openly admitted they were jacked up to face the Toronto Raptors.
After an intense and joyous win Friday, Boston did not seem ready to meet the challenge again Saturday against a desperate Utah Jazz team coming off two straight losses, including a 50-point loss-yes, 50-point loss– to the Dallas Mavericks, the worst loss since the franchise moved to Utah.
Utah played physical defense from the start, disrupting Boston’s offensive flow as the Celtics never matched the physicality or energy of the the Jazz.
The Boston starters made 3-of-16 three-point attempts and committed more turnovers (9) than assists (7). Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier, the Celtics top snipers off the bench, missed all 10 of their three-point attempts.
Jaylen Brown, who has been struggling offensively all season, scored just 3 points on 1-for-9 shooting. Al Horford had 9 points and only 2 assists.
Boston continued to miss open three-pointers and, well, just about any shot they took. The Celtics even missed 9 of 20 free throw attempts.
Irving was the only player who got anything going offensively, but he wasn’t able to pull any more rabbits out of his bag as he picked up his fifth foul in the third quarter and returned with the game pretty much out of reach.