Celtics Make Blunt Admission After Tough-To-Swallow Loss To 76ers

BOSTON — The Celtics weren’t on their A-game Wednesday, which led to thousands of fans at TD Garden hanging their heads in disappointment on Christmas Day.

Jayson Tatum’s return to the floor coupled with the holiday spirit wasn’t enough for Boston as the Philadelphia 76ers embodied the Grinch and stole a trip to the win column from the Celtics. Boston’s 118-114 loss marked its second straight loss and the first time this season in which the reigning champions suffered consecutive defeats, leaving the team no choice but to look in the mirror.

“Just didn’t have great offensive rhythm. Just didn’t have great defensive execution,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said postgame. “Listen, we’re playing inconsistent basketball so we gotta be better at both ends of the floor. Gotta be more consistent at both ends of the floor.”

Boston’s issues began early as Philadelphia delivered a 66-point punch in the first half, suggesting it’d take a monstrous scoring night for the Celtics to escape. But after halftime, the Celtics held the Sixers to 16 third-quarter points before succumbing to poor defense in the fourth. Philadelphia scored 30-plus points in all but one quarter.

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It was an odd finish since Boston found an answer at the opportune time. However, failing to maintain that defensive edge — amplified by Jrue Holiday’s absence — led to an inevitable collapse.

Perhaps becoming more susceptible to the poor habits that directed the Celtics to a 5-5 stretch across their last 10 games isn’t that alarming — at least not in Mazzulla’s eyes. Still, demonstrating costly habits at any point of the season, especially in a marquee matchup versus a rival team, does warrant a response.

“Our inconsistency came on the offensive end just last game (against the Orlando Magic),” Mazzulla pointed out. “I thought it was one of our great defensive efforts. Today, it was the inconsistency in our defense. I think it’s a smaller sample than what we’re seeing. Within the two-game losing streak, take a look at Game 1, it was our offense. This game it was our defensive execution. … We definitely have to be better.”

The defensive woes weren’t the only red flag. The domino effect of allowing Philadelphia’s Caleb Martin to drain seven 3-pointers and Guerschon Yabusele to score 12 points off the bench directly hampered Boston’s offense.

Al Horford cut the Philadelphia lead down to 108-105 in the final minutes, prompting a 76ers timeout. But quickly thereafter, the TD Garden and the Celtics bench were silenced in a matter of minutes.

“We gotta do a better job of taking ownership of locking in on (defense),” Tatum said. “I think we’ve let that slip a little bit these last few games. That’s on all of us, individually. We gotta be better. And then it translates to us being better as a unit on defense. It’s just as simple as we gotta be better.”

Tatum added: “We’ve gotta get back to ourselves, our identity. We haven’t shown that the last few games or so and we just gotta lock back in.”