{"id":716118,"date":"2026-04-22T20:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716118\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:18:29","slug":"the-celtics-lost-game-2-on-tuesday-on-wednesday-they-figured-out-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716118\/","title":{"rendered":"The Celtics lost Game 2 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they figured out why."},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Neemias Queta<\/a> just wanted to watch film.<\/p>\n

Moments after the Celtics\u2019 painful 111-97 loss to the 76ers, the Portuguese center stood in the Celtics locker room surrounded by reporters, fielding question after question about what went wrong in Game 2.<\/p>\n

Queta was asked about what allowed Tyrese Maxey to get going after a quieter Game 1; the Philadelphia star exploded for 29 points and 9 assists on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

And, he paused for a moment to consider the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d Queta said. \u201cGotta watch film tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was his first of four times bringing up film in his postgame media availability. Safe to say, he was eager to review the footage.<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown, who was relatively upbeat at the podium, was also eager to review what went wrong in a game that saw Philadelphia hit 19 three-pointers (on nearly 49% shooting) and explode for 37 second-quarter points (a number that Queta deemed a \u201cdeath sentence.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it wasn\u2019t the best showing for us,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut, we\u2019ll watch the film and see where adjustments need to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Film, after all, has been the crux of the Celtics\u2019 season. Jaylen Brown has deemed the group\u2019s consistent in-depth film study \u2018Celtics University.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, our margin for error has been slim,\u201d Brown said earlier this season. \u201cIf we don\u2019t come to play, if a team wins the margins, you see, we\u2019ll lose games that you know we\u2019re supposed to win. So, those film sessions that we\u2019ve had, I call them Celtics University. It\u2019s like a classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s got their notepads, asking questions, we\u2019re breaking down the film and the details of everything. Because the details are most important. The difference between good and great players is the emphasis on the details. There\u2019s no detail too small. So, the film room has helped me elevate my game, and it\u2019s helped elevate our team as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what does a film session look like after a disappointing loss in the NBA playoffs?<\/p>\n

Players filed into the Auerbach Center on Tuesday morning, just hours removed from a loss that saw them score just 43 second-half points.<\/p>\n

Film, like it has been all year, was important. Nikola Vucevic explained that, immediately after the final buzzer, it can be difficult, as a player, to process what went wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after a game, it\u2019s hard to have a clear picture of what exactly happened,\u201d Vucevic said. \u201cI think that\u2019s why film is good, because you have time to kind of cool down after the game, let the emotions settle, and then you go back and watch and get a clearer picture of what happened, because in the moment of a game, it happened so fast. You\u2019re in full-on competition mode, and you\u2019re trying to win. And sometimes your emotions get involved, and you can\u2019t have a full, clear picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Wednesday\u2019s film session was illuminating. Vucevic said that the coaching staff and the players communicated well and discussed things openly. He also acknowledged that players can have a tendency to think a particular coverage or scheme is to blame for defensive shortcomings, whereas in reality, a lot of the time it\u2019s more about their own execution of the coverages.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, in the film session, they showed a lot of stuff that we could have done differently, that could have helped us in certain situations,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s just natural \u2014 when a player you\u2019re guarding gets going, you\u2019re always trying to figure out, why is it? And I think it\u2019s natural for players to think, \u2018Oh, maybe schemes.\u2019 But then, when you go back and watch the film, you realize there\u2019s so much more that goes into it, and there are definitely things last night that we could have done better, that we could have controlled, that would have helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

After reviewing film, players were able to clearly identify where individually they could be sharper ahead of Friday\u2019s Game 3.<\/p>\n

\u201dWhen you talk to the coaches, they do a good job explaining \u2018hey, this is why we did this,\u2019\u201d Vucevic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, it\u2019s little details like, \u2018Oh, maybe if, for example, if I was there to help in the right, if I wasn\u2019t late on that help, maybe the other guy wouldn\u2019t have to help on my guy, [and they] wouldn\u2019t [have] gotten the corner three,\u2019 for example \u2014 things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Mazzulla said he identified three main areas where the team could control their own destiny.<\/p>\n

He pointed to how they closed the first quarter; after leading 26-13, the 76ers went on a 10-0 run that included multiple let up offensive rebounds, live ball turnovers, and missed free throws.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the 76ers\u2019 37-point infamous second quarter, a quarter that Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Neemias Queta all spoke to after the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing a quarter of 37-26 is tough to overcome in a playoff game against a team like that,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cAnd I think that stems from some missed shots, but also things that we can be better and things that we can control on the margins \u2014 live ball turnovers, offensive rebounds, and things of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, there were personnell tendencies the Celtics didn\u2019t pay close enough attention to \u2014 6 to 8 times where the Celtics defended without accounting for a 76ers\u2019 player\u2019s offensive tendency.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will look to turn the page when they travel to Philadelphia on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But in a way, Wednesday\u2019s film session was therapeutic, too \u2014 because it helped understand just how much is in their control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you lose a game in the playoffs, you feel like it\u2019s the end of the world,\u201d Derrick White said. \u201cAnd so you see that there are these little pockets of the game here \u2013 this is why we are losing, or why they want to run. And so, just kind of see what plays that we should have made or could have made that might have changed the whole game. And I mean, you can get that from a win, but I feel like it\u2019s just probably \u2014 they say it\u2019s easier to learn from a loss. And so, it\u2019s just all those little plays, all those little things that go into winning and losing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Neemias Queta just wanted to watch film. Moments after the Celtics\u2019 painful 111-97 loss to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,21388,6],"class_list":["post-716118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-news","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116450210867832819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}