INSTANT REACTION: Celtics fall short despite 41-point performance from Jaylen Brown

INSTANT REACTION: Celtics fall short despite 41-point performance from Jaylen Brown

All right, Celtics postgame live with the Seas just fell 119 115 to the Minnesota Timberwolves. A game in which the Celtics were up by 10 at the half. Scored 69 points in that first half. Obviously not able to hit the shots in the third quarter and the offense sputtering a little bit at the beginning of the fourth, but they went on a run late in that fourth quarter. Let’s check it out with the Celtics down by 12. Actually, a 12 nothing run and it’s Jaylen Brown coming up with the steel, taking it back the other way. This actually made it 110 to 102. Then after a couple Nimicada free throws, you had Derek White knocking down a three. That made it 110 107. Jaylen Brown who had 41 points in this one hitting the three as well. So game tied at 110. Mike Connley though finds himself open in the corner off the feed from Julius Randall to give Minnesota a three-point advantage. And then Jaylen Brown unable to hit what would have been a uh game tying three right there. Minnesota goes back the other way. It’s a couple of Anthony Edwards free throws. Derek White, meanwhile, gets fouled, shooting a three. So, he hits the first two to make it a three-point game and then cannot hit the third. So, Celtics needing a stop inside of 20 seconds. This goes from could be a turnover by Anthony Edwards to ridiculous. Yes, Anthony Edwards knocking that down. 39 points for him. And that was pretty much the difference right there. 119 115 Minnesota gets the win. Celtics fall to 10-9 on the season while the Timberwolves go to 11 and8. Uh Eddie, I’ll start with you. Your thoughts. They beat us at our own game. Um you know, usually we like like the last game, you you got to think about when you looked at how we got our rebounded and everything looked like we were supposed to lose that game, but because we shot better than them from the three-point line, we were able to win the last game. But this game they shot 44% while we shot 35%. And if you look at the all the margins that everybody talk, we got 96 attempts to their 83 attempts. We outrebounded them on the offensive end and outrebounded them total. We turned them over more than they turned us over. But they hit shots when they needed to hit shots. And when everybody forgets about how Mike Connley was, I think one of the first guys as a guard to get that 100 million or something like that and sign that big deal, you can’t forget about him in the corner because he’s still definitely a wy bet and he’ll knock that shot down. Yeah. Hated the offense in the second half. you let uh them get hot and all of a sudden they’re making plays and Anthony Edwards throws in a crazy shot and like you all you can do is tip your cap at that point, but you should have never been in the point where you had to rally out of a 12 a 120 run to get back in this thing. Got to be better, you know, we thought maybe Derrick White and Payton Pritchard turned a corner. They they need to be better in those moments. And again, got to be better on on on hosing down Anthony Edwards when he gets hot like that. Anthony Edwards had 14 points in the fourth quarter. Here were the two guys that had the call that game back at the Target Center. Scal and Drew Carter. Fellas, uh, your thoughts on the Celtics falling just short in this one? Yeah. Hey, Giles. I think what what Forsber was just talking about there is astute. I mean, the first four minutes of the fourth quarter before the starters came in, quite frankly, some of the worst offense we’ve seen the Celtics play all season. Two points in those four minutes. And then the starters came in, but the offense still wasn’t wasn’t great down the stretch of this game. What’ you make of that? Well, I thought in the first half they ran most action towards Goar, keeping Goar in the action. the plays, right? You don’t want Goar to be a center fielder like a free safety blocking shots or meeting you at the rim or rebounding the ball. You want to keep him engaged. Set a flare screen come off with another pick. So now Kada can get behind. You saw the numbers from Kada from the first half. Incredible. In the second half, we just didn’t go back to at Gobear, which opened up a lot of opportunity for Kada. So I don’t know why they didn’t do that. And I you guys say you could say started the fourth. Uh maybe maybe you guys thought it was the shooting. I kind of thought it was the third quarter where we just went away from it. We were rocking and rolling for the first five minutes and then all of a sudden I don’t know why we went away from that, but that’s where I felt like we lost the game at that point. It’s just a coin flip. Who’s going to make the most shots in the last 6 minutes of the game and Minnesota has a little bit of an advantage with the lead, but I thought in the third quarter, not having the same game plan that we had in the first half kind of hurt us. Yeah, 69 points in the first half. A very nice showing through the first two quarters and then 23 points in the third, 23 in the fourth. I mean, it is kind of a head scratcher. You talk about why they went away from that offense. Can you think of a reason? No, not really. You know, I don’t I mean, I’m I’m Listen, I think that they’re a lot smarter than I am. I just have no idea why they went away from it. Why Why not continue to run action towards Goar? Whatever was happening, it was working. I think it was one of our best offensive performances in the first half. Not the best, but one of the best. And really shot it well, moved it well, and we got contributions from a lot of different guys, including the bench. And whatever reason, we went away from that. But, you know, it’s a long game. It’s there’s a lot of different reasons for them deciding not to go that direction, but maybe Minnesota figured it out and I just missed it. But it just felt like to me that we went away from it. Yeah. And Anthony Edwards in his his postgame interview, which is always entertaining, he was talking on the floor on the jumbotron and said Jade McDaniels picking up Jaylen Brown helped in the third quarter. JB was was lights out in the first half. Ended up with 41, which ties a season high. Nish Kada with 19 and 18. Some of the best basketball we’ve ever seen him play. But Eddie was right, Giles. I mean, the this is probably how the Pistons felt Wednesday. It’s like, how do you lose a game where you have 14 offensive rebounds and 13 more shots? But but that’s what happened. And it was the clutch, which is where the Wolves had struggled lately, but the Celtics unfortunately have struggled with that all year. Yeah. And again, Anthony Edwards making some big shots. Mike Connley as well. Drew Scout, thanks so much. Uh we’ll be talking to you guys again tomorrow. Uh and also hear from you later on with the Tommy Award. The 11915.

The Postgame Live crew break down the Celtics 119-115 loss to the Timberwolves