Ball Scrutiny: 3 Reasons Behind Celtics' Collapse Against Jazz
As forecasted, the Celtics lost to another team coming from the bottom of the league. The Utah Jazz put Kyrie Irving's 33 point performance to waste after defeating them 107 -95.
With Kyrie scoring humongously, what could've gone wrong for Boston to draw their 7th loss?
1. 59 - 42 Rebounds
A wide gap of 17 in terms of total rebounds significantly tells us a story of who controlled the game. As cliche as it may sound, he who controls the rebound controls the game. And so the Utah Jazz did.
2. Kyrie's 33 points were sufficient but inefficient
Yes, Uncle Drew scored undeniably high for the Celtics. But looking closely, he shot 11-25 from the field, delivering less than half of his attempts and we know that the Celtics fail to capitalize on the rebounds as stated in reason number 1. This numerous misses became vital as they could not get second possessions in their misses. In fact, Celtics only got 2 offensive boards while Jazz snatched 9 from them.
3. Celtics fail to take advantage of Jazz having no true center
With Rudy Gorbert being injured very early on his left knee, he only managed to play a total of 2 minutes and yet Celtics could not dominate the shaded area particularly their center Aron Baynes, playing 16 minutes but only scoring 2 points given that he has the size advantage without a true center defender.
Maybe at some point, Kyrie is at fault. Those 16 minutes Baynes is on the floor, it was Kyrie who solely runs and finishes the offensive play.
Conclusion
It may not be stated that Celtics 'fail' to take advantage. They may have failed to see their advantage on the inside. Baynes only got 4 attempts and finished only one. Clearly, the offense didn't focus on the opponents weak side. Celtics played the way they used to -- focusing on Irving -- instead of playing smarter -- taking advantage of opponent's weakness.
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