The Denver Nuggets outscored the Celtics by eight points in the second half, defeating Boston, 102-100, and snapping its home win streak at 20 on Friday night.
Kristaps Porzingis had 19 points at the half and finished the game with 21 points after attempting only four shots in the second half.
"I had like two or three opportunities, two post-ups I had. Missed both that are good looks for me," Porzingis told reporters, seemingly unbothered by the number of shots after the game, as seen on NBC Sports Boston's postgame coverage. "Probably different if I make just one of those, maybe we go back two more times."
Porzingis added: "I love punishing these guys because we create some mismatch if (Nikola Jokic) is guarding me."
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The game was garnered as a preview of a possible seven-game series in June for the NBA championship.
"I think we did a pretty good job of just swinging the ball and making Joker close up," Porzingis said. "If we see them in the postseason, then it's going to be a big chess match."
The Celtics own a 32-10 record on the season and still hold the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Porzingis said this was the type of game you build off of.
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"I love this even though we lost, it was a great game for us," he said. "There are many things that we're going to look at, and we can study those things. This is a real thing. This is last year's champs and that's where we want to be.
"There's definitely, I think from our side, their side, fans, everybody just kind of knew it was a big matchup and there's definitely things to take away from this."
The Celtics will have the opportunity to exact revenge on the Nuggets when they travel to Denver for a matchup at Ball Arena on Mar. 7.
Featured image via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images