A night of small margins in Portland exposes Celtics’ recurring weaknesses

Right now, the NBA’s longest winning streak stands at just four games, held by the Clippers in the midst of a full – and very surprising – revival. In the East, it’s three: another resurrection, this time by Jordi Fernández’s Nets. The Celtics had a good chance to stretch theirs to five. They were in Portland, where they had won on their only visit in each of the past six years, and facing a Trail Blazers team missing key pieces (including Jrue Holiday – the reunion never happened) and sitting toward the back of the Western Conference play-in race. But the Celtics lost (114–108) in the way they usually do when they lose: too many turnovers (20 in total), especially during a decisive stretch of poor execution; problems on the glass (16 offensive rebounds for the Blazers); and a bad night in their trademark area, the three-point shot: 13-for-44, a poor 30% that sank an unbalanced team. Jaylen Brown scored 37 points, but 27 came before halftime, and the rest of the team shot just 38% from the field.

There was no sign in Oregon of the NBA’s second-best offense. And yet, the game came down to the final seconds: despite the cold shooting, two threes from Sam Hauser – well set up by the Spaniard – and Hugo González tied it at 98–98 midway through the fourth quarter. With less than three minutes left, it was still on a knife edge (106–105), but then the Celtics strung together several poor possessions. When a Derrick White three tried to stage a last rescue (109–108), a three-point play by Donovan Clingan, after grabbing an offensive rebound over Hugo, proved decisive. Missed shots, turnovers, offensive rebounds by the opponent: the formula for defeat.

The Blazers hung in during their worst moments of the first half (55–63) and were better from the third quarter onward. Tiago Splitter has his players competing with extra intensity – for better and sometimes for worse as well – especially without the risk management Holiday usually provides. Scoot Henderson also still hasn’t played this season and has yet to resemble – with little hope remaining – the cornerstone of a post–Damian Lillard project he was supposed to be; meanwhile, Lillard (injured until next season) is back home. In a crossroads game, Anfernee Simons returned to the floor where he spent seven years and once looked like a potential star. Rob Williams III also couldn’t face his former team, and the college back-and-forth connection came via Payton Pritchard (back on home soil – a native of Tualatin, four years with the Oregon Ducks) and a Donovan Clingan who grew up in Connecticut and played at UConn while cheering for the Celtics.

The 7-foot-2 center exposed Portland’s interior limitations: 18 points and 18 rebounds, including the seven offensive boards already mentioned – among them, the one that sealed the win. Toumani Camara, who has looked a bit overwhelmed at times this season, lost almost every battle with Brown in the first half but was far more effective after the break, in that matchup and on both ends of the floor (20 points). Deni Avdija (24 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists) keeps knocking on the All-Star door, especially in a USA-versus-the-rest-of-the-world year that could boost his candidacy. Shaedon Sharpe has added stability and efficiency to his talent – great news in Portland – finishing with 26 points, and Caleb Love was crucial off the bench (18).

For the Celtics, there wasn’t much to take away beyond Brown’s tremendous first half. He logged his ninth straight game with at least 30 points, tying Larry Bird’s franchise record, and is now 12th on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list. But neither White nor Pritchard had their shooting touch, nor did Hauser, who had been trending up in recent games: the three combined to go 6-for-23 from deep. The bench also failed to change the game’s energy as it had in recent wins over the Pacers. The best of the second unit was Hugo, who played 30 minutes (the same as starting forward Jordan Walsh) and functioned as a sixth man with real impact and presence down the stretch, when Joe Mazzulla experimented with small lineups.

The Madrid native did a bit of everything, including a steal-and-dunk that is quickly becoming his signature play, and finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, a rough 1-for-5 from three, and the best plus-minus on the team at +3. Fully established in the rotation and an important piece in recent weeks, he couldn’t prevent the Celtics from letting a good opportunity slip away – even without playing well – in the second game of a five-game road trip that now heads to Salt Lake City to face the dangerous Jazz. At 19–12, the Celtics remain third in the East, now three games behind the Knicks and with two fewer losses than the Raptors, Magic, and Sixers. The play-in spot, just in case things turn south at some point, sits two and a half games away.

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Portland Trail Blazers

Stats

33 Toumani Camara
24 Kris Murray
23 Donovan Clingan
8 Deni Avdija
17 Shaedon Sharpe
91 Sidy Cissoko
16 Yang Hansen
2 Caleb Love
26 Duop Reath
21 Rayan Rupert

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
33 Toumani Camara	35	20	4	2	2	3	1	1	0	2/3	3/4	4/10	0	5	0
24 Kris Murray	30	5	4	2	2	3	1	0	0	1/2	2/3	0/2	0	0	0
23 Donovan Clingan	33	18	18	7	11	1	2	0	0	1/2	7/7	1/3	0	3	0
8 Deni Avdija	38	24	7	1	6	10	5	2	1	5/10	5/6	3/10	0	1	0
17 Shaedon Sharpe	31	26	5	1	4	1	3	1	0	1/2	5/12	5/8	0	2	0
91 Sidy Cissoko	22	0	3	1	2	4	1	2	1	0/0	0/1	0/4	0	2	0
16 Yang Hansen	10	3	3	0	3	0	2	0	0	0/0	0/1	1/2	0	2	0
2 Caleb Love	28	18	2	1	1	3	5	2	0	2/2	2/4	4/10	0	1	0
26 Duop Reath	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
21 Rayan Rupert	8	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/2	0	3	0

Boston Celtics

Stats

7 Jaylen Brown
27 Jordan Walsh
88 Neemias Queta
11 Payton Pritchard
9 Derrick White
52 Luka Garza
28 Hugo González
30 Sam Hauser
8 Josh Minott
55 Baylor Scheierman
4 Anfernee Simons
26 Xavier Tillman

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
7 Jaylen Brown	36	37	7	1	6	4	6	0	0	7/10	12/18	2/5	0	5	0
27 Jordan Walsh	9	5	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0/0	1/1	1/2	0	3	0
88 Neemias Queta	29	11	8	4	4	0	3	1	2	1/2	5/9	0/0	0	5	0
11 Payton Pritchard	37	9	5	0	5	5	2	2	0	0/0	0/2	3/8	0	0	0
9 Derrick White	39	12	5	0	5	5	3	5	1	0/0	3/6	2/10	0	1	0
52 Luka Garza	11	5	3	2	1	0	2	0	0	2/2	0/1	1/3	0	5	0
28 Hugo González	30	13	6	3	3	3	2	2	0	2/2	4/5	1/5	0	2	0
30 Sam Hauser	19	3	2	0	2	0	0	0	2	0/0	0/0	1/5	0	1	0
8 Josh Minott	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
55 Baylor Scheierman	7	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0
4 Anfernee Simons	18	13	3	2	1	1	1	2	0	3/3	2/5	2/6	0	0	0
26 Xavier Tillman	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0