Thursday night's embarrassing Celtics loss a reminder that any team can be beat when effort isn't there
BOSTON -- There is no way around it. Thursday night's loss to the undermanned Lakers was embarrassing and unacceptable for the Boston Celtics.
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis in fancy clothes on the bench, the Celtics approached Thursday night's game like an exhibition. It was clear from the opening jump that they weren't into playing the B-squad Lakers.
But those B-squad Lakers absolutely outplayed, outhustled, and outworked Boston's star-studded lineup. The Celtics were careless with the ball, committing nine first-quarter turnovers and 15 overall, and allowed the Lakers to torch them from the 3-point line. The Lakers were hot from downtown, going 19-for-36, but the Celtics did little to put out those flames thanks to lazy and slow defensive rotations throughout the loss.
The passion and desire to be the best team on the floor just wasn't there on Thursday night. Most irritating, the effort was nowhere to be found from the Celtics, who trailed by as many as 16. The fans at TD Garden deserved better, and they let their team know that when boos filled the arena ahead of halftime and throughout the second half.
Joe Mazzulla sent a message by benching Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday out with 9:04 left in the third quarter. They didn't see the floor again until the fourth quarter.
Credit to Los Angeles' Austin Reaves, who had himself a game with 32 points off 10-for-18 shooting. And credit to other Lakers like D'Angelo Russell, Jaxson Hayes, Taurean Prince, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Rui Hachimura, all of whom took full advantage of their opportunity on Thursday and finished in double figures. They gave maximum effort throughout and led the Lakers to an improbable 114-105 win.
The Celtics, on the other hand, displayed little-to-no effort, and it cost them a very winnable game. There are no excuses when the team with the NBA's best record expects to beat a lesser team by simply showing up, and then doesn't show up.
"We take full responsibility for it," said Brown. "It started with that first group; we weren't very good tonight. We came out lackadaisical. It's the NBA and when you come out with that mentality you could lose. And that's what we did."
Mazzulla wouldn't go as far as calling the loss embarrassing, saying that was too harsh, but he did say it was unacceptable.
"We're playing poor stretches of basketball, we're not playing well and we sucked tonight," he said. "There's a difference between saying we sucked at something between like 'you should be embarrassed'. I think that's very harsh.
"We would love to be perfect. We would love to win every game, make every shot," said Jayson Tatum, who had 23 points Thursday night. "But it's just not the case. We've got to be better and look at ourselves in the mirror, and that's what we're going to do."
Mazzulla maintained a positive outlook on Thursday night, and hopes that the sting of the defeat snaps his team out of their lackadaisical daze.
"Oh, it's great," he said. "It's good. I just think you look at and it happens. Stretches of bad basketball happen. You work your butt off every day to minimize those, but stretches of bad basketball happen, and we can't sit here and act like we're too entitled for it to happen to us. It's a matter of how we respond to it."
The Celtics we saw Thursday night is not the team we've seen for the majority of the season. And they remain the best team in basketball with a 37-12 record, and by no means should anyone feel like the sky is falling.
But they got what they deserved Thursday night. It was a good reminder to everyone on the roster that they are far from perfect, and even on nights when they face a far inferior opponent, they cannot simply show up and expect to win.
