After doing the job and dominating the first two games of the series, Boston was going to Georgia with the idea of knocking out Atlanta by winning Game 3. Except that things did not go as planned, in particular because of a defense visibly remained in Massachusetts.
With no less than 130 points conceded (including 74 in the first half alone), the Celtics put on one of their three worst defensive performances of the season in a game without overtime, and here are the Hawks back to 2-1 with a chance to tie in Game 4, which will again be played at State Farm Arena.
” You give these guys confidence, but they’re NBA players, a lot of them are here for a reason. When you trust guys like that back home, this is what you get… », cursed afterwards Marcus Smartwith reference to the Atlanta address (56%, including 44% at 3-pointers).
The Celtics eaten on the rebound
The Defender of the Year 2022, among those in difficulty against the duo Trae Young / Dejounte Murray, also did not appreciate the face displayed on the rebound by his team, dominated… 48-29 in this sector. With a whopping 11 offensive rebounds and 23 second-chance points awarded to Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu, Saddiq Bey and others…
” It’s not about tactics or anything else, it’s just about will “, added Marcus Smart, on this aspect of the rebound. ” [Cette nuit], the Hawks wanted more than us. They go there every night, we have to be able to stop that. They feel good when they get second chances. »
” It’s a matter of effort, team effort: everyone has to fight for the rebound », confirmed Robert Williams. ” All these guys [à Atlanta] are tough, I’m sure their coach has focused on dominating the rebound and they’re comfortable in that. We need to match them physically, right from the start. »
Do not suffer, but set the tone
In this Game 3, Boston was crushed inside and lost the paint battle (40 points, against 54 opposite…), which should serve as a lesson for the next game. This is not the first time that players from Joe Mazzulla are called to order by an opponent supposedly less strong but, in the playoffs, this kind of misadventure does not have the same repercussions as in the regular season.
It’s up to Marcus Smart and Robert Williams to lead by example, they who are considered the bosses of the Celtic defense, but Jayson Tatum And Jaylen Brown must also do better, both in combativeness and in the game. That’s good: they are both aware of it.
” I have to play better “Admitted Jayson Tatum. ” I had a few silly and premature ball losses, especially near the circle, when I was trying to scratch fouls. Tonight’s loss is mine. »
” It’s a dog fight continued Jaylen Brown. ” [Les Hawks] are very athletic, they play hard, they put their hands on the balls. Sometimes it felt like the ball was bouncing away from us and going towards them, but we have to cause that chance and be better at the offensive rebound. »
Between lack of desire and intensity in decline, or poor control of the opposing “role players”, we can say that the Celtics have not succeeded much on the defensive level. No doubt this warning will be able to motivate them for Game 4 and it will be necessary anyway, to prevent the Hawks from reproducing such an offensive performance, since it is in this kind of configuration that they excel after all.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 74 | 36.9 | 46.6 | 35.0 | 85.4 | 1.1 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 2.2 | 30.1 |
| Jaylen Brown | 67 | 35.9 | 49.1 | 33.5 | 76.5 | 1.2 | 5.7 | 6.9 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 26.6 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 67 | 26.0 | 48.4 | 44.4 | 87.0 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 14.9 |
| Derrick White | 82 | 28.3 | 46.2 | 38.1 | 87.5 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 12.4 |
| Marcus Smart | 61 | 32.1 | 41.5 | 33.6 | 74.6 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 6.3 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 11.5 |
| Al Horford | 63 | 30.5 | 47.6 | 44.6 | 71.4 | 1.2 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 9.8 |
| Grant Williams | 79 | 25.9 | 45.4 | 39.5 | 77.0 | 1.1 | 3.5 | 4.6 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 8.1 |
| Robert Williams | 35 | 23.5 | 74.7 | 0.0 | 61.0 | 3.0 | 5.4 | 8.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 8.0 |
| Sam Hauser | 80 | 16.1 | 45.5 | 41.8 | 70.6 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 6.4 |
| Mike Muscala | 20 | 16.2 | 47.2 | 38.5 | 69.2 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 5.9 |
| Payton Pritchard | 48 | 13.4 | 41.2 | 36.4 | 75.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.6 |
| Blake Griffin | 41 | 13.9 | 48.5 | 34.8 | 65.6 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 4.1 |
| Luke Kornet | 69 | 11.7 | 66.5 | 23.1 | 82.1 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 3.8 |
| Justin Champagnie | 2 | 11.7 | 16.7 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.5 |
| Jd Davison | 12 | 5.5 | 42.1 | 28.6 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.6 |
| Mfiondu Kabengele | 4 | 9.1 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| noah vonleh | 23 | 7.4 | 45.8 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| justin jackson | 23 | 4.7 | 25.9 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
