At least the Heat’s loss secured their 9th straight trip to the postseason. The Boston Celtics are crawling over the finish line as they lost another double-digit lead to a lottery-picking team with their 118-117 loss to the Utah Jazz.
This team has a serious, serious, serious problem: THEY ARE TOO SMALL!
In their last four losses, the Celtics have been outrebounded in each game. Now, this may not seem like that big of a deal as most teams get outrebounded when they lose, but the Celtics are getting handedly outrebounded by inferior oppositions.
The Celtics were outrebounded 44-35 by the Knicks in their 134-129 defeat (March 5th), 58-52 (the closest of all the matchups) by the Cavs in their 118-114 defeat (March 6th), 48-38 by the Rockets in their 111-109 defeat (March 13th), and 56-40 by the Jazz just last night (March 18th).
Moreover, in every case, the Celtics also were outrebounded in offensive rebounds, which culminated last night as the Jazz had 17 offensive rebounds to the Celtics 5.
Simply put, this team is way too small and passive when Robert Williams (the starting center) and Al Horford (the starting PF) are either having a bad game or are out with an injury (which is the case right now for both players).
Plugging in big forwards like Blake Griffin (6 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST) and Grant Williams (23 PTS, 4 REB, 2 AST) has not gotten the job done as the duo had just 8 rebounds between them all night, while actual centers like Mike Muscala (8 PTS, 6 REB, 1 AST) and Luke Kornet (8 PTS, 7 REB, 3 AST) were getting dominated in the paint by Utah’s big men.
Just for comparison, the entire Celtics starting lineup of Jayson Tatum (15 PTS, 3 REB, 6 AST), Jalen Brown (25 PTS, 4 REB, 6 AST), Grant Williams, Blake Griffin, and Derrick White (10 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST) had less rebounds than the three spearheads of Utah’s “big lineup” in Kelly Olynyk (13 PTS, 13 REB, 6 AST), Lauri Markkanen (28 PTS, 10 REB, 3 AST), and Walker Kessler (12 PTS, 14 REB, 1 AST).
That’s not good enough for a championship contending team, even if the opposing big men are some of the better rebounders in basketball.
Nonetheless, what really irks me (and probably ever single other Celtics fan) about this stat is how vital is for the opposing teams to get back into the game. As in nearly every single loss the Celtics have had in March, they’ve found themselves up by at least 10 points (19 last night) at a given point in the game through their fast, high-tempo, and rotational scoring offense.
If you look at last night’s game, the entire Celtics bench that played (Brogdon, Kornet, Houser, and Muscala) all finished with positive +/- ratings. Why? It’s because when the Celtics offense, whether the starters are on the floor or not, is able to generate points all over the floor, the opposing teams simply cannot keep up with them.
However, when the Celtics hit a scoring slump and revert into force-feeding Tatum and Brown the ball (which usually ends in them shooting under 50% from FG and 40% from 3-point FG), as they did last night, the opposing teams are able to box out the Celtics big men around both rims, rebound the ball consistently, and generate second-chance scoring opportunities at will.
It’s the reason why the Jazz scored 48 of their 118 points withing the paint (41% of points scored), while the Celtics where only able to generate 30 points in the paint out of their 117 total (just 26%). Can you see how this is such a huge issue for the C’s and why it may cost them a chance at an NBA Championship?
Any coach or player can have a bad game (as Joe Mazzulla and Jayson Tatum most definitely did) and improve in the next, but matchup up against bigger, more aggressive teams in a 7-game series is unfixable without the necessary coaching adjustments, shot selections, and player avaliability.
I just hope Mazzulla and the Celtics are able to get healthier and more selective in the shot they take, or else this season will end in a disappointing playoff exit.
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