The Nuggets closed out a taxing seven-game street journey Wednesday evening at TD Backyard. They have been drained, banged up and lacking arguably the perfect participant within the NBA.
However that depleted Denver group had sufficient juice to take down the red-hot Celtics, whose four-game win streak ended with a 114-110 residence loss.
Denver broke the sport open with a 14-0 run halfway by means of the fourth quarter and led by double digits with lower than 35 seconds remaining. The Celtics staged a last-minute rally after head coach Joe Mazzulla eliminated Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, however couldn’t shut the hole.
“Clearly, we had some empty possessions on offense (within the fourth quarter), and so they did an excellent job versus our aggressive pick-and-roll coverages,” Mazzulla mentioned. “… They did an excellent job executing on the offensive finish.”
Brown led all scorers with 33 factors however dedicated seven turnovers, one shy of his season excessive. White (17 factors) went 3-for-12 from 3-point vary within the loss. Heart Neemias Queta pulled down 20 rebounds — probably the most by any Celtic since Jared Sullinger in 2015 — however was a game-worst minus-16 throughout his 24 minutes.
Payton Pritchard scored eight of his 17 factors within the last minute of regulation, together with three free throws that reduce Boston’s deficit to 3 with 6.5 seconds to play. Denver’s Jamal Murray gained possession on the following inbounds and iced the sport from the foul line.
The Nuggets have been enjoying with out injured three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic; his main backup, Jonas Valanciunas; and wing Cameron Johnson, all of whom are within the midst of multi-week absences. Denver had the remainder of its rotation obtainable after sitting three starters for Monday’s extra time win over Philadelphia, although Aaron Gordon got here off the bench and Christian Braun was on a minutes restriction.
Murray, who missed the 76ers sport with an ankle sprain, completed with extra assists (17) than your complete Celtics roster (16) to go together with 22 factors and 7 rebounds. Denver boosted that whole by going 20-for-44 from 3-point vary, tied for the second-most made threes by a Celtics opponent this season.
“They shot the ball extremely effectively from downtown tonight,” Brown mentioned. “I assumed our protection did its job, however that they had an excellent taking pictures evening.”
The loss dropped the 23-13 Celtics to 3rd place within the Japanese Convention. They maintain a one-game lead over the fourth-place Toronto Raptors, whom they’ll host this Friday (7 p.m.) on the primary evening of a back-to-back.
After scoring simply 14 factors on 6-of-24 taking pictures in Monday’s win over the Chicago Bulls — a uncommon off evening for the Celtics star — Brown wanted simply 9 minutes to surpass that whole towards Denver. He scored 15 within the first quarter, going 6-for-11 from the sphere and 3-for-5 from three.
White closed the quarter with buckets on three straight Celtics possessions — a layup, a 3-pointer and a driving baseline dunk — then hit one other three moments into the second that put Boston forward, 38-31. A lot of Denver’s early manufacturing got here on uncharacteristically efficient outdoors taking pictures from function gamers Peyton Watson and DaRon Holmes II, who began a mixed 6-for-6 from past the arc.
Watson got here in averaging 1.1 made threes per sport this season. Holmes, beginning at middle with Jokic and Valanciunas out, was enjoying in his eighth profession NBA sport.
The Nuggets compiled a 10-0 run halfway by means of the second quarter earlier than Luka Garza snapped it with back-to-back makes within the paint, the second off a nifty feed from Baylor Scheierman. Garza, persistently impactful since reentering Mazzulla’s rotation late final month, is taking pictures 22-for-28 over his final 5 video games.
Boston led late within the first half, however Denver capitalized on a rebounding breakdown to drag even. 4 Celtics gamers have been within the paint when Gordon’s 3-point try caromed out towards the free-throw line, resulting in a wide-open second-chance triple for Murray with 6.4 seconds to play within the half. The groups entered halftime tied at 58-58.
Officiating was some extent of competition for the Celtics, who tried simply two foul pictures over the primary 29 minutes. Brown reacted demonstrably to a number of no-calls throughout the first half, and White and Pritchard each had phrases with referee Kevin Scott after Pritchard was whistled for a third-quarter foul on Murray.
“I form of let the officiating get to my head slightly bit,” Brown admitted. “I feel the protection was good, however it wasn’t nice. I feel I ought to have been higher in spots.”
Brown drew his first taking pictures foul on the 6:04 mark of the third quarter, as a part of a 12-0 Celtics run. Although he missed each of his free throws (the Celtics went 9-for-15 from the road as a crew), Brown made three contested pictures within the lane throughout that stretch, which additionally included one other clutch sequence from Garza.
Boston’s backup middle hit a straightaway 3-pointer, then drew a cost on the following possession. The Celtics held the Nuggets scoreless for greater than six straight minutes.
However Denver recovered, bought threes from Murray, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Gordon, and pulled forward 76-74 late within the third. The Celtics entered the fourth with momentum, although, thanks to 2 different constant bench standouts.
Hugo Gonzalez, Boston’s 6-foot-6 rookie wing, outleaped three Nuggets to drag down an offensive rebound, then fed Anfernee Simons for a much-needed 3-pointer. Simons (15 factors, 6-of-9) canned one other three on the following possession to assist Boston shut the quarter on a 6-0 run. Like Garza, Simons and Gonzalez have been second-unit standouts of late, coming into Wednesday ranked second and fourth within the NBA in plus/minus, respectively, because the begin of December.
The Celtics led 90-87 when Brown checked again in with 8:12 remaining. However he registered as many turnovers (two) as made subject objectives the remainder of the way in which, and Boston’s protection imploded. Denver scored on seven consecutive possessions to take a 10-point lead, and the Celtics by no means totally recovered.
“They did an excellent job (towards Brown),” Mazzulla mentioned. “Simply switching, being aggressive, placing size on him. We’ve simply bought to proceed to get higher at our reads, making 2-on-1 reads.”
Boston discovered some late life with a lineup of Pritchard, Gonzalez, Scheierman, Walsh and Sam Hauser, however Denver withstood the last-gasp comeback bid.
“It was in all probability simply that kind of sport the place they hit each shot off our errors,” Pritchard mentioned. “It’s the NBA, so often that does occur. So we’ve bought to tighten that up. I really feel like we’ve carried out a extremely good job of not turning it over and making unhealthy reads, so perhaps in the present day we made a few these. However we’ve been on an excellent stretch. Powerful sport, they performed effectively, so tip the cap. However in all probability transfer on from this, be taught and develop.”
