2022 - 2023 POST GAME WASHINGTON WIZARDS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Has Horrific Showing In Loss To Shorthand Wizards
It was one of the ugliest losses of the season for the Celtics

NESN by Greg Dudek


The Boston Celtics were utterly outplayed and outworked Tuesday night as they were dealt an embarrassing 130-11 loss to the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.

The defeat drops the Celtics’ record to 52-24 while the Wizards, who are in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, improve to 34-42.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Any good vibes the Celtics cultivated with three straight wins of at least 20 points are long gone now since the setback to the Wizards was one of their ugliest losses of the season.

Washington was even without star Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma, which should have made this a layup of a game for the Celtics, but it was anything of the sort due to a putrid effort.

NESN 360 in-article asset
The Celtics certainly looked past the Wizards and seemed disinterested for most of the night, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Washington shot 54.5% from the field and led by as many as 23 points. Boston offered little resistance, allowing the Wizards to score 62 points in the paint.

The abysmal performance forced Joe Mazzulla to do something he rarely does. He waved the white flag with 9:21 left in the fourth quarter as he replaced the starters with bench players.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Kristaps Porzingis had his way with the Celtics defense. The 7-foot-3 center netted a game-high 32 points on 14-for-21 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds and six assists.

— Deni Avdija helped torch the Celtics as well, pouring in 25 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out five assists.

— Jayson Tatum was the lone bright spot for the Celtics. He tallied a team-leading 28 points on 11-for-19 shooting and added nine rebounds and five assists.

WAGER WATCH
Looking to cash in quickly, FanDuel Sportsbook gave Jaylen Brown +500 odds to net the first basket of the game. Brown banked in a short jump after a Wizards turnover to opening the scoring as a $100 wager on the prop bet would have netted a total of $600.

UP NEXT
The top two teams in the Eastern Conference collide Thursday night with the Celtics taking on the Bucks in Milwaukee. Tipoff from Fiserv Form is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

WOW!

I believe ownership has to reassess the complete basketball operation. From Physical thereapy to weight training, to coach and assistant coaches, and the head of basketball operation.

This team is falling into the team that IME took over and it took a better part of 5 months to break their habit of playing non-defense.

Al Horford in the last five games has not reached double figures. Including last night his highest number of points per game is (6). Last night he played 26 minutes and scored 5 points (2-10).

Hauser and Muscala are our 3 point shot options. Last night with a total of 18 minutes they shot 1-4 from the arc. Overall last night we shot 25% from the arc.  

112288

Disgusting lack of effort on both ends.  Awful.  This team lacks the killer instinct that all Champions have.


Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
yesterday
Joe Mazzulla’s general postgame tone was: “Sometimes there are nights like this.” Did not seem concerned. But, the timing certainly does not seem ideal.

Joe Mazzulla, world-class motivator.  Not.  Your job, Joe, in case you don't know it is to keep your players focused so there aren't "nights like this".  How many years was his contract extension for?  Undisclosed.  Yeah.  We knew how many years Brad was signed for, every time, and we knew how long Ime's contract was for too.




Jaylen said that "traffic kind of messed everything up".  I'm presuming he's talking about the traffic from the White House, where they went earlier in the day, to the arena.  I call BS.  I'm not saying traffic can't be horrendous but 1.1 miles can't take that long.  That's how far Google Maps says Capitol One arena is from The White House.    

This team continues to disappoint me with their "it's a long season and this is just another game" mentality.  You think you can just "flip the switch"?  They better because, if they don't, the season is going to be a lot shorter than they and us are hoping for.


Bob


.

Well Bob I agree this team lacks the killer instinct and it is quite troubling.

This team played great defense the second half of last season. They played unbelievable offense the first third of this season. We know they are capable on both ends of the floor. Between doubts about Coach Joe and the lack on intestinal fortitude I have no idea what the playoffs will bring.

I have said this before, there is a troubling theme that I have noticed. We have not figured out how to handle quality physicality like with the way NY plays. AND, more importantly, we have not figured out how to play against smaller lineups.

We got destroyed the last two time we played Brooklyn and Wizards. We lost to Houston. All three were playing good quality fast wings type lineups. Warriors also play similar style. We got destroyed in SF and barely pulled it out at home. We may end up facing Miami in the playoffs. They also play a smaller lineup. They also handled us the last time we played them at home.

Our approach in such games is to let Tatum and Brown dominate and then feed off of them. Other players space out to the 3-point line and either shoot 3s or drive closeouts.

This gets negated by soft double teaming zones. If Tatum and Brown drive against these, they get stripped. They are given the option to shoot against a soft cushion. But the ball stops moving and we generate fewer defensive breakdowns.

We don't move the ball, let our guards create breakdowns and we don't have the inside post up game. RWill is not an inside scoring threat and expecting Horford to run post to post is asking for a bit much.

This is my big issue with Joe Mazzulla. The consistency with which we have "one of those games" against such teams is disturbing for me. Also, I just don't see ATO creativity from Joe.

Post Game Pouting:

All the trash that when on during last nights game has been erased from my memory bank. I have swallowed and digested that big fat L and its now sitting in a sewer somewhere. Thats all I have regarding last nights “Game”.

Joey said the other day that He was not concerned and it might have been a good thing that the team fell behind by 8 points to the Tanking San Antonio Spurs. He implied That let them know that the Spurs came to play.
At this stage of the season if he believes his team needs that to wake up and play then we are in trouble. If what he says is true than we are in deep “you know what”.
Nothing wrong with a coach misjudging. The best do. Just don't turn your head and say its an overreaction when its actually a fair criticism.
We all back Joey. We got no choice at this point but dude concerns me.

As great as Tatum is he concerns me too. A bit soft around the edges and Im still trying to find where he’s hiding his killer instinct. Hope he finds it. It may come in Handy later next month.

Post Game Pettiness:

I’m not picking on JT but I noticed that when he hits the ground his teammates are quick to charge over and help him up.
On more than one occasion Ive witnessed one of his teammates hitting the ground and he just stands there and once he took a stroll the other way.
Yeah yeah yeah I'm being way too petty but I had to find something to put here.

You cannot turn on or turn off playing defense like a light switch. It must be ingrained into your DNA as a player, as a team!

Same attitude and approach taken by the team pre IME! That is why Smart got into the grill of Brown and Tatum.  I guess players feel,  if I can average 24 a game or above, I can get a max contract. Sadly this must be in the heads of many players.

The way Tatum is shooting 3's, why have him do it, give it to White ro Williams. I have lost trust in Tatum as a player taking the last shot!

A final note, imagine if KG was on this team now!  You think he made Big Baby Cry, just think what he would do to players currently on the roster.   He would have been in all the starters faces including Brown and Tatum, down dressing them for their poor attitude and work ethic.

This team is broken and until this team gets back to basics and starts playing defense, this team is done for the year!  This is not Celtic basketball but a bunch of Bull shoot!

112288

112288 wrote:You cannot turn on or turn off playing defense like a light switch. It must be ingrained into your DNA as a player, as a team!

Same attitude and approach taken by the team pre IME! That is why Smart got into the grill of Brown and Tatum.  I guess players feel,  if I can average 24 a game or above, I can get a max contract. Sadly this must be in the heads of many players.

The way Tatum is shooting 3's, why have him do it, give it to White ro Williams. I have lost trust in Tatum as a player taking the last shot!

A final note, imagine if KG was on this team now!  You think he made Big Baby Cry, just think what he would do to players currently on the roster.   He would have been in all the starters faces including Brown and Tatum, down dressing them for their poor attitude and work ethic.

This team is broken and until this team gets back to basics and starts playing defense, this team is done for the year!  This is not Celtic basketball but a bunch of Bull shoot!

112288

You touched on a bigger problem, there’s no real leader that has the necessary experience and insight. Tatum is so soft spoken, obviously a very talented kid, but just a kid that lives with his mother. Jaylen is a young man trying to make a difference and means well, but neither is near a KG or Bird. Smart tries and has some leadership qualities, but has a history of going off on the deep end too, like recently tackling Trae Young. Jordan and Lebron were still figuring everything out at 24-26. Ime was a good coach and took no BS from the players, he in fact gave it to them, he criticized the team as a whole many times calling them out. Some on this board might call that negative, but Ime was rough around the edges and knew how to get this young team to respond to his vision of how to play/win. It’s a shame we didn’t go all the way last year, we were so close and those opportunities are hard to come by. No one on this board seems that confident of our chances right now and how could you with losses to teams we should have no trouble beating if we are a real championship caliber team? Winning those type of winnable games would have put us in the drivers seat for the playoffs, but we didn’t earn it.

Well we still have the 2nd best record and may still have biggest point differential, so we are doing alot of things right. Maybe we really can turn it on, obviously the Bucks and Sixers games coming up are going to be huge. Every team in this league has had problems. There’s at least 5 games or more where we faced weak competition and had good leads and blew those games and other close games we were just bad somehow and not poised enough to pull a tough very winnable game out at crunch time. Those types of losses are weak leadership and weak strategy/coaching. Difference between 62-20 and 55-27, and having home court advantage in every series. We do have a history of recent playoff success, hopefully it still continues.

I may admit that the timing of some of the Celtics losses to some of the teams they are losing to is the most puzzling, but that's about it.  I pointed out that the mighty Bucks lost to HOU as well this season with Giannis and Middleton I believe, but the sky doesn't seem to be falling in Milwaukee.  

It is a ridiculously long season rife with injuries and head games.  Do you want a vocal leader like Draymond Green?  Yeah, that idiot himself has screwed up his team's chances of probably getting out of this season's first round by mouthing off at the beginning of the season and damaging his credibility.  

Every team wants to play the Bucks and the Celtics.  Every team is up for them when they come to town.   They all want to say, "Well, Hell, we beat them."  But they only say that if we win the whole thing.  Nobody cares and will ever remember we lost to HOU or WAS or any cellar dweller if we win it all.  And that's what we're going to do.

MIL will probably blow us to smithereens tonight because they have to get a monkey off their backs bigger than ours, and I'm not sure what ours is. Maybe THAT'S the problem.  Everyone (not here yet) is already planning for G7 ECF vs. BOS in MIL where MIL has to have that 7th game at home for the right of passage to the Finals.  NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  There will be no G7 in MIL.  Also remember we have a pretty good road record.  

It makes a great story, but those NEVER HAPPEN.  If anything it will only be a G6 series in Boston and we will take them out again.  

Two things.  THANK YOU KTRON!  Throw this WAS game in the sewer.  We're not going to play WAS in the playoffs anyway.  

THANK YOU cowens/oldschool for the reality check...Hey wait..We've got the 2nd best record in the whole league.  And if it comes down to it, we only have to win one more game vs. MIL or any team for that matter.  It might be a G7 Double OT like our first title ever.  The only thing that matters is making sure you get to 4 games before your opponent....That's it!!

There's more than one way to skin a cat and we've seen that for the last 75+ years as a champion is crowned each year.  This team that raises banner 18 will look like NO OTHER TEAM that has gone before it.  That's what makes the champion each year unique.

I will say this.  I don't believe this current generation of players, and yes I'm throwing myself under the old geezer bus now, reacts to a loss the same way our predecessor championship teams did.  Russell would just a much rather go jump off a cliff into a black hole and end it all than lose....to anyone, anytime, anywhere.  Same with KG.  They HATED and LOATHED losing.  It disturbed them more than the joy of winning. If in order to play, these players had to sign a document that said the team would sever their legs for losing, those two guys would at least consider it.  That's how much these guys hated losing.        

Is this just a part of the evolution of the game?  Could be.  Are the players saving their reactions to shitty play just to the locker room to throw the competition off the trail?  Could be.  Hopefully.  We just don't know.  We just see the game/results on TV and miss all the other stuff.  

Social media is just a distraction.  We think it is telling us more what we want to know.  We parse what we see/hear on talk radio and First Take ad nauseum.  But it doesn't usually ever reveal anything more.  Just talk.  Just common sense when all is said and done and there's more said than there is done.  All it really does is help us formulate our own arguments, if you so choose.  Talk, as we know, is cheap.

Sometimes we lay an egg.  We may do that up to 12 times in the playoffs coming up, as long as we get to 16 first, we will forget all those losses and only see the Banner.  

Does this team have heart?  Absolutely.  Marcus Smart is the heart and soul of this team.  Hell, he dyes his hair green for every game!  There is no question he leaves everything out on the court, like his overall performance or not from game to game.

While it would be nice to see a bounce back tonight by the Celtics vs. MIL on a SEGABABA, but I'm not feeling it.  Bucks in a mauling.  That should wake us up if we are indeed sleeping.  We're not desperate enough upon losing....at least what I'm seeing so far. But trust me, our guys are pissed.

Hoping I'm Wrong,  

db

There was certainly a lackadaisical attitude on the court.

That is not what bothered me the most.  I thought that they competed for almost 5 minutes in the 1st QTR...

Then something strange happened .

SIASJ took Tatum out of the game at the 7:31 mark of the 1st.  That was right after JT hit a 3 pointer to put Boston ahead 13-10.  It looked to me that our normal rotation got thrown off.  Since when does JT play only 4 1/2 minutes to start a game?

As this game progressed the Celtics defense continued to deteriorate.

At halftime assistant coach Ben Sullivan mentioned something about the offense.

Anyone who watched this game and knows a little about the game would have come to the conclusion that the Celtics defense  could not produce stops.  The lack of effort syndrome came down the road a bit.

Their single biggest defensive problem was defending the high screens.  The Celtics were playing their switch everything defense.  Everytime Porzingis set the high screen up top and rolled to his left he was matched up with a much smaller player.  Our bigs ended up on someone else.  Porzingis killed the Celtics.  He shot over each and every player that challenged him.  At some point he was draining shots from everywhere.

I was thinking ok maybe we will come out of that switch everything defense...since it clearly is not working.  Coach????

We saw no adjustments and then we started to see even more defensive breakdowns.  Our players could not stay with their assignments.  It got butt ugly once the horses broke out of the barn.

The offense wags the tail of this DOG.

Now the team can lean on the we do not give a F about 1st place.  In other words, it is okay to get your GD head kicked in by the Rockets and the Wizards of the world because we are so good that we can go on the road and win.

This team seems disingenuous.  If winning makes them feel good about themselves then losing should in theory make them feel bad.

Well it is on to Milwaukee.  That should be a challenging game for a team that has not played against a quality opponents during their last 8 games, where they went 5-3 (The Kings by the way couldn't find their ass with both hands when it comes to playing defense)

I look and judge Celtic teams of the past that have actually won championships 1-17 by the character and makeup of the team as a whole and by the leaders on each team.

Sadly, this team is lacking the DNA that other Celtic Championship Teams possessed. They have no backbone - no spine - no killer instinct!

There are no leaders currently on this team that can hold a jockstrap to the 2008 - 2012 team that won a championship and only lost the 2010 championship due to Perkins getting hurt in the finals when we were up 3-2 going to LA. Also put in the fact that KG got injured the following year and was out after winning it all in 2008!

If you look at past leaders of Celtic championship teams and compare it to this team, it is a joke - night and day!

Take the Bird era, you had Bird, McHale, Maxwell, ML Carr. Did a current Celtic player cloths line another player on Golden State like McHale did to Ramsey in the finals to jumpstart their team? No!

Take the Russell era. Heinsohn, Embry, Jim Loscutoff, just to name a few tough SOB's. They took no shoot from A holes like Greene on Golden State who would have been taken out if he played against past Celtic teams!

Show some GRIT PLEASE!

112288

Tread gently and without desperation Grasshoppers. The playoffs may indeed reveal the true makeup of this strong-when-healthy roster.

Let he who is without kidneys cast the first stone.

When you can snatch the rope and pulley from my hand, it will be time for you to raise the eighteenth banner.

On another note just read that RWill is questionable for tonight with load management for his left knee….