Boston Celtics lose to Denver Nuggets. What does this mean for the Celtics?

Boston Celtics lose to Denver Nuggets. What does this mean for the Celtics?

People saw this as a test and the Celtics couldn’t get the job done in Denver what does this mean for their championship chances I’ll talk about it right now on the lockdown Celtics podcast than Blockbuster Brad holiday season Dro Drew in the mix and three

From KP no we not on the knck flushing competition like Al on Yannis juicing big zo still being Town’s finest been a r team going up in the Raptors watching SE game in Lo on after car on the breakdown like a tip from D white on the breakdown John on the mic docent

Domination matter P back B all SE Nation r j how star a raising B how we finish locked on Celtics P home of the winners hey there welcome back to the lockdown Celtics podcast right here in the lockdown podcast Network where it’s your team every day and I got you

Covered every day Monday through Friday with a free fresh podcast that drops directly to your device when you subscribe cribe so if you’re not subscribed by now subscribe hit that button get on to the YouTube page hit the comment section let me know what you think about the Celtics this loss and

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I’m John car if you don’t know me by now I used to play now I cover the Celtics for Boston Sports journal and today I’m talking about the Celtics loss to the Denver Nuggets oh my God they lost to the Denver Nuggets again oh no uh I’ll

Talk about what this means later and get into some of the Jaylen Jason stuff uh in a bit but let let’s just get to the the heart of what this game was and what this game was is simply the Denver Nuggets out executed the Boston Celtics they know

Who they are the Denver Nuggets know exactly who they are they do exactly what they do there’s no real variation the one thing I do like about the Denver Nuggets is basically they’re they their cards are on the table they’re like this is what we do good luck trying to stop

It and when you’ve got Nicole yic that’s something you can do joic is out there dominating he knows he he knows who he is he gets to his spots Chris Ops porzingis couldn’t stop him at all uh when the Celtics tried to throw double teams he just found the guy that they

Left and it didn’t matter who it was it could be Aaron Gordon it could be cavius cwell Pope it could be pton Wat Watson all of those guys made an impact obviously it’s Jamal Murray sometimes but all of these guys from top to bottom made some level of impact jic was

An absolute Beast triple double 32 points 12 rebounds 11 assists the Celtics had nothing for him nothing um that’s going to be a problem and and look maybe the Celtics just threw a defense out there that they weren’t going to deviate from very much hoping

That if you get to the finals you you don’t want to show them everything that you’re going to do defensively so I’m sure that the Celtics held something back in this in this game which when I get to the what does it mean is a little

Bit of a preview of what this means right like I’m it means something but I’m not sure exactly how much but porzingis as a primary Defender against joic wasn’t cutting it although it’s interesting he did say after the game like oh I learned a couple of things

Today from jic and when they asked what did you learn he said uh just a couple of tricks that he has I’ll just leave it at that so it’s interesting to see what tricks he might have learned I’d love to find out what he what he’s talking about but it’s an important learning

Experience for sure for porzingis because there’s there aren’t that many other options they could go a different direction they could go with uh maybe Jaylen brown maybe they go with uh Drew holiday a little bit but however it is like he joic can pick it apart the the

Nuggets basically said this is who we are come stop us and Boston couldn’t really stop them meanwhile the Celtics did a great job stopping themselves on a number of possessions Tatum uh five turnovers uh the Celtics had 12 turnovers but importantly they were mostly live ball turnovers and even if

They didn’t lead to directly to baskets most of them led to something that was either hey we’re gonna have to force the Celtics to run back on defense and scramble and and whatever it the live ball turnovers take away shots from your side of the box score and add those shots potentially to

The other side of the box score now the Celtics managed to get 91 shots up to Denver’s 90 and they both went to the line almost as many times so the Celtics did do a decent job of getting these shots up but if you don’t turn the ball over 12 times

And again on some nights 12 turnovers is not a lot right You’ sit there be like 12 turnovers this is great but they’re if they’re all live ball and that’s too many right it’s you’re GNA have some that dribble off your foot and go out of bounds you’re gonna have some where you

Try to make a play and you whip it into the STS it’s gonna happen I don’t mind those so much you’re gonna have the occasional offensive foul whatever that’s gonna happen too those turnovers I don’t care about those quite as much because you get to go back and set your

Defense so the Celtics didn’t have a ton of those but the live ball ones are killers and so the Celtics turn turned the ball over too much and then I don’t know what the hell is going on with them at the free throw line 16 of 25 and Jaylen Brown was seven

Of 14 50% so I mean it was mostly Jaylen Brown because Tatum was three of four porzingis was three of four I mean you you got to miss one here and there but still 16 of 25 that’s you know look that’s nine it’s nine misses and jayen brown had seven of them

So you end up losing by or what did lose by six they had Tatum in the corner wide open with a shot to tie but even that like that is such a great example that play of the Celtics and the difference between the Celtics in this game and the

Nuggets and and some might say the difference between the Celtics in general in the Nuggets but I don’t know I’m not willing to go quite that far just yet but if you want the the difference between these two teams look no further than the Celtics getting a

Stop getting out into transition and you have this potential for a three on two and the Celtics just kind of they didn’t bungle it and as far as like a turnover they ended up getting a great shot out of it they kind of stumbled into the

Great shot because Tatum had it and and he he kind of fumbled it and he lobbed it up to Jaylen brown but Jaylen wasn’t in any position to go get it or I don’t know if that was supposed to be an alleyoop it ends up going back to Drew

Holiday Tatum relocates back out to the corner which was a smart move but that was an opportunity to just tie the game go back get another stop hopefully come back down and build on this the Celtics made this big comeback which was great because they the fourth quarter

Execution they were down 10 at one point and they they came all the way back or almost all the way back because they had a shot that corner three from Tatum that would have given them the lead they didn’t have to take a three but at that point the way they kind of

Weren’t exactly crisp executing that that fast break it led to ultimately a good shot that missed okay that happens but then the nuggets come down and joic gets himself into a spot against porzingis and holiday has a late help from the Baseline and joic Spins into what looks

Like a hook shot and there’s some debate was this an airball that Aaron Gordon went and just caught and dunked it or was it an aloop I feel like well I’m gonna give jic the benefit of the doubt because it felt like intentional to me but

Regardless he comes down gets to a spot puts the ball in a spot where something can happen because he knows he has Aaron Gordon Baseline the Nuggets know who they are they know where they’re supposed to be and they all play off one another perfectly the Celtics are still kind of

Sort of figuring themselves out in this situation they haven’t had a lot of time to or in these situations to figure themselves out I’ll get into that a little bit more here and explain that a little bit further and get into Jaylen and Jason I’ll do that in just a

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TV uh it’s a great place to go check that out all right let’s get back into this conversation here about this uh loss here and before uh we took that little break talked about how the Celtics um are still trying to figure themselves out a little bit and that is

A function of look they they’ve won so many games the the one of the best point differentials in NBA history they’ve won a lot of games by a lot of points and they haven’t had the pressure of late game close games comebacks stuff like that that’s something that they have had

To um you know try to simulate in practice or whatever but these games games I’m I’m actually very thankful for these games I talked about it yesterday with Tom Weser home kind of pulling a Joe moula here I I think these are good games they they need to I’d rather see

Them fail this is only the second time they’ve lost two games in a row all season long which tells you how good a team they are I’d rather see them fail if it means losing a third game in a row to Phoenix even if it means them losing

A fourth game in a row whatever it is like if they’re gonna hit a a rough patch now’s the time to do it so you can figure it out before the playoffs start and this type of situation where the nuggets are just so familiar with one

Another you know it’s going to be in yach’s handsy you can’t do anything because he’s a real MVP candidate and it’s all gonna flow off of him the Celtics need to figure some stuff out now the Celtics don’t have an MVP candidate to the level of yic and

Look no disrespect intended to Jason Tatum because he’s what the fourth fifth sixth best player in the NBA right now like that he’s up there at the top he’s just around the top he’s not at the top though the yic that we saw in this

Game that was an MVP if you ever needed to see the difference in real time right in front of you what an MVP favorite versus an MVP hopeful looks like this is it and it’s not just because Jaylen Jason had a bad game which he did uh

Five of 13 shooting 15 points five turnovers he did have eight assists he was you know and and I will say that Jason did get the wrap for a couple of Aaron Gordon dunks there at the end I’m not a 100% sold that those were Jason’s fault I I need to know

If the late doubles were part of the strategy and if they were then the communication had to be a little bit better if they weren’t if they were just guys going on their own then I think Jason’s absolved because each time it was the guy who left that was covering

Aaron Gordon they were they were leaving Gordon and Tatum had somebody else if you watch those plays again Tatum was covering somebody else and if that was the plan for the late help off of Gordon then Tatum needed to leave the guy he was covering rotate over to Aaron Gordon

And everyone else would rotate down and the guy who doubled after if they got a rebound and kicked it back out that guy who doubled would go find the open man somewhere but Tatum still did not have a good game at all they need more from him

He shot poorly uh five of 13 he was two of five from from three so that goes down as 40% but jic was when I talk about controlling a game Nicole yic controlled that game that’s what an MVP favorite looks like so it’s very easy to know who

You are because not only does Denver have an MVP favorite the second best player is Jamal Murray who’s a shooting guard or SLO guard and very easy for a point guard to play off of uh a center so not as easy for Jason Tatum and jayen

Brown to play off of each other because that ends up just you end up with their two best defenders on the other team are going to defend these two guys and they’re just going to switch and it just doesn’t give you any real Advantage so that’s that’s why they

Don’t go to those pick and rolls like I I still would like to see it sometimes just to say okay if they’re going to switch if you know they’re going to switch then slip the screen and and kind of use that to your advantage but regardless it’s not as easy as joic and

Murray and then off of that jic flows into finding Aaron Gordon and finding all these other guys like I said and that that’s what makes him a true true MVP Jaylen had a great game except for the free throws but 41 points 16 of 29 shooting uh two of seven from three okay

He but if he had hit one more uh would have been a bad percentage at all so 14 rebounds six offensive rebounds he had a couple of his own putbacks so he was uh he had a few offensive rebounds off his own misses plus four assists plus two

Steals a couple of turnovers great game overall from Jaylen Brown he was the reason in the second and third quarters that the Celtics were even still hanging around he was the primary reason why the Celtics even had an opportunity to close this game out and and potentially steal

The game in the fourth quarter so Jaylen was the reason but also at the same time his missed free throws were all you can say when they were down three well if they had shot 81% at that point that game would have been tied already so it sucks for Jaylen because you have

This amazing game a 41-point game and everybody’s going to be talking about seven missed free throws and seven to 14 from the line that’s it continues to be a problem for Jalen the the the free throw issues have been historically an issue for him so this is it’s an interesting kind

Of I don’t want to say measuring stick but it’s very clearly like this game should end any conversation about Jason Tatum should be the MVP like sorry Stephen A can’t you can’t even make that argument anymore and you know and he is the best player on the

Best team but we’re we’re watching what Nicole yic is doing and that’s that’s what an MVP is so joic I’ve been saying joic is the MVP this year he should be the MVP and that’s what an MVP looks like so what does this mean what does this game mean for the

Boston Celtics let’s explore that in just a second Today’s Show is brought to you by LinkedIn whether you’re hiring for a small business or a bigger business you want to find quality professionals that are just right for the role that’s why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs

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For free terms and conditions apply thanks for making lockdown Celtics your first listen every day go check out lockdown NBA it’s got you covered all week long rotating host all week long I normally am there on the Wednesday show with Jake Madison one of these one of these Tuesday nights the Celtics won’t

Be playing and I’ll have a chance to do the Wednesday show again so make sure you’re tuned in to that wherever you get your podcast so the big question is what does this mean what does this mean for the Celtics that they lost to the Denver Nuggets twice

Twice well it’s hard to say because on one hand it is Meaningful Celtics wanted to win this game and they didn’t the Nuggets played very well they got great performances from a few different people they showed their depth with good performances from Christian Brown from pton Watson they got you know Reggie

Jackson chipped in Justin holiday chipped in they showed their depth and the Celtics did not their bench was not great Xavier Tillman got minutes um and he was he was okay but that’s a work in progress Sam Hower uh hit a couple of shots but played just 10 minutes Payton

Pritchard played 10 and a half minutes this is the type of thing this is the type of game where I’m wondering what PR when I say what what will pton give the Celtics in the playoffs this is where it’s like o he he was not the right answer there

Al Horford played 19 minutes and only scored two points on free throws so it was really up to the starters to do the scoring and they still put up 109 uh but their offensive rating was 10 points lower than it normally is so the offense was not very good uh overall but that’s

Because of the turnovers and they didn’t they didn’t put up the you know they missed all those free throws so the bench was good for Denver and look the when you want to win a game and you don’t against a good team that’s that’s meaningful right you and

You can make the arguments and and porzingis is like look we had our chances we didn’t make it and the margin for winning and losing a game like this is very small and he’s right which means which is tells me that game doesn’t mean much uh

Because this I don’t see this as some sort of like uh indicator of their ability to win a championship I really don’t I don’t think this game this regular season game where the schedule would be different like in a regular in a playoff scenario the Celtics would not have

Flown in from Cleveland the day before so I don’t think like they would have been in Denver for a couple of days they would have been acclimated to the uh altitude sooner they would have been you know it just would have been a little bit of a different feel uh Denver

Wouldn’t have been coming off of the loss either it just the entire the entire kind of surroundings are different the atmosphere is different the if even though it’s a national game it just everything is different when you’re in the playoffs and especially if it’s the finals I can’t begin to stress

How different the finals are uh because if you if you watch like the Super Bowl right and you hear guys talk about like the the Cadence of the day is different it’s that’s that’s what happens the the NBA takes over everything the amount of media is outrageous they reconfigure these aren

As where normally we have like a little room for the media the media now has this big massive space and specific times and players have to be in certain spots and you don’t get to use your practice facility as much you have to practice on the home court it’s just

Different Everything feels different and that’s where the scenario is so different where I’m like yeah this is Meaningful in some ways but also like you’re not replicating everything about the playoffs everything about the finals you’ve by the time they meet Denver if they meet him again they will have gone

Through all these other Playoff rounds and and who knows how that goes who knows how much rest the Celtics get before facing Denver what if the Celtics catch I don’t know let’s just say Milwaukee in the Conference Finals and Giannis is hurt and the Celtics end up

Winning it in four or five games say they the Celtics catch a break then there’s a week or so before the finals and you play Denver and it’s you get all of this time to rest all of this time the whole point of what I’m saying I’m

Rambling because it’s almost five in the morning it’s not the same and so because it’s not the same I can’t sit here and and wholeheartedly full-throated yell at the Celtics for not having what it takes in the end it is a regular season game I can’t expect Tatum to to score 15

Points a game in the finals I just don’t see that as being the case again now what I need to see from these guys is being more fluid being more in control this is why I want I want the Phoenix game to go down to the wire however it

Happens I want that to to be a close game I don’t want a blowout I want that to be a close let’s try to figure this out let’s try to apply these lessons from Cleveland and from Denver against Phoenix and if they fail again then I

Want Portland to be a close game and Utah to be a close game I want these guys to get these reps over and over and over again so they can figure it out trying and failing is part of learning and as Tom said in yesterday’s podcast maybe they don’t

Need the fourth quarter execution or the last minute execution but in the finals we we got a real good preview of how physical it’s going to be it’s a real good kind of reminder of how the refereeing is going to be it’s not always going to be consistent it’s going

To let a lot of things go it’s going to be frustrating so as porzingis said after the game like the couple of texts like you can’t have those Techs in a a Finals game you can’t let your emotions get out of control like that so it it it’s meaningful that the

Celtics couldn’t beat the Denver Nuggets at home because the Denver Nuggets are the Champs and that’s going to be something the Celtics are going to have to do in the finals so you take you take a little bit of something from that but also I don’t think either team showed

Everything that have um although Denver kind of like I’ve been saying is I don’t know what they need to hide they just need to be like here here’s here’s joic he’s got the ball go ahead stop him good luck but I don’t think the Celtics unloaded everything in their clip

Either so in that sense I’m like it’s not the most meaningful thing it’s certainly not going to be as meaningful as some people on Sports Talk Radio are gonna say uh I don’t think this is the biggest deal in the world uh although it’s just distressing that they had the

Turnovers that they had the live ball turnover some of the passes they were making were so horrible I don’t understand that that part is a little bit of a concern lower KC lower KC concern uh but we saw uh Drew holiday kind of snap out of his Funk it was

Looking like classic big game Drew holiday kind of struggling and then he hit those two shots uh so that was good to see they did go to porzingis more down the stretch and that was good to see Jaylen was good to see his his kind of composure uh though not at the line

And Tatum just needs to I don’t know he needs to wake up a little bit not the best close to the game in Cleveland and not the best game here in Denver so let’s see if he can wake up a little bit so that’s where I land kind of

Meaningful but not not like so meaningful that I’m going to lose my mind over this it’s not it’s not that meaningful right it’s they’re they’re still going to get to the playoffs they’re still going to be the top seed and hopefully they get more opportunities to put up you know these these clutch

Performances and and deal with it and figure it out I’ll be back here after the Phoenix game that’s the next podc it’s after the Phoenix game so make sure you’re subscribed wherever you get your podcast there however you found us this time find us that same way the next time is

It the YouTube page hop in the comment section and let me know what you think do you agree or disagree and then I would love it if you share the podcast spread the word tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the lockdown Celtics podcast here on the

Lockdown podcast Network it’s your team every day

The Celtics dropped a big game to the Nuggets, despite Jaylen Brown’s 41, because they turned the ball over a bunch and couldn’t hit free throws. Also, Nikola Jokic is a god who dropped another triple-double. John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal discusses that, Jayson Tatum’s struggles, and what this means to the Celtics and their chances at a title.

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