BOSTON — For much of Monday night’s tilt at TD Garden, neither the Boston Celtics nor Denver Nuggets could create much separation.
But a big momentum swing in the final seconds of the third quarter proved fatal for the hosts in their 114-105 loss to one of the Western Conference’s best teams.
In the waning moments of the third, Torrey Craig hit a 3-pointer to cut Boston’s advantage to 80-78 with 1.1 seconds left. Celtics head coach Brad Stevens elected to call a timeout to try and run an inbound play the length of the floor, but it backfired in a big way.
Marcus Morris heaved the ball about three-quarters the length of the floor. But the ball tailed hard left and went out of bounds before it even hit the ground, resulting in the Nuggets getting the ball back right under their own basket. Paul Millsap caught Daniel Theis ball-watching, hit Craig right below the rim and Craig finished at the buzzer to tie the game at 80.
The Nuggets proceeded to open the first 2:19 of the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run, effectively putting the game away.
After the game, Stevens shouldered pretty much all of the blame.
“You know what? I think first of all, it was (a killer sequence),” Stevens said. “And I just said, I probably shouldn’t have called the timeout. I’m going to lose it going into the fourth, and you maybe think if you can get a matchup down the court then that’s a good thing. Otherwise, be safe. And I shouldn’t have done that. And then we just didn’t respond to that. We didn’t respond well, you know?
“Getting back-cut for that dunk and then the start of the fourth — we needed to respond better and we didn’t,” Stevens continued. “We’ll be in that position again where something bad happens and the air gets taken out of your team a little bit, and you have to respond, and tonight we didn’t do that against a good team who took advantage of it.”
Stevens’ play-calling ability has been renowned since he broke into the NBA coaching scene, but he clearly overthought things Monday night.
Here are some other notes from Monday’s Nuggets-Celtics game:
— Kyrie Irving dropped a game-high 30 points, which marked his fourth 30-plus-point showing in his last five games. In that stretch, he’s averaging 27.8 points per game.
— Jayson Tatum hasn’t really set the world on fire with his shot lately, particularly from beyond the arc. He was a miserable 3-for-12 from the field Monday, missing four of his five 3-point attempts.
Stevens’ advice: keep shooting.
“I thought tonight he took — seemed like he took more, which is good,” Stevens said. “I mean, he’s a really good shooter, he’s a very capable shooter, and I think that ultimately he’s going to knock those down.”
— The Celtics still could make a push for the third or fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, but they’re going to have to turn on the jets soon.
With Monday’s loss, the C’s now sit 1 1/2 games back of the Indiana Pacers for fourth and 2 1/2 behind the Philadelphia 76ers for third with 11 games to go.
A victory Wednesday would go a long way for the Celtics, as they’ll play the Sixers in Philly.
