The Boston Celtics suffered their second defeat of the season on Monday, November 2, losing to the Houston Rockets 109-93.
Playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the Celtics looked gassed midway through the third. Furthermore, their offense never clicked into high gear, especially on the perimeter, where they shot a shocking 28.6% from deep.
After the game, Jayson Tatum told the media the Celtics need to find a way to “dig deeper” in close situations on the road.
“Everybody plays back-to-backs; we’re not the only team,” Tatum said, via NBC Sports Boston. “…Are they tough? Yeah…There were moments where we cut it to like six or seven, and couldn’t get a rebound. They hit a three. It’s moments like that where we’ve got to dig deeper a little bit.”
One area the Celtics did find success was on the glass. They won the rebounding battle 38-34 and the offensive rebounding battle 13-9. Yet, with multiple members of the rotation struggling to find success from the field, Boston wasn’t able to capitalize on the additional possessions its offensive rebounding was creating.
Celtics’ Payton Pritchard Struggled From Deep
Payton Pritchard had arguably his worst game of the season so far. The former Sixth Man of the Year came off the bench to go 0-of-7 from three-point range. Shockingly, his poor shooting night was building on an 0-of-5 perimeter shooting night against the Orlando Magic just a day earlier.
“Shake it off,” Tatum said when asked about Pritchard’s struggles. “All of us missed shots, wide-open shots, layups, open threes. It wasn’t just P, all of us had tough shooting nights. It’s 82 games; it’s bound to happen sometimes.”
Paul George sat out Monday’s game against the Rockets, as he was being rested. His absence, coupled with tough shooting nights for Pritchard and Derrick White, left the Celtics short on reliable bucket-getters for the night.
Prior to the Celtics’ loss, they’d won five straight games after losing their opening game to the Detroit Pistons. As such, it’s far too early to panic about what we saw from the team against Houston. However, there’s certainly a lot more work left to do.
Celtics Face Milwaukee Bucks Next
Next up for Boston is the Milwaukee Bucks. The two teams will face off on Wednesday, November 4, at the TD Garden in Boston. Celtics fans will undoubtedly be hoping for a better showing and to have the full roster available for the game.
Milwaukee is 1-6 to start the season. They’re also in the very early stages of a full-scale rebuild. As long as the Celtics don’t get overconfident, they should be more than capable of securing a win and getting straight back on track.
Nevertheless, Mazzulla must continue toying with his rotations and substitution patterns so that he knows his best lineups for the next time the Celtics go into a game short-handed.
Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Sends Blunt Message After Streak-Snapping Loss