Far from the statement win they had hoped to make on the Golden State Warriors’ home court on Saturday night, the Boston Celtics instead found themselves the victims of a 123-107 loss to the Dubs due to a combination of peculiar rotational decisions by interim head coach Joe Mazzulla and frequent lapses on both ends of the court by his players.
“We have to be better. The staff has to be better,” admitted Mazzulla via MassLive’s Brian Robb after the loss. And despite Jayson Tatum claiming the game was “more meaningful to” the media “than it was to us,” the St. Louis native’s exceptionally inefficient 6-of-21 shooting night told a different story.
One of the Warriors still owning some prime real estate in Tatum’s mind despite his and the Celtics’ growth as a team.
“I thought we didn’t make shots, I thought we had some rim reads that could have been better, kind of stagnant on offense at times, gave up way too many transition points,” suggested Jaylen Brown via MassLive’s Souichi Terada.
“We didn’t really do that in the playoffs last year but we did that tonight,” claimed Brown.
The Georgia native’s engaged, focused and confident play was solely matched by Malcolm Brogdon, the only other heavy-minutes player who did not seem cowed by the moment.
These are a different pair of ball clubs in a non-Finals context, and Tatum correct in his assessment that the stakes are lesser than some have framed them to be.
But the fact that Boston walked right into the isolation basketball and defensive coverages Golden State desired suggests the team still has plenty to do before the postseason at all levels of the organization.
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Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire