Neemias Queta went head over heels fighting for a rebound against the Nuggets.
Neemias Queta went head over heels fighting for a rebound against the Nuggets.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
This story first appeared in Court Sense, a biweekly Celtics newsletter from Boston Globe Sports.Click here to join the fun.
Welcome back to Court Sense ☘️ A newsletter that isn’t sure when the Nuggets learned to defend
It’s hard to be overly critical of the Celtics’ Wednesday night loss to the Nuggets, a very good team with the best offense in basketball behind three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
Granted, Jokic wasn’t playing and Denver is famous for absolutely cratering without its all-world offensive engine, but let’s not fuss over the details!
Wednesday night’s game was a matchup between the two most efficient offenses in NBA history on a per-possession basis, and the first quarter more or less brought the shootout you’d expect with the Celtics leading, 35-31.
Surprisingly, though, it was the Nuggets’ defense — the league’s seventh-worst by defensive rating — that made the biggest impact.
Boston had to grind its way to just 23 points in the second quarter and 24 in the third as the offense slowed to a halt.
It did look like Boston was ready to pull away in the third quarter when a 12-0 run gave the Celtics a 9-point lead, their biggest of the night, midway through.
Jaylen Brown punctuated that run with a tough layup after getting bonked on the nose at the top of the key, stopping play for a few seconds to complain to the referee, then scoring before continuing his complaints as the Nuggets called timeout.
That was the story of the night for Brown, who was frustrated with the officiating throughout the evening. NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg counted 31 Brown drives (well above his season average) on Wednesday and just one foul call, leading to Brown shooting just three free throws.
“I was physical, aggressive, I went up strong, I didn’t flop. I kind of let the officiating get to my head a little bit,” Brown admitted after the game.
Denver responded to the 12-0 Boston run with a 13-2 run of their own to retake the lead before Anfernee Simons — red-hot recently, by the way — hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Celtics an 82-79 lead after three.
One of those 3-pointers came on some brilliant hustle from Hugo Gonzalez, who soared above three Nuggets to keep the play alive on the offensive glass.
The boards were where the Celtics had a big advantage, with Denver content to go small in the absence of Jokic. The result was a 53-39 rebounding margin in favor of the Celtics, including a career-high 20 boards for Neemias Queta, the most in a game by any Celtic in a decade.
Queta had 10 offensive rebounds (the Nuggets had 12 as a team), about half of which came on one chaotic play in the fourth quarter.
(I also must implore you to watch this clip my brother-in-law sent me of the Spanish commentary of Queta fighting for his life under the rim, I promise it’s worth the 14 seconds of your time.)
It all fell apart in the space of about four minutes in the middle of the fourth, a stretch in which the Nuggets went on a 14-0 run that turned a close game into a runaway in a snap. Boston went scoreless for four minutes and 25 seconds until Brown converted an and-one (that one foul call we mentioned earlier) to stop the bleeding a little too late.
The Celtics' four-game winning streak was snapped by the Nuggets on Wednesday.
The Celtics' four-game winning streak was snapped by the Nuggets on Wednesday.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Thee lopsided fourth is easy to explain. On one end, the Nuggets played excellent defense, going small and flying around to switch absolutely everything. Denver was content to put Boston in isolation situations and kept bringing extra bodies at the perfect time, disrupting drives and passing lanes to bring the Celtics offense to a halt.
On the other end, Boston threw everything at the one playmaker the Jokic-less Nuggets have left: Jamal Murray. Murray consistently made the Celtics pay for their blitzes and double-teams. He put on a passing clinic and finished with 17 assists, helped by Denver hitting 45.5 percent from 3-point range.
It wasn’t quite as simple as the opponent getting hot from deep, as Brown sort of suggested postgame (“Any given night, teams can get hot like that,” he said). The Nuggets deserve plenty of credit for the way they generated clean looks for themselves and limited them for the Celtics, which led to Denver outscoring Boston 30-16 through the first 11 minutes of the fourth quarter.
It was at that point that Joe Mazzulla emptied his bench, with Boston trailing by 11 points and just over a minute to play.
The Celtics reserves kind of accidentally dragged the hosts back into the game on a weird combination of off-balance 3-pointers, free throws (made ones for Boston, missed ones for Denver), and air-balled shots that accidentally turn into layups, but the fourth quarter really wasn’t as close as the 4-point final margin suggests.
Time to panic? Probably not (though, I’m not going to tell you what to do or how to live!). The Nuggets are well-coached, played very hard, and certainly didn’t look like a team that with a historic level of dependence on its missing star.
This loss may, however, open up some questions about how well the Celtics can keep up their scoring when teams go small and force Boston to play in isolation. If Brown doesn’t have it, can the Celtics keep things ticking?
Perhaps that concern is somewhat alleviated by the potential return of a certain All-NBA superstar who is exceedingly comfortable in isolation. You guys know anyone like that?
Anyway, things don’t get any easier on this homestand, with a Friday visit from the Raptors (currently a game behind Boston for third in the East) before the Celtics host Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on Saturday.
If those games both go south, a little worry could be in order; if the Celtics also lose to the league-worst Pacers on Monday, I’ll be happy to host a very panicked edition of Court Sense on Tuesday. Make sure to join us.
ICYMI 🗞️
Neemias Queta had 20 rebounds for the Celtics on Wednesday.
Neemias Queta had 20 rebounds for the Celtics on Wednesday.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Hopefully the Celtics take Wednesday night’s loss to the Nuggets as a lesson about how teams will now try to defend them
By Gary Washburn
The Celtics should be forgiven. They did lose to a team without its best player, a generational talent and three-time MVP, yet the Nuggets are well-coached, they were focused, and loaded with depth and playmakers.
Wednesday was a game the Celtics could never quite control, even with a 9-point, third-quarter lead as the Nuggets countered with three 3-pointers in 90 seconds and were the better team for the final 12 minutes.
This 114-110 loss will be damaging if the Celtics don’t take lessons from how the Nuggets defended, how relentless they played, and how they capitalized on every mistake.
Continue reading
Other top stories we’re watching ...
The Celtics had few answers for the Nuggets’ defense in a loss Wednesday. Adam Himmelsbach has the recap.
He might not have been in their plans at the beginning, but Anfernee Simons keeps showing he belongs with the Celtics. Gary Washburn has more.
The Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week
Congratulations to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, a deeply uninterested winner of the Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week.
The Celtics have received plenty of praise in recent weeks, as a hot stretch in December and January propelled Boston to second place in the Eastern Conference (for, like, a day, but still).
NBC Sports Boston play-by-play man Drew Carter wanted to know how Mazzulla keeps his team focused amid the plaudits. Here’s how that went:
Carter: “When everyone’s talking about how well the Celtics are playing, how do you avoid the noise and keep that chip on your shoulder?”
Mazzulla: “Just don’t answer questions when they ask you about stuff like that.”
Carter: “Just like this?”
Mazzulla: “Yup.”
Carter: “All right, thank you Joe. Good luck tonight.”
A for effort, Drew.
This week in basketball 🏀
Just in case you’ve been largely locked in on the Celtics recently, here are four things you might’ve missed around the NBA to get caught up on.
▪ The Hawks traded their star for ... what?
The Trae Young era in Atlanta is over. The Hawks traded their star point guard to the Wizards in exchange for, effectively, half a ham sandwich, a thank-you note, and a promise that Washington will send Atlanta some nice photos of D.C.’s cherry blossoms in April.
Maybe that’s a little harsh on CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, but the Hawks getting exactly zero draft picks for a 27-year-old four-time All-Star with career averages of 25.2 points (12th in NBA history!) and 9.8 assists (third in NBA history!!) feels crazy.
McCollum is 34, firmly in the twilight of his career, and on an expiring deal. Kispert is a solid shooter off the bench. The Hawks have basically salary-dumped their star.
And by the way: I’m not a huge fan of Trae Young. His defense is not good, has the shot selection of Stephen Curry with only 70 percent of the ability, and is a perennial contender to lead the league in turnovers.
But he’s also been one of the league’s best one-man offensive engines, and it’s hard to believe how low his value has become.
Young’s career has been inexplicably linked with that of Luka Doncic, for whom Young was traded on draft night in 2018. That trade didn’t look great at the time and has not aged well, even if Atlanta could stomach that error as Young became a regular All-Star.
It’s a little more difficult to stomach a few years later, when the Hawks were apparently happy to just about give Young away.
▪ Speaking of Luka Doncic ...
While things have been a little up and down in Laker-land in recent weeks, Doncic has continued to be, frankly, ridiculous, comfortably leading the league in scoring at 33.7 points per game after a 38-point triple-double on Wednesday night.
As always with Doncic, the stats don’t really do justice to the experience of watching him. He got pretty much zero help from the rest of the Lakers on Wednesday (the other starters combined for 31 points in a loss) but did all he could, putting together a special passing highlight-reel despite his teammates’ best efforts to miss every shot they could.
I also got a real kick out of this moment the night prior, when Doncic drilled an absurd 3-pointer while falling out of bounds in the final minutes against the Pelicans.
What the broadcast missed was that he hit that shot as a Pelicans fan courtside called him “trash,”and Doncic had some words for that fan after the shot went down (little language warning here!).
▪ Can you believe LeBron is 41?
Doncic was without his co-star on Wednesday in San Antonio with LeBron James sitting out the second game of a back-to-back. James had a little fun when he was asked about it the other night:
“I’m 41 years old! Every back-to-back for the rest of the season, it’s TBD. I’m 41, I’ve got the most minutes in NBA history ... Bank it right now, OK?”
Fair enough.But when you can still do things like this at 41, people are going to ask!
▪ Victor Wembanyama, at it again
Did you grow up playing basketball? Did you ever get a few balls stuck in the net when a couple go in at the same time during shootaround?
How did you get them down? Did someone jump up and dislodge them with their hand? Did you throw another basketball at the net to jostle them loose?
Did you ever think ,“hey, maybe I’ll try to kick these balls that are nearly nine feet off the ground?"
Yeah, me neither. But none of us are 7-foot-5 French aliens, I suppose.
Up next ☘️
The Celtics open a back-to-back with a home game against the Raptors on Friday (7 p.m., NBC Sports Boston).Here’s a preview.
See the full Celtics schedule here.
This story first appeared in Court Sense, a biweekly Celtics newsletter from Boston Globe Sports.Click here to join the fun.
Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.