The Thing About Revenge Is It Unfortunately Doesn't Quite Hit The Same When You Lose

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

I'll say this, had the Celtics not won the 2024 NBA title, a game and a loss like last night would bother me waaaaaaaaaay more than it currently does. Don't get me wrong, it's annoying, but that's pretty much it. Maybe it's because we experienced a similar result last year in a pretty similar situation, where the Celts had won 5 straight and then lost a close game to Steph Curry. Maybe it's because things were close even without Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis on the floor. Don't get it wrong, this was a winnable game that the Celtics blew through a lack of execution on both ends of the floor in the most important moments of the game, but it's not as if there is some sort of disaster or sky is falling situation. It's just….annoying.

This was a game everyone had circled for months. We all said the same thing. This was Tatum's chance as revenge and the Celts first real test against a team with an actual pulse (NYK and MIL might actually stink). On the Tatum front, he certainly played well and lived up to his end of the bargain, so that was great. But coming in a loss, I wouldn't exactly say he got his "revenge". When all you have is a moral victory instead of a real victory, that's not exactly an "I told you so" moment, even if that player was awesome in the game. The loss sort of ruins it.

What I've learned about myself is that coming off a title and knowing the Celts can do it, these types of losses just don't worry me like they may have in previous eras. The Celts are going to lose more games in 2024-25, as hard as that may be to hear. The fact that they are right there til the end in these losses even while being shorthanded is encouraging, but games like this are a reminder that against good teams you have to play a full 48. You have to win the margins. You cannot make mental mistakes in high leverage situations against a basketball demon. 

For a regular season basketball game in early November, it certainly had a playoff feel to it, and that can only help moving forward. Playing competitive games in the regular season matters. Ideally you're winning those games, but life isn't always fair. The Warriors deserved to win this game given how they executed in big moments, so you tip your cap, correct your mistakes and move on.

But before we do, let's dive into what we saw.

The Good

- With all the eyes on the world on Jayson Tatum for obvious reasons, if you were to tell someone Tatum would finish this game with 32 points on 10-20 (5-10) shooting, I think most people would say he "got his revenge" or at the very least lived up to his expectation of what would be needed in a game against GS

With no Jaylen in the lineup it was pretty obvious how the Warriors were going to approach defending Tatum. They were going to trap him on screens, double on the catch, basically do whatever they could to get the ball out of his hands and make the "others" beat them. For a half, that was pretty effective. But once Tatum was quicker with his decisions, that approach didn't really work (see the 41 points in the 3rd), but what stood out to me was that in a game like this with all the hype around Tatum's performance, he stayed true to how he always plays.

Whatever is best for the team, that is what Tatum is going to do. Instead of spamming shots, he created opportunities for his teammates which is really all you can ask for. Tatum may have only finished with 2 assists, but he led the Celtics with 14. It was just a tough night for the "others" when it came to knocking down clean looks off Tatum passes. Outside of White's 74, no Celtic passed the ball more than Tatum (59), and I think last night was a great example of why a player like Jaylen is so important. If teams have that same approach in terms of defending Tatum and Jaylen is on the floor, that's death.

Tatum's 3rd quarter (17 points on 5-7) is what brought the Celts back after their horrific close to the 2nd quarter, and he backed that up with 7 points on 50% shooting in the 4th, and while he wasn't perfect (we'll get to it), overall I'd say Tatum did enough. It sucks a performance like this is wasted in a close loss, but I'll never complain about an efficient 30 ball.

- The Neemias Queta Era has been a revelation. Another player that wasn't perfect and had some costly mistakes, but as with everything you need to keep perspective here. The Celts 3rd/4th center holding his own in a game like this is a pretty big deal, considering most of Queta's issues are an experience problem, not a skillset problem. The more he plays and the more he learns and gains experience, things will look better and better (you would think)

An opportunity has presented itself for Queta to earn regular rotation minutes, and he's capitalizing. 

The one thing I'd like to see from him is quicker decisions as a passer, but that will come with time. If he can get closer to Kornet's processing speed and understanding of where the ball has to go when he gets a pass in the short roll, well then now we'd be cooking with gas. His athleticism is undeniable, and there's something to be said about his rim protection and how he's able to deter guys in the paint considering this team is searching for answers in that department until KP comes back.

While the sample size is still small, the numbers are starting to get hard to deny

We may be at the point where as solid as Kornet has been so far this season in his role, Joe rolling with Queta as the primary backup center looks to be the move. I just think you have to really give those numbers a legit opportunity to show you how real they are. So far, they look pretty damn real. Having a rim running center is important for non-Tatum minutes (especially when Jaylen is back), and considering this is all coming from a minimum contract guy is pretty incredible. We all know how important it is for Brad to hit on these low cost contracts, and Queta is certainly making his case that Brad found another gem.

There are going to be moments when he finds himself out of position. There are going to be moments when he gets cooked in space. There are going to be moments where fucks up a rebound. That's all part of the learning experience, but I feel pretty confident that with consistent run, the Queta we get in the Spring is going to look much different than the Queta we have in the Fall, and that guy is pretty fucking awesome already.

- One of the best parts of Derrick White is his ability to mold himself into whatever the team may need on any given night. Last night they needed Derrick to show up and provide that secondary scoring with Jaylen out, and that's exactly what he did

Some nights they are going to need him to be a C&S guy with elite defense. Other nights it's going to be a playmaker. The point is, Derrick White cannot be defined by a position or a role. He's a basketball player. To me, that's the highest praise you can have. Whatever you need on any given night, Derrick White will provide it and he'll do it with a smile. 

His 19 FGA were a season high, and while 16 3PA may seem like a lot to some, I didn't really hate the approach. Open looks are open looks and he finished 7-16 (43.8%) so it's not as if he should have stopped shooting. I think our sample size is large enough these last few years to be totally fine with White taking whatever shot he wants, especially on a night where the team needed someone to step up the scoring production in addition to Tatum. 

- Alright, that's pretty much it. Let's move on.

The Bad

- For whatever reason, the Celts did not appear ready for the Warriors physicality on the perimeter to start this game, which I found a little surprising because everyone with a brain knew how they were going to defend the Celts to start this game. It was the same shit that got them into trouble in the 2022 Finals and the exact opposite of the approach that led to them getting buried by 52 points last year.

When you play GS, the one thing you cannot have is multiple CTE moments. They thrive off those mistakes and bury you. Sof or the Celts to open the game with 5 TOs, mostly due to Warriors ball pressure and physicality was certainly not what I would call "good". It's no surprise that things looked MUCH better in the 2nd half and the Celts only had 2 TOs over those 24 minutes. I just didn't love how they were attacking the trapping/doubling early, and while Joe eventually figured it out for the second half, I couldn't help but have 2022 PTSD watching the Warriors bait the Celtics into bozo basketball turnover after bozo basketball turnover early in this game.

In the end, the early turnovers proved to be too costly. GS won the fastbreak battle 17-8, and the Celts allowed 16 points off 12 turnovers, compared to just 7 points allowed from GS. Those are the margins you cannot lose when playing Steph Curry. It's no different from the 2022 Finals or any of those Heat series we saw the Celts lose due to sloppy ball control and high points off TOs.

If you don't take care of the basketball, you die. Simple as that.

- In a game like this, your role players have to outplay their role players, and when it came to shooting production, that unfortunately was not the case. 

Is it annoying that the difference was essentially Kuminga (22%) and Kyle Anderson (18%) going 5-7 from deep while Pritchard/Hauser finished 5-16? You bet. But again, those are the margins. You can accept Buddy Hield doing his thing, making 3s is what he does, but it's some shit luck that your lifetime 40% shooters were outperformed by two guys who literally cannot shoot 3s. That's tough, mostly because Hauser/Pritchard's looks were pretty clean.

Over his last two games Pritchard is shooting just 31.6% from deep, and Hauser's back injury must be fucking with him because he's only at 33% to start the season which is a massive dropoff from his 42% last year and his career 41.8% average. In a game like last night, their production was important and sadly it just wasn't there.

We also had our first instance of a game against a good team where the bench shooters aren't making shots and there's no real shot creation on the bench to make snap the team out of a funk and get hot. Jordan Walsh isn't that guy, and this was always the angle for someone like Lonnie Walker. If the Celts bench shooters can't make their open looks, the Celts are virtually shit out of luck in terms of generating bench scoring offense, and I wonder if Brad does anything about that. I know it was unrealistic for the team to pay the tax penalties that come with keeping Walker, but this was a scenario where in theory a player with his skillset could have helped. 

- Tough time for a 3-11 (0-6) from Jrue, which was unfortunate because I thought he was great on the boards (9) and as a passer (8 assists) while taking care of the ball (1 TO). For probably the first time all year he missed all his big momentum 3s, which was pretty surprising given how well he's done with those this season.

Holiday's issues to me were more around the small things. Not the best defensive performance we've ever seen, not boxing out late, and on a night where his role had to be elevated, he struggled. It's arguably his first bad game in forever so it's mostly whatever, but it was certainly a shitty time to lay an egg that's for sure.

- For as good as the defense was in the 1st quarter (19 points), I'd say it was pretty awful for the remaining three. You're just not going to win against good teams allowing 32, 31 and 36 points. That's not exactly new, and for a while there the Celts had done a good job limiting their 30+ point quarters, but this is what I mean about playing for 48 minutes. You can't play 12 minutes of good defense against the Warriors and Steph Curry and think that's going to be enough, especially on a night where you are mostly shooting like shit.

- The Celts had just 94 points per 100 possessions in halfcourt offense in that  game. That is legitimately awful. Credit the Warriors defense as it was legit as hell when it came to making the Celts work in the halfcourt, and a large portion of that damage came early.

- When you lose your focus for even a minute, that's more than enough time for all things to go to hell, which is exactly what happened to end the 2nd quarter. Already one of the worst quarters of the season (16 points), the score was 42-40 with about 1:45 to go. How did the Celts close that quarter? They allowed a 9-0 run and were down 11 in a blink of an eye.

That matters of course because even in a 3rd quarter where you scored 41 points and won the frame by 10, it gave you only a 1 point lead heading into the 4th. If the Celts close that quarter strong and are down say 4-6, suddenly that 4th quarter is a little different. Those type of mental lapses to end quarters simply cannot happen, and it's another example of the Celts losing around the margins.

- It remains so infuriating how every single game the Celts play, there always appears to be some sort of bullshit when it comes to the officials. When you have DORIS BURKE agreeing that this was the most obvious illegal screen of all time only for the officials to not correctly call an illegal screen in a huge swing moment of the 4th quarter, I mean that's just so fucking pathetic

No surprise it was Marc Davis who made that call. Between shit like this, the quick Tatum tech, it really is every single night with this bullshit. All I ask is to just not have this type of shit happen in huge moments in a 4th quarter of a great game. Why is that so hard? A 5 point game with possession and 5 minutes left is MUCH different from a 2 point game with possession, especially coming off something that was as clear as day.

The Ugly

- The truth of the matter is, this was a winnable game that you simply have to close out. Up 7 with around 6 minutes to go, the reason the Celtics lost this game was because of their inability to execute when it mattered. Not that foul call. For example, the most important thing you need to do when you have a lead late in the 4th quarter is rebound. You need to end your defensive possessions cleanly.

Well, in the 4th quarter alone, the Warriors had 7 OREB for 10 2nd chance points. There's your ballgame right there. Yet again, in the biggest moments of the game, the Celts struggled with their late game defensive rebounding, something that has seemingly always been an issue. Considering they were playing double bigs, I find that pretty inexcusable. 

Two instances stood out the most, and they are plays you cannot allow to happen

Jrue Holiday, what kind of boxout was that? Queta, we're just going to stand there and not go for the ball? I get it was a tough break with an airball going directly to Looney, but this is the type of mental mistake that kills you late in a game that you cannot make. Everyone with a brain knows Looney is in the game to hit the offensive glass, so to not put a body on him is inexcusable.

The thing is, it happened again on the very next possession

Sorry, this is losing basketball. Again Jrue Holiday, what are you doing here? Queta, I need you to get that initial miss, that was a wide open rebound that you should not be misreading. These are little things that add up to big things in high leverage moments, and the Celts just weren't sharp.

- This extended past rebounding too. Jayson Tatum, my guy, overall you played great, but what the fuck happened here?

This was NOT the time to fall asleep ball watching and lose sight of your man, especially when your man is BUDDY HIELD who had been automatic from deep all night. I'm not even sure what the hell he was doing because it's not as if he really showed help in the Curry drive, he simply just fell asleep defensively at the worst possible moment and that was your nail in the coffin. 

If you look at how the Celts closed the final 2 minutes of this game, they have no one to blame but themselves for this loss. Poor late game execution is a death sentence, and this was probably the worst close we've seen from them in quite some time. As I said, little mistakes become big mistakes when you aren't locked in. Hopefully, this serves as a teaching moment moving forward, because that shit was very frustrating to watch live.

So hey, 7-2 just like we saw the Celts start last year. It would have been nice to pull this out one of course, but that's sports. The Celts simply didn't play well enough to win and they got what they deserved. Win Friday and the .800 winning percentage is right on track.