Joe Mazzulla identifies simple fix after Celtics reach new low with loss to Rockets

BOSTON -- In recent weeks, when the Celtics lost games to the Knicks, or Cavaliers, or Nets, the image wasn't pretty. But there was at least the understanding that the losses came against playoff teams. Not contenders, no. But scrappy, talented, and inspired playoff teams.

But on Monday night in Houston, there's not really much to say. That was ugly. And unnecessary.

The Celtics lost, 111-109, to a Houston team that entered the night with a 15-52 record, the second-worst in the NBA. Houston had lost three in a row. Prior to that, the Rockets had beaten San Antonio in back-to-back meetings last weekend. But before that, the Rockets had lost an impressive 11 straight games. Perhaps more impressive, that wasn't even their longest losing streak of the season. They lost 13 straight games from late December into late January, the second-longest losing streak in the NBA this season.

The Rockets were 10-23 when they headed to Boston after Christmas, and the Celtics easily turned in a 24-point win.

There really was no reason for the Celtics -- now mired in a dogfight for the No. 2 seed -- to lose this game.

But they did. Jaylen Brown scored 43 points, but the positives ended there. Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart had four turnovers apiece, with the latter fouling out late and the former shooting just 8-for-22 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3-point range. That included a missed driving layup on the final possession of the game. Smart had just six points and two assists in 28 minutes on the floor, Sam Hauser was 1-for-6 from long range, Al Horford had two points in 31 minutes, and Grant Williams and Blake Williams combined for zero points and just one shot attempt in their 16 total minutes on the court.

It was ugly.

"I mean, you guys watched it. It wasn't great," Tatum said when asked to assess his team's energy level. "We picked it up kinda too late. And I take the blame for that. I didn't necessarily start the best, and I feel like that kinda spread throughout the team. So I have to be better starting the game, just from an energy level, being active out there. Because toward the end of the game when we were trying to come back and damn near trying to be perfect, couple turnovers or they were hitting shots, they were already in a rhythm. That starts from the beginning. So I gotta be better, and we gotta be better to start."

Head coach Joe Mazzulla downplayed the Celtics' 30 missed 3-pointers, instead pointing at a handful of key areas where his team lost this one.

"The threes, people like to talk about those. Free throws, offensive rebounds, second-chance points, and turnovers. That's the game. That's every game," Mazzulla said. "Those margins are extremely important. So, I don't care if you shoot half-court shots. If you don't win those margins, you're not going to win many basketball games. And when we're at our best, we do that. And when we're inconsistent, we don't do that. And we have to be committed to those."

The Celtics were fine at the free-throw line in this one, hitting 19 of 21 from the line, but they allowed the Rockets to pull down 15 offensive rebounds, and they committed 14 turnovers to the Rockets' 11. The Rockets scored 17 second-chance points, and in a game decided by just two, that made all the difference in the world.

The loss was the Celtics' fifth in their last seven games, and they now sit at 47-22. That has them 2.5 games behind the Bucks for the top spot in the East, and it has them just a game up on the 76ers for the two-seed. With just 13 games left on the schedule, and with four games remaining on this six-game road trip, the Celtics are running out of room for error.

Mazzulla, though, is identifying a simple fix.

"Yeah, those are concerning, the margins. The free throws, the rebounds, the turnovers, the second-chance. Regardless of who you play, like, that's playoff basketball at its finest, is the ability to win those situations," he said. "So it's concerning that we're inconsistent in that. And we have to be committed to those, regardless of who we're playing, regardless of the situation, regardless of how many games are left. It doesn't matter. You have to be committed to those."

If they're not, well, the Celtics just showed that they're capable of losing to anyone.