Boston Celtics: Blazers take down Cs in late-game disaster

The Boston Celtics, fresh off a historic comeback win against the Spurs, fell to the Portland Trail Blazers by a score of 129-119. While neither team could miss in the first half, the final quarter became an all-out referee show, slowing the game to a snail’s pace.

With the Cs down one in the fourth quarter, Tristan Thompson had a putback dunk to take the lead — until it wasn’t. The referees called offensive goaltending, even though the ball was clearly off the cylinder when TT scored.

When coach Brad Stevens tried to challenge the call, he was told he was “too late” by the officials, even though his request was within the 30-second window.

Instead of taking back the lead in a back and forth game, the Blazers hit back-to-back triples, going up 113-106. They never relinquished the lead. Obviously, this game cannot be solely placed on the referees, but it was quite a frustrating sequence of events.

The Boston Celtics fell apart down the stretch of Sunday’s game

The tone of the game was set in the first half, with each team shooting over 52 percent through 24 minutes. The Boston Celtics bench went a perfect 8-8 in this time period, providing much-needed offense to keep up with Portland’s impressive backcourt. Boston struggled to find offense in the third and fourth quarters, in part to another Jaylen Brown horrific shooting night.

Brown finished the game 6-22 for 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists. His shot has been off as of late, and he was still recovering from a right ankle sprain. He was questionable entering this game but decided to tough it out and compete for his team. Unfortunately, he ended up re-aggravating the same ankle late in this contest, getting tangled up with fellow star Jayson Tatum and Norman Powell.

Tatum described that Brown stepped on his foot and fell on his leg, but seems to be alright. Don’t be surprised if both of them miss the next few games for, although these games are important for seeding purposes, their health is infinitely more crucial.

Tatum had a respectable encore to his 60 point outburst on Friday, finishing with 33 points on 11-19 shooting. He was hitting an absurd amount of jump shots, including draining four of his five 3-point attempts, as he ramps up just in time for playoff basketball.

He’s becoming must-see TV every time he’s on the court.

In 34 minutes of action, Evan Fournier contributed to winning basketball once again. Shooting 8-10 from the field and 5-7 from deep, the Frenchman recorded 21 points on the night. After the game, he detailed his concussion-like COVID-19 symptoms that he’s still experiencing during games.

He has struggled with depth perception over the past couple of weeks, directly affecting his shot, possibly leading to poor performances. COVID-19 is no joke, and it will take time for Fournier to get back to his 100 percent self on the basketball court.

Aaron Nesmith continued to impress, willing his way into Brad Stevens’ eventual playoff rotation.

The rookie scored 16 points on 6-7 shooting, including a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc.

A +11 in 20 minutes of action, Nesmith always makes things happen when he’s on the floor — he has those similar qualities to Marcus Smart.

As his shot has looked amazing this past week, his productivity has jumped to another level, finally finding his footing in the league. With a shortened offseason, it’s no surprise that he’s playing his best basketball later in the season for the Boston Celtics.

The aforementioned Smart had a difficult night shooting the ball, finishing 4-14 from the field for 11 points. The captain was making his usual impact in other areas, however, as he had eight rebounds and assists apiece.

He was the victim of another horrendous officiating decision, getting ejected late in the fourth quarter for an inadvertent shot to Jusuf Nurkic’s sensitive region. Nurkic set an illegal screen, causing Smart’s left arm to fly into his stomach, leading to unnecessary contact. The referees deemed this worthy of a technical foul and ejection, another extremely questionable call.

For the Blazers, their shooters couldn’t miss all night, with C.J. McCollum, Damian Lillard, and Norman Powell combining for 82 points.

As a team, they shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, and only had nine turnovers. The Boston Celtics shot an impressive 51.3 percent from the same distance, but had a whopping 18 giveaways, leading to more chances for the Blazers.

This loss drops Boston down to the seven seed in the East, as both the Knicks and Heat were victorious. Now 2.5 games behind New York, it’s looking less likely that the Celtics will have home-court advantage come the first round of the playoffs.

However, three of the team’s remaining seven games are against the Heat and Knicks, meaning there are many opportunities to make up ground.

An infuriating loss in more ways than one, all that matters right now is the health of both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

The Boston Celtics most certainly need both of them healthy down the stretch.