Without Jayson Tatum, their best scorer at 31 points on average, the fifth best in the League, the Celtics lost again to the Magic tonight (95-92). It’s a second straight loss to Orlando, and four losses in their last five outings for Boston, which is clearly in a weak time.
In fact, the latter has been going on for some time, over their last nine games in this case, on which the C’s are running at a small 32% from 3-point range in particular.
“We try too hard to be perfect”
But also with a pretty sharp drop in their offensive efficiency, with 109 points on 100 possessions in just seven of their last nine games, which had only happened to them three times before this period….
“In the first month of the season, we were playing really well because we were playing freely and we were getting very open shots. Since then, we had more difficult sequences where we resumed our bad habits and then we came out of it. Now we have to get back to our game.” Grant Williams analysis. “But just because the shots don’t come in doesn’t mean we’re playing badly. We have to make sure to create the right advantages and the right opportunities, and everything will be fine. We still have faith in each other. No one is tired or upset. We have a group of guys ready to persevere and move forward. »
Again last night, the Celtics were not unworthy, in contact throughout the game. But when the Horford – Smart – Williams triplet accumulates a 12/35, or a Sam Hauser, shooting specialist, can not do better than 1/4 from 3-pointers, raising his arms to the sky on his one and only success of the evening, we feel a frustration.
“We are not going to shoot all the time, or play all the time like at the start of the season”warns Marcus Smart in The Athletic. “We are also going to have matches like that. The numbers will balance out for us too. We just have to keep playing and having fun. We have clearly forced things in recent games. We try too hard to be perfect. We have to understand that we are not perfect and that it is OK not to be perfect all the time. We have to play and have fun on the pitch. »
Since December 2, and their loss to Miami, the Celtics have fallen back from their offensive cloud. Far from their insane average of 121 points on 100 possessions, which they managed to maintain during the first 22 games of the season, the C’s are now down to less than 106 points on 100 possessions.
“We must return to more movements”
Open shots are no longer legion and Boston’s game tends to become hero ball again, with one-on-ones and isolation systems that run counter to their early season dynamics.
“We must return to more movements”, continues Marcus Smart. “Everything is a bit slower in our game right now. Our opponents are doing a good job of slowing us down and presenting us with tight defensive blocks. There are a lot of hands, contacts and we don’t respond as well as we used to. »
Like Jaylen Brown who finished last night at 24 points, but having to try 25 shots to get there (10/25 on shots including 2/10 from 3-pointers), the Boston attack knows its first shot of countryside slack. Inevitably, it was difficult to maintain such a pace and such efficiency, but now we have to get going again.
“They try to make us stagnate in attack, to force us to play in isolation rather than in motion as we did before”, confirms Grant Williams. ” The other night [lors du premier revers face au Magic], it was probably our best game in a while in terms of assists. We simply did not return our shots. »
Dethroned by the Bucks at the top of the Eastern Conference, but also of the League, with 21 wins for 8 losses against 22 wins for 9 losses, the Celtics know that they are going through a bad patch at the moment. But the last finalists have gained enough experience not to fall into discord.
“That’s how the journey sometimes turns”, concludes Jaylen Brown. “Did you really think we were going to shoot like this all year?” In your dreams ! It never happens like that. But that’s why we love this game. Every match has its own story. We had good shots, I had good shots, shots that I know I can get in, and that I know we can get in. But that did not work. We lost a game against a team that we should have beaten because we finished 30% on shots. We have to learn the lessons and move on. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 29 | 37.0 | 47.0 | 35.8 | 86.1 | 1.2 | 7.0 | 8.2 | 4.1 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 30.2 |
| Jaylen Brown | 28 | 35.7 | 50.0 | 34.5 | 80.9 | 1.0 | 6.2 | 7.2 | 3.6 | 3.1 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 26.5 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 25 | 23.6 | 49.4 | 46.0 | 87.5 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 13.9 |
| Marcus Smart | 27 | 33.3 | 43.3 | 33.6 | 76.5 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 7.3 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 11.6 |
| Al Horford | 21 | 30.8 | 53.6 | 46.7 | 62.5 | 1.0 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 2.7 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 10.0 |
| Derrick White | 30 | 25.4 | 44.8 | 40.3 | 85.7 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 9.9 |
| Grant Williams | 29 | 28.6 | 54.3 | 45.3 | 83.8 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 9.2 |
| Robert Williams | 1 | 17.6 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 9.0 |
| Sam Hauser | 30 | 16.1 | 46.5 | 42.5 | 77.8 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 6.5 |
| Blake Griffin | 14 | 15.9 | 50.9 | 34.8 | 71.4 | 1.1 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 5.6 |
| Payton Pritchard | 17 | 11.5 | 40.3 | 35.6 | 70.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 5.0 |
| Luke Kornet | 25 | 13.8 | 70.6 | 33.3 | 83.3 | 1.3 | 2.2 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 4.5 |
| Mfiondu Kabengele | 1 | 8.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| noah vonleh | 19 | 8.4 | 45.8 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 2.4 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 1.3 |
| Jd Davison | 3 | 2.8 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| justin jackson | 12 | 5.1 | 15.4 | 18.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
