Five takeaways from Celtics' Saturday night loss at Brookyln

BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics find themselves clinging to the fourth spot in the East which comes with the perk of home court advantage in the first round.

But it is a fluid position of power, one that’ll likely be lost and gained at least one or two more times between now and the playoffs.

The Celtics didn’t do themselves any favors in losing 110-96 at Brooklyn on Saturday, a game with potential playoff implications for both teams.

Boston (45-32) is trying to fend off Indiana (45-32) for the No. 4 spot in the East while the Nets (39-38) are simply trying to get into the postseason dance for the first time since 2015.

But with each game, win or lose, there should be lessons learned by the Celtics that can be of some benefit going forward.

Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s loss that on many levels, are reminders of some of the issues and challenges this team has dealt with all season.

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JAYSON TATUM

When you have such a diverse offensive skillset as Jayson Tatum, it’s only natural that folks are going to want to see more and more of what you can do. And when Kyrie Irving is out, you would think that’s when Tatum would shine brightly.

But Saturday’s loss was yet another reminder of why despite having arguably as much upside of any player on this roster, Tatum remains inconsistent when it comes to evolving into a dynamic go-to scorer that his talent lends itself to.

Part of the problem?

Not enough touches.

Now there will be those who will defend Tatum’s play on Saturday as being below-par due to him being under the weather.

Tatum was questionable with flu-like symptoms and wasn’t given the green light to play until shortly before tip-off.

But here’s the thing.

Whether it’s the flu, sore ankle, achy back … everyone who steps out on the floor has some kind of ailment this time of year that they are trying to play through. That doesn’t excuse a player for delivering a less-than-acceptable performance.

But with Tatum, much of his ineffectiveness on Saturday had to do with him not getting the ball in his hands enough.

Only Jaylen Brown played more minutes than Tatum, so playing time was not a factor.

In the 30-plus minutes of court action Tatum saw, he had 34 touches which ranked fifth on the team behind Terry Rozier (65), Gordon Hayward (51), Marcus Morris (41) and Jaylen Brown (35).

What that tells you is there were many possessions were Tatum never touched the ball, something that should not happen when you have a player with his talent on the floor.

Getting him the ball should be an even bigger priority on nights like Saturday when two of the teams’ better scorers, Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, aren’t playing.

Doing a better job of getting the ball in Tatum’s hands and seeing where that takes the team, has to become more of a priority for the Celtics in these final games of the regular season as well as the playoffs.

TERRY ROZIER

If you look only at the box score you would immediately assume he’s in this grouping because of how he struggled shooting the ball. Rozier finished the game with two points on 1-for-8 shooting from the field.

Making matters worse, Rozier did it in the role as a starter with Kyrie Irving out with what the team described as lower back soreness.

No, the real issue with Rozier’s play came on the defensive end of the floor.

Rozier had a team-worst defensive rating of 127.6 for the game.

There are times when a defensive rating might not be as bad as the eye test when it comes to how players performed.

But this was not one of those times.

D’Angelo Russell had a game-high 29 points including 20 in the third quarter.

He was cooking the entire Celtics team, but no one got smoked more than Rozier … it wasn’t even close.

Russell was guarded by a Celtics defender for 62 possessions with Rozier leading the way with 29 possessions.

Of those 29 possessions Rozier defended him, Russell was 7-for-12 shooting with 16 points. So against the other 10 Celtics who spent at least one possession guarding Russell, he had 13 points on 5-for-12 shooting.

No one expects Rozier to be a lockdown defender. His defensive rating of 104.8 this season is fifth among Celtics who average at least 10 minutes played per game.

But to have that many cracks at defending a player, the Celtics are going to need him to be better going forward and have games like Saturday’s loss just be one of those nights and not something to be worried about as being habitual.

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BACKUP POWER ACTIVATED

Even with a pair of starters out in Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, that didn’t have the kind of offensive drain you might expect on Boston’s bench.

The Celtics’ second unit continued to hum along at a nice pace and rhythm, doing a lot of the same things that they were doing when Irving and Horford were on the floor and they had their usual cast of backups available.

It’s becoming increasingly more clear that Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown are going to lead the charge offensively for the Celtics when it comes to the second unit.

Brown didn’t have one of his better nights against Brooklyn (a number of Celtics fall in that category, truthfully) with nine points on 3-for-10 shooting with four turnovers. But he still managed to contribute in other areas of importance such as rebounding in which he had six.

Meanwhile, Hayward led all Celtics with 19 points off the bench in addition to grabbing six rebounds to go with three assists and a steal.

Just as impressive was Boston’s second unit as a group which outscored the Nets 57-43.

And this was no small feat.

According to hoopsstats.com, the Nets have the second-highest scoring bench in the NBA (47.7 points per game) with a +/- of +11.5 points per game relative to opposing second units.

MAKING OPEN SHOTS

We hear all the time from players, coaches and basketball pundits that this is a make-miss league.

That’s true.

But the one thing that you should feel somewhat confident in, is that the better teams will make the easy shots at least.

That was not the case on Saturday night for the Celtics.

Boston shot 42.2 percent from the field which is slightly below their season average of 46.5 percent which ranks 13th in the NBA.

But more disappointing than the overall number was how they struggled to make the open and wide open looks that their offense was able to generate.

When it came to uncontested shots, Boston connected on just 39.1 percent against the Nets.

Of the seven Boston players to log at least 20 minutes of court time and took at least two uncontested shots, only Gordon Hayward (5-for-9) made more than he missed.

And the thing you have to keep in mind when talking about the Celtics and their offense, is that they get a ton of open and really wide open looks pretty much every game.

This season, Boston averages 22.2 “open” looks which the NBA considers to be shot attempts with 4-6 feet between the shooter and the defender.

Only Golden State (22.9) and San Antonio (22.3) are get more of those looks per game.

And when you look at “wide open” shots which are considered those with six feet or more between the shooter and the defender, you see that the Celtics still rate favorably in the NBA with 23.2 attempts per game that’s also third in the league behind Atlanta (24.1) and Milwaukee (23.9).

Yes, it is indeed a make-miss league.

FIFTY-FIFTY BALLS

On the road, second night of a back-to-back, making multiple effort plays becomes increasingly more difficult for most teams. And this often shows up stat-wise when you look at the hustle stat categories.

Looking at Saturday’s loss, it’s clear that the Brooklyn Nets easily won the game in part because they made more hustle plays.

Boston recovered three loose balls against the Nets, who in turn were able to recover seven. Something as simple as boxing out was done at a higher level by the Nets who had 25 box-outs to 21 by Boston.

Winning these categories always matter, but even more so when on the road.

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