The NBA All-Star break is very long, and that either can be a blessing or a curse. For the Boston Celtics on Friday night, it clearly was the latter.
The Celtics looked out of sync in their first game since last Wednesday, stumbling to a 111-93 loss to the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Boston shot just 37 percent from the floor while giving Utah little resistance at the other end, as the NBA’s fifth-worst offense put up 111 points on 54 percent shooting.
The Celtics’ disappointing display appeared to be a classic case of the post-break blues, but head coach Brad Stevens wasn’t interested in allowing his players to use the long layoff as an excuse.
“I told them, ‘You’re a pro. There shouldn’t be any rust,'” Stevens said in a postgame interview on CSN New England. “I don’t think it was rust, I just think we did not play very well. I thought (the Jazz)Â had a lot to do with that. I thought they played great.
“I thought they hit us in the mouth and kept hitting us for 46 minutes, and we reached and grabbed instead of (holding) our ground. That’s what happens.”
If Stevens is referring to Boston’s effort in the paint, he has a point. Playing without injured forward Kelly Olynyk, the Celtics got a total of just 11 points from its starting frontcourt, while Derrick Favors torched Boston to the tune of 23 points and Rudy Gobert added 11 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks.
Despite the Celtics’ struggles on both ends of the court, they trailed by just five points at halftime and cut Utah’s robust lead to single digits early in the fourth quarter. But Stevens didn’t exactly look at those developments as a silver lining.
“The halftime score was a joke,” Stevens said. “It shouldn’t have been five. It should have been 15.”
Yet Stevens did find a positive, albeit somewhat sarcastically, in the effort of his young players, as rookies Terry Rozier, R.J. Hunter and Jordan Mickey and second-year guard James Young closed the game out with some decent garbage-time minutes.
“I thought the young guys played well for two minutes,” Stevens said. “So, that was good.”
The fact remains, however, that the Celtics will need to move on quickly from Friday’s result if they want to continue the momentum they worked so hard to build up before the All-Star break by winning 10 of its final 12. The Eastern Conference has a tightly packed middle, and Boston can’t afford efforts like this if it wants to stay above the fray.
“We were just a step slow to everything,” point guard Isaiah Thomas said on CSN New England. “Offensively and defensively, we just weren’t there. Every time we play like that, we always end up losing. Somehow, we’ve got to change that.”
Thumbnail photo via Russ Isabella/USA TODAY Sports Images
