BOSTON – The Celtics will have a long week to think about what they’ve done to themselves over the past nine days.
The latest big step back was a defensive mess heading into the All-Star break Wednesday night at TD Garden as they allowed the Los Angeles Clippers 56 points in the paint and 30 from the foul line in a 129-119 loss.
In that span, the team that [...]
BOSTON – The Celtics will have a long week to think about what they’ve done to themselves over the past nine days.
The latest big step back was a defensive mess heading into the All-Star break Wednesday night at TD Garden as they allowed the Los Angeles Clippers 56 points in the paint and 30 from the foul line in a 129-119 loss.
In that span, the team that held the best record in the Eastern Conference for most of the season has lost four of five, dropped three games in the loss column behind the Toronto Raptors, and enters the break just three games ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Come back ready to compete at a level better than we have," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of the message on the way out for the the break. “It’s going to be a tough ending if we don’t change a little bit. I’ll look at what I can change as well. I think we’re probably due some of that.”
Kyrie Irving scored 33 points, Al Horford had 17 points, Marcus Morris scored 13 points with 11 rebounds and Terry Rozier had 13 points for Boston.
DeAndre Jordan led the Clippers with 30 points and 13 rebounds, while Tobias Harris had 21 points and Danilo Gallinari had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers.
“The theme here is that our defense needs to be better,” Horford said. “We’re a group where we’ve build what we have so far on the defensive end. We’ve taken a big step back on that. It’s obvious in the past few games.”
The Celtics trailed a game with 16 lead changes, and eight ties, 112-109 into a timeout with 4:40 to play when Stevens immediately fouled Jordan when he reentered the floor. He made both free throws – giving him six of seven makes in the game – for a five-point lead.
“You’re playing the law of averages,” Stevens said of the 57.9 percent foul shooter. “By the end of the game I was fouling him because we couldn’t get a stop. He’s improved this year. He’s probably on the cusp of foul or not foul, but we were struggling the get stops the whole game.”
Irving’s floater cut it back to one possession with 4:24 left and Jordan answered with a slam with 4:04 to play into a Stevens timeout with 3:42 left. Irving tossed away a shot at a third-chance possession and Harris came back with a three-point play for a 119-111 game with 2:57 to play.
Irving’s free throws got Boston within six when Lou Williams pushed it back to eight with 2:20 to go. Stevens then went back to fouling Jordan intentionally and he made two more free throws before a Lou Williams three-point play made it a 126-113 game with 1:36 to play.
“I’ve said it all along that I don’t think we are all we were cracked up to be during our 16-game win streak,” Stevens said. “I think it’s hit us more in the past month than it hit us before. Teams have outplayed us. Good teams have outplayed us and that was the case again tonight.”
Once again down as many as 14 in the first half, the Celtics turned a halftime deficit into their first lead of the game on a pair of Irving free throws 1:38 into the second half. They were the first of 15 Irving points in the quarter as he scored 29 through three.
Irving’s 3-pointer had the Celtics up 70-67 with 7:56 left in the third when the Clippers answered with an 11-3 run. Five in a row from Irving put Boston back ahead 82-81 with 3:08 on the clock and it was a one-possession game on either side through the end of the quarter with the Clippers taking a 93-91 lead into the fourth.
A Rozier 3-pointer broke the back-and-forth and put the Celtics up 99-95 with 9:58 on the clock. But Doc Rivers called the quick timeout and his team fired back with 10 in a row over 2:09 for a 105-99 lead with 7:49 to play.
Irving hit Horford underneath for a 112-109 game with 4:40 on the clock before the Clippers used a 14-4 run to put the game away.