The Celtics lose to the undermanned Hawks, who outplayed them and dominated the glass

BOSTON – The final seven seconds grabbed everything that killed the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night.

They gave up an offensive rebound. You have committed a turnover. They had one last chance to beat the undermanned Atlanta Hawks after stealing an inbounds pass with the help of an accidental whistle, but couldn’t quite muster the level of shooting technique necessary to overcome their other blunders.

Jaylen Brown failed to reach the bottom of the net with a hanging jumper that would have given his team the victory. Jayson Tatum and Joe Mazzulla thought the result, a 117-116 loss for the Celtics, was fair.

“We didn’t play well enough to deserve the win,” Tatum said.

“They outdid us,” Mazzulla repeated. “Every facet of the game. Beat us on all counts. They deserved to win.”

As much talent as the Celtics have, they often win games because of their analytical soundness. Their ability to create 3-point attempts gets the most attention, but they typically gain mathematical advantages in several key categories. Entering Tuesday, they ranked second in turnover rate, second in opponent free throw rate and ninth in defensive rebound rate. They pride themselves on being the smarter, tougher team. When both are the case, they get more possession by playing sharper basketball than their opponents.

In a comeback win Saturday in Milwaukee, the Celtics won despite shooting worse from the field and from the 3-point arc than the Bucks. Boston produced five more field goal attempts, 18 more 3-point attempts and six more free throw attempts than the Bucks. It would have been hard for the Celtics to lose this game. They had math on their side.

In an exceptional performance, Boston squandered some of its usual advantages over the Hawks. The Celtics recorded 20 turnovers, five more than their previous season high. They allowed 20 offensive rebounds, four more than they have allowed in any game this season. They outgained Atlanta from the field (50.7 percent to 50.0 percent) and the 3-point arc (40 percent to 31.3 percent) and made 15 more free throw attempts, but still lost for so many reasons often lead to their victories. Atlanta made 25 more field goal attempts than the Celtics.

“If you allow a team to have a one-shot lead like that, you’re not going to win,” Mazzulla said.

The Celtics didn’t recognize themselves at the start of the NBA Cup group phase.

“I just think we were sloppy mentally tonight,” Brown said. “We expected to win. Too careless and it showed. I think the No. 1 category it performed in is our sales. It’s uncharacteristic of us to lose 20 balls under any circumstances. I think it just showed that we weren’t as in sync as we usually are, so we need to get better at that and I need to get better at that.”

Brown scored 37 points but committed six turnovers. Tatum added another five turnovers, bringing the two All-Stars to a total of 11 turnovers.

“I still give Atlanta credit,” Brown said. “They came out and played physical. But me and JT have to get better.”

How bad was Boston’s loss? The Hawks were badly injured as Trae Young (Achilles), Bojan Bogdanovic (hamstring) and De’Andre Hunter (personal reasons) were sidelined. That left them thin enough to add Keaton Wallace, a guard on a two-way contract. When asked how much the attrition in the backcourt would impact the team, coach Quin Snyder said it was like a football team missing its top three quarterbacks.

“You run the ball,” Snyder said.

The Celtics allowed themselves to be run straight to the gut like Derrick Henry. The Hawks made just ten 3-pointers, eight fewer than Boston, but more than made up for it with 68 points. Four Atlanta players grabbed at least three offensive rebounds: Clint Capela (six), Zaccharie Risacher (five), Onyeka Okongwu (four) and Jalen Johnson (three). Even with Young, the Hawks have been a below-average outside shooting team this season. The Celtics must have known they basically just had to grab the ball, but they still couldn’t stop the Hawks from scoring deep and dominating on the glass.

“We are a team that likes to change, but you have to be able to recover and fight,” Brown said. “Some of these big ones got a lot of seals tonight. Okongwu and Capela did a good job offensively, blocking some of our transitions and making us pay for it. We just have to fight better. We didn’t fight like we normally do tonight.”

BIG O FOR VICTORY pic.twitter.com/yGZnbvcuRb

– Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 13, 2024

Even in the last minute, the Celtics were unable to play with their usual concentration. After taking a 116-113 lead, an apparent miscommunication between Brown and Derrick White led to Wallace getting caught in an open floater. His basket brought the Hawks within one point. On Boston’s ensuing possession, Tatum hit a wide-open 3-point attempt from the corner, giving Atlanta a chance to take the lead. Dyson Daniels missed a floater in the lane, but Okongwu drove the ball in with 6.1 seconds left to give the Hawks a 117-116 lead.

After a timeout, the Celtics made another crucial mistake. They tried to pass the ball to Tatum, but Jrue Holiday’s pass slipped out of bounds. Tatum complained to the referee at the moment, but later blamed the rally on himself.

“I have to grab the ball,” Tatum said, “so that was on me.”

This play counted as Boston’s 20th turnover. As much as the Hawks missed Young’s offense, they were longer, more athletic and more disruptive without him. Daniels, who finished with six steals, is far and away the leader in the NBA in this category. Risacher, the No. 1 pick, stands as a 6-foot-9 winger. He and Jalen Johnson, another big, springy forward, each had three steals.

As irritating as these players can be on defense, many of their mistakes were the Celtics’ own fault. They usually take great care of the ball, but there were seven turnovers in the first half and another five turnovers in the first five minutes of the third quarter. They still managed to build an 81-66 lead midway through this period, but signs of impending collapse were already apparent. The Celtics’ superior shooting still almost led to a win, but they didn’t run the game the way they normally do.

The loss left them 0-1 in the group stage of the NBA Cup and still had games to play against the Cavaliers and Wizards. Although the Celtics now have to overcome a deficit to advance to the tournament’s elimination round, they seemed more annoyed that they didn’t live up to their personal standards. White said the team’s recent starts have not been up to par.

“It’s not really like us to come out and have our willingness questioned, especially not like the group we have,” White said. “That’s why we definitely have to start the games better.”

The Celtics didn’t just lose on Tuesday because of their start. They sputtered most of the game. After Tatum failed to catch Holiday’s inbound pass in the final seconds, Brown gave his team another chance by stealing the Hawks’ ensuing inbound pass. The referee initially rejected the play, apparently thinking Brown was going out of bounds, but eventually gave the Celtics the ball with 3.7 seconds left due to an accidental whistle.

“I guess he blew the whistle because he thought I was out of bounds, but I wasn’t,” Brown said. “I was able to get the steal, but I couldn’t convert on offense.”

With no timeouts left, Boston did well to find Brown in good position to take a shot. He couldn’t convert a hard-contested jumper, but the Celtics had bigger problems on Tuesday.

They want to strive for greatness. They want to maximize their championship chances, no matter how long that window lasts. A single defeat in November won’t dash their hopes of doing so, but they won’t allow slip-ups to creep into their game.

“It’s part of the journey,” Brown said. “We need to clean up a few things. We are not a perfect team. It’s a new season, a new journey and we look forward to enjoying these moments. We’ll take a look at it and look at what needs to be addressed. We have to be able to move forward. We must not allow it to become a habit. We have to be able to react well. So I’m looking forward to the film. We have a clash coming up, we will put it behind us. But we will learn from these situations and be better.”

They must be.

(Top photo of Jayson Tatum defended at the basket by Onyeka Okongwu and Zaccharie Risacher: David Butler II / Imagn Images)