BOSTON — The Celtics weren’t on their A-game, in any respect, guiding an outpouring of 1000’s of followers out of TD Backyard with their heads hanging in disappointment on Christmas Day.
Jayson Tatum’s return to the ground coupled with the vacation spirit wasn’t sufficient for Boston because the Philadelphia 76ers embodied the Grinch and stole a visit to the win column from the Celtics. Boston’s 118-114 loss marked the second straight and the primary time this season wherein the reigning champions have suffered consecutive defeats, leaving the group no selection however to look within the mirror on Wednesday evening.
“Simply didn’t have nice offensive rhythm. Simply didn’t have nice defensive execution,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla stated postgame. “Pay attention, we’re taking part in inconsistent basketball so we gotta be higher at each ends of the ground. Gotta be extra constant at each ends of the ground.”
Boston’s points started early as Philadelphia delivered a 66-point punch within the first half, suggesting it’d take a monstrous scoring evening to ensure that the Celtics to flee. However as soon as the group returned to take the ground following halftime, Boston held the Sixers to 16 factors… earlier than succumbing to the poor defensive pattern within the fourth quarter — the Celtics allowed Philadelphia to document three 30-plus-point quarters.
It was an odd end seeing as if Boston discovered its reply on the opportune body, nonetheless, failing to keep up that defensive edge — coupled with the absence of defensive chief Jrue Vacation — led to an inevitable collapse.
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Maybe changing into extra vulnerable to the poor habits which have directed the Celtics to a 5-5 stretch throughout their final 10 video games isn’t that alarming — not less than not in Mazzulla’s eyes. Nonetheless, demonstrating pricey habits at any level of the season, particularly in a marquee matchup versus a rival group, does warrant a response.
“Our inconsistency got here on the offensive finish simply final recreation (in opposition to the Orlando Magic),” Mazzulla identified. “I assumed it was one among our nice defensive efforts. Immediately, it was the inconsistent in our protection. I believe it’s a smaller pattern than what we’re seeing. Throughout the two-game shedding streak, check out recreation 1 it was our offense. This recreation it was our defensive execution. … We undoubtedly need to be higher.”
The defensive woes weren’t the one purple flag. The domino impact of permitting Philadelphia’s Caleb Martin to empty seven 3-pointers and Guerschon Yabusele to attain 12 factors off the bench, immediately hampered Boston’s offense.
Al Horford reduce the Philadelphia lead right down to 108-105 within the recreation’s ultimate 2:25 minutes, prompting a 76ers timeout. From there, the erupted TD Backyard crowd and Celtics bench died down — in a matter of some possessions.
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“We gotta do a greater job of taking possession of locking in on (protection),” Jayson Tatum stated. “I believe we’ve let that slip slightly bit these previous couple of video games. That’s on all of us, individually. We gotta be higher. After which it interprets to us being higher as a unit on protection. It’s simply so simple as we gotta be higher.”
Tatum added: “We’ve gotta get again to ourselves, our identification. We haven’t proven that the previous couple of video games or so and we simply gotta lock again in.”
