SALT LAKE CITY – Nine days had fallen off the calendar since the Boston Celtics last took the court for a basketball game. When they returned to action Friday night in Utah, it sure appeared as such.
Boston struggled to find any sort of a rhythm during its return from a lengthy All-Star break. It fell 111-93 loss at the hands of the red-hot Jazz, who have now won eight of their last 10 games.
The Celtics missed 51 shots on the night and shot just 37 percent from the field, their fifth-lowest percentage of the season according to statmuse.com.
“We were just a step slow to everything, offensively, defensively. We just weren’t there,” said Isaiah Thomas, who scored a game-high 25 points. “Every time we play like that we end up losing.”
Neither players nor coaches would acknowledge the nine-day layoff as a reason for their misfortunes Friday night. In their minds, doing so would have been an excuse. As Brad Stevens told the players after the game, “You’re a pro. There shouldn’t be any rust.”
But as members of the team continued to speak to the media, they continued to reference issues that were, indeed, signs of rust.
Stevens referred to a lack of physicality and a lack of team defense on his team’s part.
Thomas said that the Celtics showcased poor shot selection and failed to operate as a unit.
Avery Bradley may have said it best when he stated multiple times that the Celtics “weren’t connected.”
All of these miscues can be interpreted as signs of rust, particularly for a team that makes its living off of team basketball and physicality.
This wasn’t individual rust, as in missed shots by players due to a lack of game action or practice time. This was team rust, as in Boston being unable to locate the chemistry it showcased heading into the All-Star break, when it won 10 of its final 12 games before the break.
Stevens may have anticipated such issues arising Friday night. Such may be the reason why he scheduled two practices, on Wednesday and Thursday, prior to Friday night’s game.
Those practices, however, seemingly did the Celtics no good. Bradley said that those sessions weren’t crisp, and that they were signs of things to come.
“It’s kind of like a reflection of our practice,” Bradley said, later clarifying that he was referencing both Wednesday and Thursday’s practices. “I don’t feel like we had a very good practice on either end of the floor and it kind of just carried over to the game and it’s unfortunate.”
Boston’s offense shot 42.1 percent or less from the field during each of the four quarters. It bottomed out during the third quarter, when it hit only 29.4 percent of its attempts.
The team’s defense was similarly porous, as Utah shot 60.0 percent during the first half and 50.0 percent during the second half. The Jazz canned 10 of their 23 3-point attempts.
It must be noted, as Stevens was sure to do, that all of this occurred for Boston as it played against a very good team. Utah has been surging as of late thanks in large part to its defense.
The Jazz had won seven of their last nine heading into Friday night, and they were the top defensive team in the league during that stretch while allowing a measly 92.4 points per game. They also limited opponents to just 43.3 percent shooting during those nine contests.
Utah continued its defensive dominance Friday night against the Celtics, all while scoring with ease at the other end.
The Celtics may not say it publicly, but the eye test spoke loud and clear in Salt Lake City: Boston operated like a rusty machine during its first game back from the break.
Now the question lingers: how long before that rust wears off?
