The Boston Celtics suffered their worst loss of the season on Sunday afternoon, falling 105-92 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It marked the Thunder’s 15th win in a row. They are looking like the team with the best chance to make it out of the Western Conference.
Through the first half, Boston was winning, but the Thunder fought back, and a huge fourth-quarter surge was enough for them to steal a victory from the reigning champs. Oklahoma City clamped up in the second half, erasing any chance of a Celtics run. Boston’s three-heavy offense only managed 27 points in the second half.
And Joe Mazzulla gave a reason after the game.
Understanding Mazzulla's specifics of Celtics-Thunder
When asked about what went wrong for the Celtics in the second half, Mazzulla pointed to the Celtics’ poor spacing, noting that they got in each other’s way.
“That’s a product of poor spacing, poor physicality on the ball, and poor screening,” Mazzulla said via Noa Dalzell of SB Nation. “Those 17 points off turnovers was a difference-maker. Just multiple, multiple empty possessions with poor spacing. You’ve got to fight for better spacing in those situations against a good defensive team.”
Boston’s three-point shooting was dreadful against the Thunder, as they only managed to shoot 19.6% from beyond the arc. But all throughout the second half, they consistently did a poor job of spacing the floor.
Whether it was Kristaps Porzingis standing at the elbow, Al Horford clogging the paint, or Jrue Holiday not spacing out to the wing, the Celtics couldn’t get out of their own way.
Their spacing problems allowed the Thunder to help over when Boston tried to drive. They were able to stop Boston from initiating their offense and even got some high-pressure double-teams that made Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown uncomfortable.
Both Porzingis and Brown agreed with Mazzulla, too.
“Honestly, some stuff we forced a bit — didn’t really give each other enough space,” Porzingis said. “Some stuff they legitimately just played good defense, and some we missed. That’s like a mix of everything. But, I would say we didn’t play up to our level at all offensively in the second half.”
“In the second half, they upped their level of physicality,” Brown said. “And I think our offensive execution and our spacing let us down in the second half. We didn’t get into our spacing fast enough, and that had an effect on the game. In those moments, we have to be more poised, and I got to do a better of job of getting into our spacing, seeing where the advantages are, and making the right plays.”
Obviously, the Celtics aren’t going to win many games when they shoot as poorly as they did on Sunday, but it’s important for fans to understand the specifics of what went wrong.
It’s easy to just look at the shooting numbers, but as Mazzulla noted, Boston’s offensive spacing just wasn’t good enough.