The Celtics had their four-game win streak snapped on Wednesday night, falling to the Denver Nuggets 114-110, in a game that featured 23 lead changes and nine ties.
Led by Peyton Watson, who scored 30 points on 10-of-15 shooting and a career-high 6-of-7 (85.7%) from three, and Jamal Murray, who finished with 22 points and a career-high 17 assists, the Nuggets came out on top despite being without Nikola Jokic. Denver, as a team, shot 20-of-45 (45.5%) from three in a matchup between the league’s top two offenses.
“Good team. Well coached. Good players over there. And they played well,” said Jaylen Brown. “When a team plays like that, they’re tough to beat. And we still had a chance to win the game. It’s just a few possessions offensively and defensively that we just got to be sharper. But, you know, on any given night, teams can get hot like that.”
Brown led the Celtics with 33 points on 14-of-29 (48.3%) shooting, including 4-of-6 (66.7%) from three, to go along with seven rebounds and four assists. Payton Pritchard and Derrick White added 17 points apiece but combined to shoot 12-of-32 (37.5%) from the field.
Here are four takeaways as the Celtics fall to 23-13 on the season.
Fourth quarter stinker
The 28 points in the fourth-quarter box score are deceiving, as 17 of those points came in the final 2:04, when Denver had already built a 13-point lead. In the nearly 10 minutes before that, the Celtics scored just 11 points on 5-of-20 (25.0%) shooting and went 0-of-6 from three with four turnovers. They were held scoreless for nearly four and a half minutes, fueling a 14–0 Denver run that turned a three-point lead into an 11-point deficit.
“Just not making shots. Maybe some turnovers,” Payton Pritchard said. “Just led to them getting momentum, and they hit shots.”
That they did.
Denver shot scored 35 points on 11-of-19 (57.9%) shooting from the field and 4-of-7 (57.1%) from three in the fourth quarter.
“I think they kind of just went to that switching lineup and we weren’t able to get the looks that we want to get,” White said. “Just got to be better at that and learn a lot from it and try to see what we do better.”
Lost the three-point margin
There had been 64 instances this season of a team making 20 or more threes in a game entering Monday night, with those teams going 49-15. There had also been 126 games in which a team shot 45 percent or better from three, and those teams were 95-31.
The Nuggets hit both of those marks, becoming the 39th team this season to do so, with those teams improving to 30-8.
“[It was] a little bit of everything,” White said. “Some stuff that we kind of have to live with, and some stuff that we need to do better with.”
Eight different Nuggets hit a three-pointer, with five making at least two.
“I thought our defense was fine,” Jaylen Brown said. “I think they just made a lot of shots. Got to give some credit to them. They shot, what, 20 of 44 from three? I think that was one of their better shooting performances of the year from three.”
With the loss, the Celtics dropped to 6-10 when making fewer threes than their opponent. When they make more than their opponent, they are 17-3.
Neemias Queta was a monster on the glass
Neemias Queta finished with a career-high 20 rebounds in just 24 minutes, becoming the first Celtic to reach that mark since Jared Sullinger in 2015 and only the fifth since the turn of the century. Even more impressive, Queta grabbed 10 offensive and 10 defensive boards, making him the first player to do so in a game since Robert Parish in 1989.
Luka Garza also provided solid center minutes. He finished with 11 points and five rebounds, and drew an offensive foul in the midst of a 12-0 Celtics run in the third quarter, finishing a +8 in 19 minutes. The big man also knocked down his lone three-point attempt, pushing him up to 48.6 percent (18-of-37) on the season.
Since re-entering the rotation on December 20, Garza is averaging 10.4 points on 34-of-48 (70.8%) shooting, including 7-of-12 (58.3%) from three, along with 5.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He leads the team in plus-minus (+109) and offensive rebounds (+31) over that span.
Anfernee Simons continued his scoring heater
Simons finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 (66.7%) shooting from the field and 3-of-4 (75.0%) from three, along with four rebounds and two assists. He has now scored 15 or more points in three straight games and in four of his last five. Over that five-game stretch, he is averaging 18.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists while shooting 31-of-61 (50.8%) from the field and 24-of-43 (55.8%) from three.
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