DENVER — The delay lasted almost 40 minutes. This left players trying to pass the time in their own way.
As Ball Arena employees attempted to fix an unbalanced rim, Grant Williams chatted with close friend Jamal Murray and danced a bit with Bruce Brown. Jayson Tatum relied on the broadcast table before eventually migrating to the Boston bench. Marcus Smart sat on the floor near the opposite free-throw line for at least 15 minutes, occasionally stretching to keep his body at least somewhat warm.
The fourth quarter delay dragged on long enough for the players to have had another warm-up period after the rim, which needed to be replaced, was finally ready for action. The long break has clearly impacted players on both sides. Robert Williams, whose dunk left the rim bent in the first place, still didn’t want to blame it all on it. The Celtics, who ultimately lost 123-111, trailed the Nuggets by 12 points with 6:43 to go when the delay happened.
“We screwed up the whole game,” said Robert Williams. “Excuse my language.”
Boston allowed the Nuggets to shoot 57 percent from the field, including 17 for 30 (56.7 percent) from behind the arc. The Celtics couldn’t stop Nikola Jokic from going for 30 points on a hyper-efficient 10-for-13 shot, or stop him from feeding his teammates for easy buckets. The two-time MVP finished with 12 assists, nine more than he handed out when the two teams met in November. Even after the Celtics adjusted by changing their starting lineup after halftime, putting more size on the field, the Nuggets offense never lost its rhythm. Denver shot 21 for 36 from the field combined in the third and fourth quarters, starting against a Boston defense that had recently trended higher.
“I thought it was just one of those games where we took nothing away,” said coach Joe Mazzulla, who returned to the sidelines after missing the previous two games with a corneal abrasion at each eye.
Jokic has been dominant from the start
Jaylen Brown said he thought Sunday could be a tough game for a number of reasons. The Celtics were embarking on a four-game road trip to a city that presents unique challenges for opposing players. Additionally, on New Year’s Day, Brown hinted that some players would still be paying for what they had done the night before.
“I was already preparing physically and mentally for a tough first game,” Brown said. “Knowing that the altitude, the long flight and the New Year celebrations and all that would factor into it. So I made sure I rested, I made sure I was ready for today.
Brown scored 14 points in the first quarter on 5-for-6 shooting but was alone in his first success. The rest of the Celtics shot just 5 for 18 from the field during the frame, including 1 for 11 from behind the arc. While struggling offensively, they allowed Jokic to cook them too easily. He took advantage of cross games early, punishing the Celtics in transition. On one such occasion, Tatum barely offered any resistance when Jokic took up position just off the edge:
In another crossover match, Derrick White fought more but just wasn’t big enough to take Jokic away from exactly what he wanted. The other Celtics haven’t done much to help White with the obvious mismatch:
A third crossover game didn’t lead to a score or an assist from Jokic, but opened up Bruce Brown for a clean look at a 3-pointer. As Al Horford and White tried to turn on Jokic, the Nuggets found Brown alone in the corner:
Jokic puts the teams in a brutal dilemma. He can dust opponents who cover him in singles or separate opponents who send double teams. Grant Williams thought the Celtics should have forced him to create more of his own offense, rather than allowing him to bring everyone else on his team forward. After Jokic scored 12 points in the first quarter, Williams felt the Celtics had lost track of what they wanted to accomplish.
“I think we kind of overreacted a couple of times,” Williams said. “The advantage of this team is that if he bets 30, 40, 50 on me, that’s fine with me. Because then it’s not the other guys who get open 3s, feel good about themselves. But I think that from the start of the match, our physicality was not necessarily there. So when we came back, tried to increase the physique, we did a good job in the second quarter. And then, by then, he had already started involving the guys. And we started doubling up a little more than necessary and they just had wide-opening shots.
A rare misfire against a high level attack
Entering Sunday, Boston was 7-0 in games against a top-10 offense, according to Cleaning the Glass. Against attacks of this caliber, the Celtics had the best defensive efficiency in all of basketball, a sign that they can always come back for their fastball at this end of the court if needed.
They didn’t have that fastball in Denver. On the final possession of the third quarter, Bones Hyland dribbled through the entire shot clock before finally finding a crack in the Celtics defense to beat the buzzer. After Hyland beat Sam Hauser, none of Boston’s other players provided effective help:
Bones Hyland pulls off some nifty moves before beating the buzzer!⛏ pic.twitter.com/67qimg48Qy
– TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 2, 2023
That bucket came after the Celtics changed their starting lineup to start the third quarter, putting Grant Williams in White’s usual spot. Mazzulla said he wanted to play “a little bigger”.
“Have a different game on Jokic,” Mazzulla said. “Have a different game on (Aaron) Gordon. And sort of just play a different cover. It’s something we’ve done in the past.
Wanting to use more size, the Celtics could have gone with Robert Williams to put together the first unit from last season. This formation crushed opponents with defense. Instead, Mazzulla opted against it, leaving Robert on the bench in favor of Grant. Maybe it’s because Grant generally did a solid job on Jokic, but it could have been a good time to start the old formation again.
Despite Mazzulla’s change, the Celtics’ defense never resumed. Jaylen Brown thought the Nuggets had an aberrant night from 3-pointers, which made the Celtics really want them to take. Looking at a stat sheet, he pointed out that Bruce Brown went 4 for 6 from behind the arc and also said that Hyland “hit some hard shots.”
“They just shot the hell out of the ball,” Jaylen Brown said. “Seventeen for 30 from (3-point range) is an anomaly. So thanks to them.
Brun against Hyland
With about eight minutes remaining, Brown cheered loudly while leaning into a defensive stance against Hyland.
Backdrop: Hyland hadn’t been quiet about his role in pushing the Nuggets’ lead to 18 points. After a bucket, he waved his hand at Hauser, letting Hauser know he had gotten the best out of him. After another, Hyland turned back to the Celtics bench and appeared to say something to them. He was sexy and let the world know. Brown wanted to put an end to this.
“I just think their second unit was playing great,” Brown said. “Just comfortable. So I tried to pick up a bit, to increase my physique and my intensity.
Brown pressured Hyland, trying to make things difficult for the guard, but fouled Hyland in the process. After falling to the court from contact on the play, Brown bounced back and stepped forward to stand opposite Hyland. Brown wanted to change the energy of the Celtics.
“Just two guys competing,” Brown said. “Bones is a good young player. He came out and played a very good game tonight. Off the bench, he touched them, 17 points from the bench, it was huge for them. For me, I was just trying to capture the intensity of the game.”
In some ways, Mazzulla thought the Celtics reacted well to their horrible 9-for-33 3-point shooting performance. They scored 60 points in the paint, grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and shot 57.4% on 2-point attempts. points. They just never managed to rack up any regular saves.
About a minute after Brown and Hyland pitched in, the Celtics lost Hyland in the corner. He drilled another 3-pointer on the play, leaving Horford and Brown to ax what happened on defensive miscommunication.
Later, Brown acknowledged that the Celtics hadn’t done enough to steal Denver’s pace.
“We won’t be able to play them anymore,” Brown said. “So it’s good for them. But I think they played well tonight. As we were watching the movie, the guys who shot the ball like that don’t normally shoot the ball like that. So they definitely came out and were ready to play. We took one of their best shots. We just need to do more to not let them get too comfortable and take those things away from them. I think it depends more on us than on them. If you want them to stop doing something, you have to take it down.
(Photo of Denver Ball Arena maintenance staff replacing rim: Ron Chenoy/USA Today)
