What Lessons Celtics Were Taught In Humbling Loss To Nuggets

The Boston Celtics lost consecutive games for the second time this season, this time falling to the Denver Nuggets in a nail-biting 115-109 loss Thursday night that provided a handful of valuable lessons to the NBA’s most-winningest team.

There haven’t been many cold streaks worth noting throughout Boston’s first 48 wins, however, after back-to-back losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Nuggets, the Celtics may have found their first. Jayson Tatum was humbled, Derrick White was off and the bench only supplied 10 points of offense.

“We got a chance to take the lead with 40 seconds left, it was a one-possession game and we had a wide-open shot, a great shot, and we just didn’t make it,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters, per NBC Sports Boston video. “And they even gave us an open one with, I think, 12 seconds left down four (points) — gave us a wide-open three there. So we had our chances, and when you play against another good team, those things get magnified.”

That won’t help overcome the defending NBA champions or many competitive teams that stand in Boston’s way of raising Banner 18.

Here are three learning lessons for the Celtics to study moving forward:

1.) Efficient basketball overrules all else
Denver has set the standard for efficient basketball in recent years, utilizing off-ball screens, lots of cutting, and movement to mislead defenses and find openings that allow for easy scoring.

Granted, the Celtics never trailed the Nuggets by more than 12 points, but regardless of where Denver’s lead stood, it was always well-protected. In the second quarter, the Nuggets didn’t drain a single 3-point attempt, missing three in total, but still outscored Boston, 32-26, in that frame. Instead, Denver looked inside the perimeter for all of its second-quarter scoring, including a buzzer-beater bank shot from Jokic to give Denver a 62-54 lead at halftime.

Boston had a handful of opportunities, but didn’t have the hot hand from three, shooting 11-for-38 and got too sloppy at times. The Celtics committed 12 turnovers and scored just eight fast-break points. When needed to adapt to a more versatile offensive style, Boston struggled and that’s even harder to accomplish when playing against a team that’s mastered scoring versatility better than anyone else in the NBA.

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2.) Margins of all kinds must be valued at all times
It’s not difficult to understand why Denver owned the majority of the 48 minutes over Boston when looking at the box score alone.

The Celtics failed to match the Nuggets by a handful of margins, including field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, free throws, assists, steals and points in the paint, among others. It’s not easy to dig that deep of a hole, missing nine free-throw attempts, shooting just 28.9% from three and still remain competitive for a full four quarters. But to Boston’s credit, that’s exactly what Mazzulla’s squad did.

Boston did go on an encouraging 12-4 run to cut Denver’s lead to 109-106 with less than two minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but still flopped. On a three-on-two with under a minute to play, with a chance to knot the score even at 111-111, the Celtics passed on a favorable shot at the rim and instead fed Tatum wide-open in the corner, which the 26-year-old missed, giving the Nuggets a chance to further add to their lead — which they did.

That was the biggest chance to apply some late-game pressure on Denver, but instead, Boston sold and found a way to abuse a perfect opportunity.

3.) Jayson Tatum’s aggressiveness can’t be requested, it needs to be automatic in marquee matchups
Tatum’s final shot attempt perfectly encapsulated his biggest flaw during last season’s flopped playoff run.

Tatum was nowhere to be found in the third quarter, attempting just two shots — one of which was a missed open layup — during a critical stretch. That remained the case in the fourth quarter as well, bringing back daunting memories of the second-half stretches during last year’s Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat. At this point, Tatum doesn’t need to be reminded when the Celtics need him to flip the switch.

Tatum finished the second half going 2-of-7 from the field, missing the biggest shot of the night for the second straight game. Boston’s No. 1 option just didn’t show up, and it ultimately allowed the Nuggets to notch a season series sweep.

Tatum scored only 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting and committed a team-high five turnovers in 39 minutes. That left a void that, for the most part, proved to be sustainable, but in the end, held the Celtics back and sent them to the loser’s column for a 14th time this season.

As was the case after Boston’s loss to the Cavaliers on Tuesday night, the Nuggets supplied plenty of reasons for the Celtics to self reflect and recalibrate with now 20 games left to go before the playoffs commence.