The Celtics had chances to take control in Brooklyn, but never found the consistency needed to steal the game from the Nets. Boston flashed moments of good process and stretches of tough defense, yet the middle quarters — and a late Michael Porter Jr. surge — proved too much to overcome. Still, there were plenty of notable performances and trends worth digging into from an NBA Cup game that they couldn’t figure out. Here are 10 takeaways from the loss.
Losing The Middle Quarters
There’s no shying away from it, this one stings for Boston. They had their chances, and momentum swung their way at times, but it felt like they were playing on their heels the whole night.
After scoring just 12 points with 4 minutes left in the 1st quarter, they found some answers and outscored the Nets 16-3 the rest of the way. They followed this up by losing the 2nd and 3rd quarter by a combined total of 70-49.
They’re gearing up for a difficult stretch into the start of December, so dropping a game to the two-win Nets is discouraging. Boston pulled away at the end of the first matchup, but it wasn’t exactly the most convincing game either.
Of the bright spots in this one, Queta may have been the loudest. He struggled with Claxton at times, but Boston needed everything he could give them offensively to hang around.
His screening ability and timing when slipping toward the rim were a helpful counter against Brooklyn’s bigs defending at the level of the screen. His decision-making in these scenarios was exceptional as well.
With Claxton up high to hedge the pick and roll, Queta maintains his screen long enough for Simons to hold Claxton’s attention. He rolls into open space and identifies a 4-on-3 advantage in their favor. You could argue that the layup and the pass are both good decisions, but it’s the decisiveness that makes this work. Any hesitation from Queta and the advantage dries up quickly.
Against an aggressive defense, sometimes the best option is to ghost a screen, as Queta does here. He catches Claxton off guard, rolls where Simons can find him and sprays it out to the corner.
This type of awareness has marked a more subtle improvement that is fueling Queta’s ascension.
Jaylen played the entire 1st quarter, only picking up a single foul. He grabbed two more in the 2nd quarter, and wound up with his 5th at the six minute mark of the 3rd. The Celtics challenged the call, and had what felt like a solid case. However, the refs deemed Terance Mann made marginal contact prior to Brown hitting him with his off arm.
This was a significant call as Brown was up to nine points in the quarter, helping to cut the Nets lead down to five. Brooklyn closed the quarter on a 21-9 run to grab a 15 point lead after Brown went to the bench.
A Quiet Night From Derrick White
In a game where Boston was starved for scoring, they needed Derrick White to be ready to answer the call. He’s been in a much better rhythm lately, but he simply didn’t have it tonight.
White finished with six points, his second lowest total of the season. He shot 2/13 from the field, including 1/7 from 3PT range. His off night was punctuated in the last 5 minutes with a missed point blank layup, and a corner three the caught the top corner of the backboard.
Pritchard Faded After The First
Payton came on strong in this one, giving Boston life in the 1st quarter with three 3-pointers. It looked like he was set up for another big game, but his scoring wasn’t there the rest of the way. He managed just four points in quarters 2, 3 and 4.
The biggest issues stemmed from Brooklyn’s size, mobility and gap help. Their lineups didn’t feature a single player shorter than 6’5, and their bigs are agile. This allowed for very few clean driving lanes, and limited open looks with bigs up high to restrict pull-up threes.
Pritchard simply couldn’t create against all that length.
Simon’s Picking Up The Scoring
When Brown sat due to foul trouble, Simons understood that they’d need him to step up. He scored 13 of his 23 points during the final two quarters. He managed to consistently beat his man off the dribble to get to the paint — something that the rest of the team struggled with due to the Nets size and length.
This resulted in Simons playing 33 minutes, the most of his Celtics tenure so far. He’s shot the ball effectively from three, but it’d be a nice boost if Simons could continue to take his drives deeper into the paint. He’s averaging just 4.8 drives per game, which is considerably lower than each of his previous four years in Portland.
He still looks like he’s trying to find his place in the offense, and his minutes have dipped lately as a result. This could be a step in the right direction, as Mazzulla has rewarded players for performing when called on.
Boston is taking a slower approach with the rookie than most hoped for after his exciting start. He’s played under 10 minutes per game for a few weeks now, and was a DNP-CD during the last two.
Against Brooklyn, he started the 4th quarter, and finished as a +12 in just five minutes. It wasn’t the most impactful minutes — he got beat off the dribble a couple times — but you can still see the motor he plays with, and the pride he has on the defensive end.
It’s not going to be perfect all the time for the 19-year-old, but it’s possessions like this that show what he’s capable of. It’s noteworthy as well that Mazzulla called on him as the team was searching for energy and answers.
Michael Porter Jr. Caught Fire
Porter Jr. is having a very nice year in Brooklyn. He’s quickly emerged as their top scoring option, but he’s unique in the fact that he doesn’t need the ball long to do damage. Out of all players scoring 20+ points per game, Porter Jr. has the third lowest average seconds and dribbles per touch.
He turned it on in the 4th quarter, scoring 16 of his 33 points. He does a great job using screens to create openings, and if he gets his feet set, that shot is going up.
It becomes even more difficult if you fall behind on the screen because he’s capable of getting downhill, and has good chemistry with Claxton. It felt like every Celtics run ended with a heavily contested Porter jumper.
In combination with Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton was a problem all night for the Celtics.
He’s an extremely useful playmaker in dribble handoff actions, surveying the defense and making decisions on when to keep vs pass it. It pulls the Celtics bigs far from the paint and becomes quite hard to deal with when you’re accounting for his screening, passing, rolling and driving ability at once.
With Claxton in the game, Brooklyn had a 130 offensive rating and a 104.3 defensive rating. Porter Jr. finished the game, but Claxton got them off to a strong start and carried their energy throughout.
Jordan Walsh Keeps Building
Jordan Walsh continues to stack great performances. He’s rebounding, getting out in transition and finding ways to help on offense without the ball. It’s things that feel routine like setting timely off-ball screens, or relocating to open space, but he’s taking strides from even the start of this year.
Despite the scoring explosion from Michael Porter Jr., Walsh did pretty well with that matchup. He spent a lot of time face guarding him, and slithered around screens to deny easy looks.
It’s exciting that Walsh looks eager to take on the challenge of defending the other teams best scorers, and the team feels confident about it too. Aside from Hugo, Walsh was the only other Celtic to finish the loss with a positive +/-.
