NEW YORK – “Forty-eight minutes.”
Pick either game: the opening night loss to the 76ers or Friday night’s 105-95 loss to the Knicks, and you’ll hear those three words from just about every coach and player when discussing what went wrong.
On opening night, a disastrous 42-point fourth quarter and a poor close to the second quarter doomed the Celtics, costing them a win in a game they should have won. In New York, it was another 42-point quarter, this time in the second frame, which allowed the title-hopeful Knicks to build a 20-point lead that proved insurmountable for the inferior Celtics.
It was ugly.
Boston was outscored 42-14 in that second quarter. They shot 4-of-18 from the field (22.2%) and 3-of-12 (25%) from three, while the Knicks hit 12-of-24 (50%) overall and 6-of-13 (46.2%) from deep. The Celtics had more turnovers (six) than made field goals (four). New York grabbed seven offensive rebounds, more than Boston’s total rebounds (five), leading to 12 second-chance points. Between points off turnovers and second-chance opportunities, the Knicks nearly doubled Boston, 25-14.
Somehow, the Celtics surrendered runs of 11-0, 17-0, and 12-0 in the same quarter.
“We have to clean those up. Those are areas that you can control,” Joe Mazzulla said on the turnovers and poor defensive rebounding. “Those are areas that just require effort and discipline, and building the habit of that. Back-to-back games where we gave ourselves a chance, but we had two 42-point quarters [allowed]. We’ve got to clean that up.”
If you take away the second quarter on Friday night, the Celtics win comfortably, 81-63. Hold the 76ers under 40 in the fourth on opening night, and they win that one, too.
Through two games, the Celtics have outscored their opponents in five of the eight quarters they’ve played. In the NBA, though, you only get credit for winning the war, not the battles along the way.
And until they learn to play forty-eight minutes, they’ll keep learning that lesson the hard way.
“You have to build the habit of executing that discipline,” Mazzulla added. “No one has played a perfect, 48-minute game. I thought last game maybe we played 12-16 minutes of the way that we need to play on both ends, and tonight I thought it was closer to 24. We just have to continue to get that number up as high as possible. It’s just the effort, the details, and the discipline.”
But maybe winning those smaller battles offers a silver lining. Despite sitting at 0-2 for the first time since 2021-22, and with new faces adjusting to bigger roles and more responsibility, the Celtics might not be as far off as it seems.
“We aren't. I mean, I think we played pretty well tonight, they just had a huge second quarter, and that was kind of the difference,” said Sam Hauser. “But the other three quarters, I think we held them to 25 points or less in each of those quarters. We were right there. It's just, if we clean up that second quarter, who knows what could’ve happened.”
This team has its limitations, and rebounding, specifically defensively, is a major one. Through the first two games, the Celtics have surrendered 31 offensive rebounds, second-most in the NBA behind only the Grizzlies at 34. Those 31 offensive boards have produced 42 second-chance points, also second-most in the league, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the points Boston has allowed. The team has grabbed only 61.5 percent of defensive rebounds.
Jayson Tatum, their best rebounder, is sidelined indefinitely. Al Horford and Luke Kornet, who ranked second and third in total rebounds, left in free agency. Kristaps Porzingis, who averaged the second-most rebounds per game, is now in Atlanta. The roster simply does not have the personnel, and the Celtics will have to overcome that weakness.
“With the rebounding, we have to combat it in three ways. We have to be as physical as we can, rebounding. We have to get offensive rebounds and we have to force more turnovers,” said Mazzulla. “I think if you look at those four categories, defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding, forcing turnovers, not turning it over, we probably have a better chance at controlling three out of the four of those with our effort and our ability to control those things. So we got to fight for those."
The defense has shown promise, but it hasn’t been consistent enough. Through two games, opponents are shooting just 42.1 percent against the Celtics, and they have turned the ball over 34 times. In the quarters they’ve allowed 42 points, though, opponents have shot 25-of-46 (54.3%) from the field and 13-of-24 (54.1%)
The shooting will also improve. The Celtics are just 26-of-87 (29.9%) from three through the first two games. Sam Hauser (8-of-16, 50%) and Jaylen Brown (5-of-11, 45%) are the only players shooting above 30 percent from deep. Derrick White is 7-of-24 (29.2%), Anfernee Simons is 3-of-10 (30%), and Payton Pritchard is 2-of-14 (14.3%). White, Pritchard, and Simons were three of 20 players to make at least 200 threes last season, each shooting 36 percent or better.
“It's both patience and urgency. This is a good test for us to kind of see where we're at,” said Brown. “Tonight wasn’t our best outing. We were a little bit out of sync. The spacing wasn't great. We just have to figure out how to put 48 minutes together. So it's urgency, for sure. But it's also a patience with this group. There are a lot of new guys on our team that are figuring out how to be consistent in what our role is every single night.”
There are natural growing pains. A roster with eight new faces and a new play style is still getting acclimated. The flashes of potential are there. It’s a matter of putting it together for forty-eight minutes, something the Celtics appear to be getting closer to figuring out.
“We're just trying to figure out exactly what our identity is, and I think we're trying to play to a certain way that we know we're capable of,” said Hauser. “It's going to be hard to put a full 48 together right away at the start of the season, so it was just kind of a learning curve a little bit. But we've gotten better in the first two games and hopefully can just keep carrying over to next game or the next game, and the next game.”
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