The C's Limp Home After A Choppy West Coast Road Trip (2-3) That Ended With A Loss In Utah

 

    There is no shame in losing to the team with the best record in the NBA, haha you will notice I didn't say the best team since we all know that the Lakers (19-6) are still the team to beat. You could also say that tonight was a schedule loss for the Celtics (12-11 overall, 7-8 away) since they had been stuck in Salt Lake City-which is always a tough place to win-for a few days and away from home for over a week now. Still, by falling 122-108 this evening against Utah (20-5 overall, 10-2 home) at Vivint Arena, the fact is that Boston finished 2-3 on their difficult West Coast road trip and they return home with plenty of questions surrounding them. They don't have much time to figure things out either as they fly home tomorrow and then have three games in four days and five games in the next seven days. Uh oh.    

    After missing two games with a left knee injury, Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown (team-high 33 points, 8 rebounds) didn't miss a beat as he pushes for his first All-Star Game (which shouldn't physically take place in 2021 but I digress) appearance. Conversely, former All-Star Kemba Walker (7 points, 7 assists, 2-of-12 from the field) is in a major funk save for 24 points in the win over the Clippers (17-8) on Friday-one of the only highlights of the trip. Without much from him, the C's are basically a two-man team of Brown and swingman Jayson Tatum (23 points). Center Daniel Theis hit five 3-pointers but he can't have too many nice things all at once so he promptly fouled out in 28 minutes.  

    There is a reason that the Jazz have won 17 of their last 18 games, they are clearly a cohesive group with defined roles led by superstar guard Donovan Mitchell (game-high 36 points, 9 assists, 2 blocks) who is playing out of his mind even by his lofty standards. Small forward Joe Ingles (24 points, 6 assists) might not look like your typical NBA player but he does so many things well on a basketball court. Center Rudy Gobert (18 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks) added a double-double and swingman Bojan Bogdanovic (16 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists) made some timely baskets as the Celtics cut Utah's lead down to four multiple times in the fourth quarter but that's as close as they would get. Guard Jordan Clarkson notched 13 points and five assists off the bench for the Jazz as well.

    Boston's defense has been predictably MIA since their defensive catalyst Marcus Smart hurt his calf on January 30 vs. the Lakers. He might be wildly overrated-especially by Green Teamers and most Celtics media members-but at times like this when he's out, it's so easy to argue that Smart makes the Celtics much harder to play against. The C's led 27-24 after the first quarter and only trailed by one point (48-47) at halftime. Utah took control with a huge third quarter (outscoring Boston 42-32; tying the most points allowed in a frame by the C's this season) and they always had an answer in the fourth quarter when Boston threatened to make it really tight.

    Utah shot 3.4% better from the field (47.6%-44.2%), made five more 3-pointers (18-13), hit five more free throws (24-19), grabbed six more rebounds (41-35) including seven more defensive boards (31-24), handed out 10 more assists (28-18) and blocked five more shots (7-2) than the Celtics. No matter who they face at the moment, there are (at least temporarily) no automatic wins for Boston. They host Toronto (11-13) on Thursday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) then they have a back-to-back with Detroit (6-18) coming to town the next night (8, NBC Sports Boston). That's followed by a Valentine's Day matinee (1, NBC Sports Boston) in DC with the Wizards (6-15). The Celtics somehow are still in fourth-place in the Eastern Conference but don't be fooled by that since they are only 1.5 games ahead of the eighth-place Raptors. Head coach Brad Stevens has to hope that their fortunes will change at the Garden where the Celts are 5-3 this season. Whatever it takes, they just need to start stacking up some more wins since they are 4-6 in their last 10 games which is not going to get it done, especially in a shortened campaign like this.