After a brutal second-half shooting collapse in Milwaukee, Joe Mazzulla insists the bigger picture remains unchanged as Boston heads toward a softer stretch.
On Saturday, the Celtics (15-10) met with the local Boston media after conducting a practice at the Auerbach Center in Brighton, MA, marking their first time answering questions since the postgame of Thursday night’s 116-101 loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee, WI.
The Celtics struggled to score in the second half at Fiserv Forum, snapping their five-game winning streak against a team that had lost 10 of their previous 12 games.
Boston started strong with a series of threes, but Milwaukee, still without Giannis Antetokounmpo, kept the game close and eventually took control.
After halftime, the Celtics’ offense stalled. Boston scored just 13 points in the third quarter and couldn’t recover, while the Bucks turned a tight game into a double-digit lead.
The Celtics missed their first 16 three-point attempts in the third quarter. Their shots just wouldn’t go in, and the Bucks took advantage.
Boston made only 12 of 47 shots in the second half, including just 3 of 27 from three-point range.
That ain’t gonna cut it in today’s NBA, folks.
Missed opportunities and Bucks’ fast breaks turned a close game into Boston’s roughest offensive half in weeks.
With all that said, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said Saturday that he has no lingering concerns about his team moving forward.
“Long term? No,” Mazzulla said in his post-practice scrum. “ I think - 1. They did a good job. Most of that stress that they've been playing - they played sims, and they did a good job playing more multiple sims when we were there.
“But I think - I think at the end of the day, those 10 to 15 possessions that we want to get back, they did a good job in the first half of changing their defense. You know, how do we do a better job of moving the ball? Defensively [for us], defending five guys the way we want to play where they spread you out. Some stuff we have to work on regardless of who we’re playing.”
Milwaukee was the first of a final four-game set of tough games that closed out an extended tough stretch for Boston before diving into an extended weaker part of the schedule.
Here’s what the Celtics next three games looks like:
- December 15 vs. Detroit (20-5)
- December 19 vs. Heat (14-11)
- December 20 @ Toronto (15-11)
After that December 20 game against the Raptors, things get a lot easier for Boston:
- December 22 vs. Pacers (6-19)
- December 26 @ Pacers
- December 28 @ Portland (9-16)
- December 30 @ Utah (9-15)
- January 1 @ Sacramento (6-19)
- January 3 @ Clippers (6-19)
- January 5 vs. Bulls (10-14)
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.