The Boston Celtics confronted only one evident challenge throughout Thursday night time’s extra time loss in Atlanta, and it is not one which they normally encounter: a lapse on the defensive glass.
The Hawks missed 53 field-goal makes an attempt however managed to regain possession of 17 of these pictures, which led to a 28-8 benefit in second-chance factors.
“That’s the sport, proper there,” head coach Joe Mazzulla acknowledged bluntly after the 123-122 defeat.
Fortuitously, that usually is not the sport for Boston. Defensive rebounding has been one in every of its robust fits this season, and whereas the lopsided second-chance scoring margin was irritating, it’s not a difficulty to be involved about.
Getting into the night time, the Celtics had the seventh-best defensive rebounding proportion within the league (72.8 %) together with the fourth-best general rebounding proportion (51.7 %). On Thursday night time, these percentages had been an unusually low 64.3 and 45.3, respectively.
Boston additionally averages the seventh-most second-chance factors (14.7) whereas surrendering the eighth-fewest (13.3) in that division.
So what induced the anomaly?
As Mazzulla defined, “[The Hawks] do an excellent job of crashing. Once you’re of their pick-and-roll spacing, you wish to shift and while you shift off these guys, they do an important job of chopping and being behind you and having the ability to get there. So I’m positive there’s just a few [rebounding situations] that we will get higher at, however that, to me, is the sport proper there: offensive rebounds and second-chance factors. I believed we performed a hell of a recreation outdoors of that part.”
Exterior of the rebounding, the Celtics shot the ball to their typical normal with splits of 47.9/38.9/85.7. They assisted on 28 of their 45 discipline objectives and had a 2.3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Jayson Tatum went off for 31 factors, 13 rebounds, and 6 assists – his 20th profession recreation with no less than 30, 10, and 5. Derrick White dropped 22 factors on 8-of-11 capturing, together with 5-of-6 from deep. He and Jrue Vacation corralled seven rebounds and dished out 5 assists apiece. And Kristaps Porzingis contributed 20 factors, seven rebounds, and three blocks.
On the opposite finish, Dejounte Murray scored a career-high 44 factors, however that wasn’t as a result of the Celtics couldn’t comprise him; it was as a result of he took a whopping 44 field-goal makes an attempt – the fifth-most that a person has ever tried towards the Celtics and probably the most since Kobe Bryant in 2002.
Murray additionally sunk the game-winner over Vacation, however as Mazzulla famous, “Jrue stole it from him two performs earlier, so I’d need nothing greater than Jrue Vacation on Dejounte Murray on the finish of the sport.”
After it was all mentioned and executed, that one shot wasn’t probably the most noteworthy distinction within the recreation. The second-chance scoring margin was the principle drawback, however based mostly on a full season of information, it’s not a difficulty that anybody needs to be frightened about.