Celtics’ Loss To Nuggets Stings, But Produced Plenty Of Positives

BOSTON — It would be easy to focus on the negatives that came out of the Celtics’ loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night at TD Garden.

It was Boston’s first loss at home all season, breaking a 20-game winning streak that just so happened to be a franchise record to open a season. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were far outproduced by Nuggets stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Kristaps Porzingis kissed Derrick White’s head and it didn’t even lead to a victory.

It was the kind of night that just leaves a sour taste in your (and Porzingis’) mouth.

Let’s not forget that it was a mid-January matchup that also produced plenty of positive takeaways, though! We know Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla certainly won’t.

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“We had the ball at the end of the game with a chance to win it,” Mazzulla said postgame. “We missed a layup and still had a chance to go to overtime. I don’t think you could ask for anything else, when there’s two great teams and you put yourself in a position to win.

“… I mean, to me, it came down to the wire and they made one or two more plays than we did. … I thought we played with the same type of physicality (as Denver). I thought there were two physical teams playing, where in Minnesota I didn’t think we matched that. The biggest thing I took was we matched that physicality.”

If you’d like it to be put more simply, Mazzulla did that as well.

“We don’t lose a lot, so when we do lose it feels worse than it is.”

Celtics forward Jayson Tatum

“I think we did a lot of things well on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said. “… They made a few more plays than we did down the stretch.”

Boston obviously wanted a different outcome, but this is the kind of loss that’s hard to feel too bad about. The Celtics just had the perfect kind of game to build off of, and will have opportunities to get their win back in the future.

“We don’t lose a lot, so when we do lose it feels worse than it is,” Tatum said. “… We played a really good team today. (Expletive) happens, and we’ll be ready for the next one.”