The Boston Celtics entered Saturday night hoping to build off consecutive blowout victories against the Wizards and the Kings while the Atlanta Hawks came in as winners of five straight games.
There were no notable injuries for either team this game, which made for a potential special matchup.
We all heard the rumblings of Tatum’s message to the team to stay “locked in” and the Celtics came out as anything but.
The first quarter was littered with a series of lazy passes from the C’s which, ultimately, led to turnovers. The Hawks quickly capitalized on these sloppy plays and built up a 12 point cushion after one.
The lead ballooned to 15 off an impressive run from the Hawks bench in the second quarter. There were two separate runs of 14-2 and 10-0 to open and close the half.
The Boston Celtics showed some signs of life in the third, cutting the lead all the way to one as the ultimate tease. The top-five defense really dug in this quarter, but a myriad of careless turnovers killed the comeback kids in the final frame.
It seemed like whenever the Celtics made any type of run, Atlanta had an answer in timely buckets or forcing those bitter apple turnovers.
The final score saw the Hawks soaring and the C’s momentum grounded to a halt, as they went on to win 108-92. Atlanta was led by the stellar play of their bench, which had a blistering 46 points.
Trae Young had 21 points on a rough shooting night going 8-25 but impacted the game in other ways with his rebounding and playmaking.
Top Celtics trade prospect, John Collins, scored 21 points, snatched nine boards and blocked four shots on the night.
For the C’s side of the ledger, we will get deeper into it, showing 3 takeaways:
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 1) The Jays had no control
Turnovers were a major issue for the Boston Celtics on the evening, totaling 16 for the game. It just so happens that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had a combined 12 of their own.
This display of carelessness led to more possessions for the Hawks and killed any momentum the Celtics had to make this a competitive affair.
It would have been more tolerable if it was a situation of a messy first half where they cleaned it up in the second.
This was not the case at all.
What was on the menu on the night, folks? Bitter apple turnovers.
Tough digestion for Celtics fans.
Every time, the Celtics take two steps forward they have a clunker like this, and it’s three steps back.
The story of the game in one word was “turnovers”. We started the game not valuing the possession of the basketball and ended it in a similar fashion.
Should we give the C’s a hand for keeping with a consistent theme? We seem to be allergic to being anything but an average .500 ball club.
At this pace, we may be in the dreaded stages of NBA purgatory — not good enough to make a deep playoff run, but not bad enough to get a good draft pick.
Is this the Boston Celtics or the Indiana Pacers? I cannot tell anymore.
The reality is coughing up the ball was a major hiccup for the C’s, and Jayson and Jaylen led the forefronts of that collapse.
Also notable is that our starting point guard, Marcus Smart only had two assists. The problem on this team seems to be the Jays assuming the de-facto point forward role too much.
We need a real point guard to bring a sense of calmness to this ball club.
Bob Cousy was one hundred percent right with his observations.
An army without a general is doomed in battle.
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 2) The bench production gap
The bench production gap — that header feels like an episode name for the Big Bang Theory.
Moving on, the Hawks bench outscored the Celtics bench 46-17.
It is no secret that Boston’s depth is generally hollower than an empty swimming pool. An absolute pedestrian effort from our reserves could not offset the spark the Hawks had going.
The European duo of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari lit up the C’s like a birthday cake. Bogi threw in 19 points while Gallo netted 14 on perfect shooting.
Our bench, when fully healthy, normally at the very least has production from Josh Richardson, Grant Williams, and Dennis Schroeder.
This outing must have been a one-off situation where these three could not hit the ocean if they were on the beach.
The offensively troubled trio scored a combined nine points on a woeful 4-18 shooting.
Boston gave Langford an uptick in minutes with 17 and responded with two points.
Nesmith and Pritchard played too little to catch anything but a cold out there, as they were a combined two for seven from the field.
Enes Freedom received a DNP for obvious basketball reasons, but we could have used any bit of his offense.
A lift from your bench is crucial, especially when your starters are struggling, for getting outplayed and outclassed by near 30 points is unacceptable.
Everyone was missing open shots, the Jays were passing or over dribbling into turnovers, and the Hawks bench was home cooking.
There was no noticeable gap for Atlanta when they subbed in their second unit. Hawks have the depth to go ten or eleven deep on any given team, a luxury the Celtics could only dream of at this point.
Boston Celtics takeaway No. 3) Ice cold shooting
Remember the ocean-beach analogy from earlier?
Good, it completely applies here.
The Celtics were colder from the floor than the upcoming New England blizzard this weekend.
The C’s shot a measly 35 percent from the field and a shivering 19 percent from the distance.
One of the ongoing issues with the team is shot selection. There was no adjustment to drive to the basket when the shots were not falling.
They proceeded to shoot 7-36.
Outside of the Smart and Rob Williams, the Boston Celtics simply could not hit enough buckets to make this a competitive ball game. Brown and Tatum were a combined freezing 4-17 shooting on the evening.
Al Horford managed a rough one-point performance in his Hawks homecoming and Schroder was an afterthought too almost going scoreless himself.
With only 15 assists, the shamrocks returned to my least favorite segment — it’s my turn, your turn iso ball.
This is the same team that totaled over 32 assists in their last outing against Sacramento. Those extra passes lead to better shots and more flow in an offense that is stagnant.
You know you’re in trouble when Marcus Smart is the only one on the team that can buy a shot offensively which, though is a good sign for the veteran guard, is bad for the team that no one else followed suit.
I hope everyone was bundled up Saturday, cause there was a breeze in the air and it was not the incoming blizzard.
The bottom line here is the turnovers took the Celtics out of the game, the poor shooting kept them out of the game, and the miserable bench production stalled any comeback.
This was the first of a back-to-back and a depleted Pelicans squad is up next.