The Celtics locked up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference late on Sunday night, and a night later, it looked like they had no interest in slowing down despite that security. They went up by 30 points on the Hawks in the first half, and a 10th consecutive victory seemed inevitable.
But then a group that has rarely been exposed this season seemed to finally run into complacency.
The Celtics got lazy, they relaxed and maybe even got bored. They played with the game, and it came back to haunt them. A poor end to the first half carried into a disastrous second half, and the Celtics suffered their most humbling loss of the season in a 120-118 defeat to the Hawks on Monday night in Atlanta.
Jayson Tatum scored 37 points and Jaylen Brown added 24 points for the shorthanded Celtics, who were missing injured guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday. But there was no excuse for this loss, as Dejounte Murray and the Hawks delivered the Celtics a valuable reminder that as dominant as they’ve been, they still have some growing up to do in their chase for a championship.
“On any given night, no matter how good or what the level of the team is, if you don’t come ready to play and they do, you get your butt kicked,” Brown told reporters.
The Celtics, down two starters, were in cruise control in the first half. Al Horford’s 3-pointer with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter gave them a 68-38 lead, but that’s where it all turned. The Hawks closed the first half on a 16-6 run, and while it did not seem threatening in the moment, it was the precursor to an avalanche to start the second half.
Led by Murray and Bogdan Bogdanovic, the Hawks suddenly couldn’t stop missing, and the game suddenly flipped as they bothered the Celtics on the other end. They went on a 19-4 run to start the third quarter as the Celtics’ seemingly insurmountable lead was cut to one possession.
“We just took our foot off the gas,” Brown told reporters. “They just got confidence, and at that point, it’s hard to beat anybody when they got it rolling.
“I think we got a little casual, we got a little distracted and it cost us.”
The collapse was something of a perfect storm. The Hawks caught fire with 11 3-pointers in the second half. The Celtics suddenly went cold as they went 0-for-9 from distance in the third quarter, a product of the Hawks increasing their defensive pressure and getting the C’s out of rhythm. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pointed to the margins, as the Hawks dominated the glass with 15 offensive rebounds and points off turnovers.
Mazzulla emphasized the beginning and end of quarters, areas that have mostly been good for the Celtics this season but were poor on Monday. Without Trae Young, the Hawks’ role players like Vit Krejci and Bruno Fernando got too comfortable and made big impacts. In the second half, they were simply more physical than the Celtics.
“We got off to a really good start, but it’s a good lesson (of) when you let a team hang around,” Mazzulla said.
The Celtics generated some counter punches even after losing the lead early in the fourth quarter and going down four midway through the fourth. Payton Pritchard steadied the tide at points, Jaden Springer had some strong minutes and a fiery Tatum dunk with 3:20 remaining broke a 109-all tie and it looked the Celtics might prevail despite their flawed performance. But they couldn’t close.
The Celtics led by two with less than two minutes remaining. But then Tatum committed a turnover, which led to Bogdan Bogdanovic’s go-ahead transition 3. Brown responded with an elbow jumper before Murray answered by beating Horford for a layup.
The Celtics, trailing by one, then had a poorly executed offensive possession that resulted in a low-quality fadeaway 3-pointer from Brown that missed from the right wing with 36 seconds left. On the next possession, Murray missed a jumper but Clint Capela came up with the offensive rebound before finding De’Andre Hunter, who drilled a 3-pointer above the break with 10 seconds remaining that proved to be the nail in the coffin.
“I didn’t love the last shot that we got,” Brown said. “I think we kind of waited too late, I was waiting for the action to kind of develop, but the clock was winding down, we were taking too much time and I didn’t like the shot I got on the right wing.”
The Celtics certainly were not pleased with blowing a 30-point lead and losing – it was their largest blown lead since at least the 1996-97 lesson – but with less than three weeks left in the regular season and with the top seed in control, there was belief that this loss and experience can have a long-term benefit. As consistent as they’ve been this season, these C’s are still prone to performances and letdowns like this – and it’s something they know they need to clean up if they want to hang a banner this year.
“I think we’ve had the right approach, tonight wasn’t the best example of that,” Brown said. “We kind of took our hands off the steering wheel a little bit, and no matter if we’re up 30 or we’re down five, we gotta have the same approach and the same mindset, and that’s going to be a challenge for us going into the last home stretch of the season, knowing that we secured the Eastern Conference and the No. 1 seed but we still have to work on us.
“Stuff like this is good, to watch and see and learn and inspire and motivate. We need to learn from our mistakes, and hopefully that puts a battery in our back coming out next game.”
