Jaylen Brown could only shake his head after spotting the box score as he sat down for his postgame press conference Tuesday night. The Celtics positioned themselves to win their third straight game by building a 15-point lead in the second half against the Hawks and watched it slip away in the second half behind a host of effort and mental miscues.
The numbers in the box score were glaring on that front. The Hawks dominated points in the paint by 68-32 margin, thanks in large part to 20 offensive rebounds. Those boards along with 20 Celtics turnovers led to 25 extra shot attempts for the Hawks, opening the door for an undermanned Hawks squad to pull off the 117-116 win in front of a stunned TD Garden.
It was a rare letdown for a Celtics squad that prided itself on avoiding these types of ugly losses last year against inferior competition. Brown was not pleased with the performance despite his game-high 37 points.
“I think mentally we were careless tonight,” Brown said. “We expected to win. Too careless and it showed. I think the No. 1 category it showed in is our turnovers. Uncharacteristic of us to have 20 turnovers in any circumstance. I think that just displayed that we weren’t in sync like we normally are, so we’ve got to be better at that, and I’ve got to be better at that.”
The Celtics dominated this same Atlanta squad two weeks ago on the road but this time around they brought more energy even without star guard Trae Young. Still, the Celtics miscues were most egregious by Brown and Jayson Tatum who combined for nine of the team’s 20 turnovers.
“I still give Atlanta credit,” Brown said. ‘They came out and played physical. But me and JT need to be better. We had 20 turnovers as a team and me and him both had 11 combined. Some of them was offensive fouls and whatever. But still, just we gotta be better securing the ball and getting to our spacing. And we didn’t do that tonight and it cost our team.”
The Celtics have now gone 2-2 in their last four games after beginning the year with a 7-1 and sit three games behind the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers at the top of the East. One bad loss doesn’t define a team but the Celtics have looked very mortal in the past week amid poor starts against the Bucks and Nets.
“It’s just a mentality,” Brown said of the struggles. “This is a part of the journey. We’ve got some stuff to clean up. We’re not a perfect team. It’s a new season, a new journey, and we’re looking forward to embracing those moments. We’re going to watch it and we’re going to address what needs to be addressed.
“We’ve got to be able to move forward. We can’t let it turn into a habit. We’ve got to be able to respond well. So I’m looking forward to film. We’ve got a back-to-back coming up, we’ll put it behind us. But we’re going to learn from these situations and we’ll be better.”
The Celtics will need to turn things around quickly on Wednesday night when they face off against a rested Nets squad at Barclays Center.
