BOSTON — There was a sense of reality as the Celtics embarked on a season without title expectations for the first time in a few years. Jayson Tatum was going to miss most of the season with his Achilles injury. A gap year was understandable as the C’s also shed salary off their payroll last summer.
Despite all that, the Celtics’ pitch this season was simple: They were going to play hard. They were going to be fun to watch. They were going to mix top-end talent with hungry young players looking for their spot in the league. And, for the most part, they’ve delivered on that to open the season.
That pitch fell apart Friday. The Celtics lost 113-105 to the Nets, an East cellar dweller, in a listless, disappointing night. The Celtics can’t have that. The loss was a reminder that, when the C’s aren’t giving it their all, they’re also breaking a promise to their fans. Jaylen Brown called out his team afterwards, clearly unhappy with their effort and compete level.
“We need to play with an edge defensively and offensively,” Brown said. “We’ve got to be the harder-playing team. That can’t be negotiable, and tonight, we weren’t. Brooklyn was the harder-playing team. They played with more edge and they deserved to win tonight.”
There were spurts where the Celtics played with that fight they’ve displayed this season. They cut an 18-point second half deficit all the way down to two as they got the TD Garden crowd alive. But the C’s ran out of energy. The Nets pulled away with Michael Porter Jr. scoring 14 straight points for the visitors to end the night.
Brown scored 26 points on 9-for-18 shooting, but there was only so much he could do by himself. Brown picked up his fifth personal foul with 5:52 left in the third quarter, which was upheld after a C’s challenge. When Brown retreated to the bench with foul trouble, that’s when the Nets pounced, going on a 19-4 run to blow the game open.
The Celtics got production from guys like Anfernee Simons (23 points), Jordan Walsh (nine points, six rebounds) and Neemias Queta (16 points, 12 rebounds). But it wasn’t enough as their other main guys had tough nights. Payton Pritchard had 13 points on 5-for-13 shooting and Derrick White put up six points on 2-for-13 shooting. When Boston’s guards underperform like that, it puts pressure on the rest of the roster.
“There’s a ton of lessons,” C’s coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They just played better than we did tonight. And regardless of record or not, we are at our best — we have to play at such a different level physically, mentally. We have to play at a different level to be at our best. If we don’t play at that level physically or mentally at our best, we could lose any night to anybody.”
Mazzulla has been blunt early this season that the Celtics’ margin of error is slimmer than past years. That’s no surprise considering the amount of talent the Celtics lost off their roster from last year, plus Tatum remains sidelined rehabbing his Achilles. It’s also why they need to play hard and with an edge every night.
One game doesn’t make a trend. Even at their best over the past few years, the C’s also put up these duds over the course of a long season. The Celtics have also impressed even though they’ve been around the .500 mark this season, partly due to their promising advanced analytics. They’re now 3-6 in clutch games after Friday’s loss, a concerning trend. Still, the Celtics are molding a new identity with this group.
But games like Friday make the Celtics look spiritless and lethargic. And they’re also not very fun to watch. They’ll have plenty of opportunities to bounce back, but they also need to prove this won’t be a nightly occurrence. Fortunately for them, that hasn’t been an issue at least thus far this season.
“That’s my sentiment: At the end of the day, we all got a job to do,” Brown said. “We’re all getting paid to do what we love to do. Come ready to play basketball or you’re doing a disservice. So everybody got to come here and be ready to do their job and have great energy, enthusiasm and want to win. That’s what it’s about at the end of day: Celtic basketball.”
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