The Boston Celtics finally had their full starting lineup available for the first time this season Wednesday night, only to have it fall four points short of a victory in San Antonio.
Despite the game coming down to the wire in a 110-106 defeat, the C’s blamed the loss on how they performed in the second quarter. They had been up 41-32 with a little more than six minutes remaining in the first half before San Antonio caught fire, closing out the frame on a 29-6 run.
Head coach Brad Stevens didn’t mince words after the game, calling that stretch “terrible.” He pointed toward the interior defense as the main issue, after it allowed the Spurs to shoot 27-of-33 inside the paint, including 9-of-10 during that difficult second-quarter stretch.
“We’re not holding down the fort,” Stevens said of the defense. “Like, we’re not guarding the lane. We’re not protecting the rim. We’re not at the basket. I’m not talking about our bigs, I’m talking about everybody … Everybody needs to protect the rim better. We’re just letting guys lay it in and this team is too good to beat if you lay it in. I thought we did a decent job guarding the 3, but they were just having their way at the rim.”
As Stevens alluded to, Boston’s 3-point defense was terrific in this game, holding the Spurs to a 28.6 percent clip on 28 long-range attempts. But San Antonio didn’t need those 3-point shots to fall considering the way in which LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan, Keldon Johnson, and others were attacking the rim.
In an effort to combat San Antonio’s interior scoring, the Celtics switched to a 2-1-2 zone defense during the final six minutes of the third quarter, which ultimately helped them claw back into the game. But Jayson Tatum admits that having to do so wasn’t ideal.
“To have to go zone to get some stops, that's not what we want because we should be able to guard,” stated the All-NBA wing, who finished with game-highs of 25 points and four steals.
Stevens added that he wants this team to able to play multiple styles of defense and to play each of those styles well. “But to be able to do that, I think you have to do one well and we’re just not.
“We’ve talked about it; we’ve got a lot of work to do. And I think that’s something that if we’re gonna play small, we’re gonna play big, whatever we play, we’ve got to defend at a high level to have a chance to win because we’re going to have our droughts just like everybody does. I thought we had way better looks in the second half because we moved the ball and we tried to play side-to-side a little bit more. But when we didn’t, we usually struggled.”
Curbing such struggles can only happen if they fortify their defensive DNA.
“Obviously people know what we’re capable on the defensive end, but we just gotta figure it out,” said Tatum. “We’ve got more than enough guys that are I guess elite defenders. That’s kind of what we hang our hat on being on the Celtics, is competing and defending. And honestly, we’re just not doing that right now, so we’ve got to figure it out.”
But they’ve also got to be patient. As noted at the top of this page, this was Boston’s first game having their core guys all healthy on the court at the same time. Kemba Walker is only three games back from his knee rehab and Tatum just returned from missing two weeks due to COVID-19. On top of that, there are also a couple of new additions and role changes within the rotation, so there are numerous adjustments the Celtics are dealing with.
“It’s been an interesting season,” concluded Jaylen Brown. “We’ve had guys out, guys hurt. Now guys are back and we’re still just trying to put everything together.”
So there have been a lot of uncertainties. But one thing is for certain, which was emphasized Wednesday night.
“We’ve definitely got to be a lot better on that (defensive) end of the court if we want to be a good team,” said Brown. “And tonight wasn’t our best night.”
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