The Boston Celtics suffered their second straight loss of the season on Thursday night, losing 115-109 to the Denver Nuggets in a thrilling game that taught the NBA’s most successful club a few important lessons.
Throughout their first 48 victories, the Boston Celtics haven’t had many noteworthy cold streaks, but following consecutive losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets, they could have finally established one. Derrick White was benched, Jayson Tatum was embarrassed, and the bench scored just 10 points of offense.
According to NBC Sports Boston footage, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters, “We had a wide-open shot, a great shot, and we just didn’t make it.” With 40 seconds remaining, the team had a chance to take the lead in a one-possession game. And they even gave us a wide-open three there with, I believe, 12 seconds remaining on four points. We therefore had our opportunities, and those are amplified when you play a superior squad.
That won’t be enough to defeat many formidable teams or the reigning NBA champions, who stand in Boston’s path of hoisting Banner 18.
The Celtics should keep the following three things in mind going forward:
1.) Basketball played well wins out in the end.
Denver has been the gold standard for effective basketball in recent years. They find opportunities that allow for easy scoring by tricking defenses with a lot of cutting, movement, and off-ball screens.
Although the Celtics were never behind the Nuggets by more than 12 points, Denver’s lead was always securely maintained. Despite missing three 3-pointers in a row in the second quarter, the Nuggets managed to outscore Boston 32–26 in that period. Instead, all of Denver’s second-quarter points came from inside the arc, including a buzzer-beater bank shot from Jokic that gave Denver a 62-54 advantage at the break.
Boston had a few chances, but they were not very good from three, going 11 for 38 and occasionally being too careless. The Celtics only scored eight fast-break points while committing 12 turnovers. Boston found it difficult to adjust to a more flexible offensive strategy when it was necessary, and it is even more difficult to do so when facing a club that is the NBA’s best in scoring variety.
