Getty Celtics head coach Brad Stevens gazes skyward during a 2020 game
A loss is a loss is a loss, as they say. But some losses are a little easier to take than others. Such was the case for Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens following his team’s 110-107 defeat Tuesday to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.
Already a legend in just his third season, Doncic hit two long 3-pointers with less than 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter to overcome a frenetic Celtics comeback. The loss, Boston’s fifth in the last seven games, sent the 15-16 Celtics under .500 this late in the season for the first time since April of 2015. That fact alone will likely keep Stevens in hot water (if not the hot seat) for the foreseeable future.
Doncic’s last three was especially soul-crushing as it came from 28-feet out with two defenders in his face and left Boston with an all but useless 0.1 seconds on the clock.
“The last [shot] was ridiculous,” Stevens told reporters after the game. “Kemba (Walker) was right there, Aaron (Nesmith) was right there.”
Still a Long Way to Go
Down 12 with less than four minutes remaining, the Celtics narrowed the gap to one over a span of just two minutes behind efficient scoring from their three stars — Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Walker — and with timely stops on defense. But Doncic’s long bombs did them in nonetheless.
“That happens sometimes [even] when you play well, so there’s an encouraging side to that. The problem is we’re in the position we’re in because we haven’t always played well. But we did in those last five minutes.”
Though ultimately coming up short, Boston’s focus and cohesion down the stretch –– in a season when their fourth-quarter woes have been widely documented –– were further sources of encouragement to Stevens, especially when compared to Sunday’s loss in New Orleans when the Celtics below a 24-point lead in the second half.
“I think we just chose to maintain the right mindset,” said Stevens. “Instead of getting down, instead of being concerned with what had happened up to this point, it was more about playing the right way and being together and letting the chips fall where they may at the end. Obviously, that’s another heartbreaking loss, but that feels a little bit different than it did on Sunday.”
As far as what he saw against Dallas persisting through the rest of the season, Stevens’s hopefulness came with a caveat.
“I think what you get as a coach are little tidbits of hope,” said Stevens. “But you get told something over the course of a season. You get real information over the course of 20, 30, 40, 50 games. If we can play with that kind of poise in the last five minutes of games the rest of the year, then we’ll be better than we’ve been up to this point. But we have to improve a lot.”
‘It’s a Killer’
A big problem for the Celtics this season has been a lack of intensity on defense, particularly after losing their First Team All-Defensive guard Marcus Smart to a calf strain in late January. But Stevens didn’t think that was an issue against Dallas.
“I didn’t feel that was the case as much,” said Stevens, responding to a question about whether he thought the Celtics should’ve come out with more effort following the New Orleans debacle. “[The Mavericks] are shot-makers, they’re hard to guard, they spread you out. In person I didn’t feel that, I don’t know how it looked on TV or what was being described, but no.”
Stevens did, however, admit that the Celtics are not as good defensively as they’ve been in the past and still have much to work on.
“We are not as good defensively as we have been in the last few years, so that’s another part of it,” said Stevens. “We played hard I think in the last three games for the better part of them. Obviously, the last 15 minutes of New Orleans wasn’t pretty, but I think we’ve improved in that area. But I still don’t think we’re where you wanna be if you wanna be good.”
Ironically, Boston’s emphasis on increasing their effort may have actually hurt them against Dallas. The Celtics committed their fifth foul of the fourth quarter with more than seven minutes remaining, meaning that Dallas would shoot free throws on any subsequent foul the rest of the game. It also meant the Celtics had to be extra careful when guarding Doncic down the stretch.
“It’s a killer. It’s a killer,” said Stevens referring to the early bonus situation and how they might’ve otherwise guarded Doncic on Dallas’ last possession. “We don’t have a foul to give, so if we can switch up into Doncic’s airspace at 50 feet and foul him, then that’s a totally different deal. We are trying to be more physical because we need to be, but we’ve got to balance that with fouling. And I think we’re getting a lot of fouls that we can improve upon.”
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