The Boston Celtics' scorching hot start to the 2023-24 campaign came to a halt on Monday night when they took on the Minnesota Timberwolves, as the C's suffered their first loss of the season via a 114-109 score. The C's had an opportunity to win this game on the final possession of regulation, but Jaylen Brown missed a game-winning three, sending the game to overtime where Anthony Edwards took over.
For as good as the Celtics looked to open the season, they struggled to limit Edwards defensively in this game and make their open looks throughout this one. Their offense was scattered throughout overtime as well, reminding fans of prior Boston teams that had struggled to close out games in the clutch, which is what happened here.
Losing games in sports is never fun, but the Celtics were never going to go 82-0 on the season; losses are going to happen. And while this was a game that Boston should have won, there's no reason to panic just yet, as even in a loss, the C's showed that they are different from previous iterations of Celtics squads by even hanging around in this game in the first place.
The Celtics don't have to freak out after one loss
Through the first five games of the season, the Celics had looked like everything fans were expecting them to be after they made big moves for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday this offseason. Their offense was nearly unstoppable when they were hitting threes, and their defensive versatility was challenging their opponents in ways they simply could not overcome.
Against the Timberwolves, the Celtics played a good game for the most part. Edwards had a huge night (38 PTS, 9 REB, 7 AST, 15-25 FGM) despite playing through foul trouble, but he was really the only guy to have a massive night for Minnesota. Jaden McDaniels had 20 points, but took 18 shots to get there, Karl-Anthony Towns was a complete nonfactor due to foul trouble, and Rudy Gobert was purposefully being sent to the free throw line, where he shot 2-11 on the night.
The problem was that Boston's offense didn't have a good night, and those things happen from time to time throughout the course of the season. The C's shot just 39.1 percent from the floor and 28.2 percent from behind the arc, but they still very nearly beat a Timberwolves squad that hit 51.8 percent of their shots and 35.1 percent of their threes.
Based on how the other close games the Celtics have played in have largely come against teams that have been on fire offensively, the game plan to beat Boston right now appears to be hitting a bunch of shots, and praying that they miss theirs on the other end of the floor. That barely yielded a win for the T-Wolves here after it failed to work for the New York Knicks and Miami Heat in Boston's first two games of the season.
It's not hard to see where Boston's struggles came from in this game. Both Holiday (12 PTS, 11 REB, 6 AST, 4-16 FGM) and Porzingis (20 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 5-14 FGM) struggled with their shooting, leaving much of the scoring burden on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's shoulders for this game. Tatum scored 32 and Brown scored 26, but neither looked particularly great down the stretch with Minnesota's defense keying in on them.
Holiday isn't going to shoot just 25 percent from the floor every night, and against a Timberwolves team so reliant on Towns and Gobert, Porzingis needed to be more involved in this game. If Derrick White played in this game it's probably a different story, but with Al Horford in the starting five, Gobert was content to sit in the paint and clog Boston's lanes all night long, which was a big reason for their offensive struggles.
Missing White is the other important piece of the puzzle, and while the Celtics managed to skate past the Brooklyn Nets in their previous game before this one without White, missing him against Minnesota here hurt them a lot more. If White's on the floor, Gobert has to guard Porzingis at the perimeter, and while he technically has to do the same thing for Horford, he's only shooting 25 percent from behind the arc to open the season, so it's not as big of a worry, and Gobert's gamble paid off in this one.
All this is to say that, while the Celtics should have won this game, it's OK that they didn't. Local Boston media folks are going to overreact and act like the sky is falling, but it's important to block out that noise and move onto the next game. Boston is still the team to beat in the Eastern Conference until further notice, and while there are some things they can surely improve upon, their loss to the Timberwolves proved that even on their off nights, this team is still incredibly tough to beat.
Follow Us
Subscribe