TD Garden was jumping as Oklahoma City Thunder wing Aaron Wiggins airballed a last-second three-point attempt to end Wednesday’s third quarter. Boston Celtics fans had just watched their team erase a 12-point deficit after ripping off an 18-6 run heading into the fourth quarter.
Things were looking up. It was the first time that the Cs were able to get stops and baskets at the same time.
It was also the last.
There wasn’t any point in the fourth quarter when it felt like Boston was in control. They started the quarter by matching OKC’s buckets but failed to get key stops to build any momentum.
The Celtics tied the game at 98 with 8:12 to go and scored four points over the next six minutes, as the Thunder built a double-digit lead and put the game out of reach.
It was a disappointing end to an overall successful homestand. Over the Cs’ seven games at TD Garden, they managed to win five. Their only two losses were February 28 against the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers and, of course, Wednesday against first-place OKC.
There’s no shame in losing to the top two teams in the league. They’re where they’re at for a reason.
What there is shame in is the way the Celtics played in the fourth quarters of these games, even in the wins.
In short, they were not good.
They were actually the worst.
Over the last seven games, no team in the NBA has a worse fourth-quarter net rating than your Boston Celtics at -32.7. They’ve had the league’s worst defense (140.4 drtg) and a bottom-5 offense (108.3 ortg) to help get them to that point.
For context, the Celtics have an offensive rating of 119.1 and a defensive rating of 110.3 this season as a whole. So, they haven’t been themselves at the end of games lately, to say the very least.
The league-worst net rating is a little skewed since a few of their games were decided by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, but they still only managed to comfortably win one of these games, which was their final meeting against the Philadelphia 76ers.
This iteration of the Sixers might’ve been the worst opponent of the seven here. Philly was without Joel Embiid (of course), Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George. Kelly Oubre was their leading shot-taker. There is no reason why they should’ve had any issue winning this one — and they didn’t.
Good job, Celts.
Even in that outing, they still didn’t dominate the fourth quarter. They only tied it, which, in fairness, is all they needed to do.
Boston only outscored an opponent once in the fourth quarter during the recent slate of home games, in their win over the Denver Nuggets. This was the first time that the Cs beat Denver in a game where Nikola Jokic played since 2022.
The win was impressive, and the execution was far better than it was in their prior meeting with Jokic in January of 2024.
No complaints.
This is the part where the fourth quarters get worse.
We already talked about the subpar play from the OKC loss, so we can skip that one. Although, that is the only time that Boston lost a fourth quarter by less than 10 points, even in games they won.
“Our defensive rebounding and some of our defensive tendencies,” Mazzulla said postgame of what he’d like to see improve in fourth quarters.
If you want to look at poor defense, look no further than Monday’s win over the Utah Jazz. Utah is currently the only team in the league that has been eliminated from playoff contention. Much like the 76ers, they were a team that the Celtics were supposed to beat, which they did.
They almost didn’t.
Boston saw a 23-point lead disappear in the fourth quarter, as the Jazz sank eight of their nine three-point attempts to rally back to tie. I’m not going to embed all of the clips here, but what I can tell you is that these threes were not tightly contested. Boston consistently got caught on pindown screens, resulting in open looks for guys like Brice Sensabaugh.
Sensabaugh, who Charles Barkely would likely struggle to name “Who He Play For?,” sank five of Utah’s eight triples in this stretch.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is the sort of game where your blood pressure should spike because the Jazz got hot. They’d spent the entire game firing shots off the rim. You can’t blame the Cs for daring them to keep it up.
The near-collapse against Utah was eerily similar to what happened against the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. The recipes for disappointment were nearly identical.
Both L.A. (65/50 splits) and Portland (62.9/55.6 splits) had strong shooting quarters. The defense from the Celtics didn’t necessarily regress — their opponents just started hitting shots.
There were some open shots mixed in, too, but these are the sort of looks you just have to live with.
What killed the Celtics here was their own cold shooting (41.2/28.6 vs L.A., 41.7/16.7 vs. POR). In these games specifically, it didn’t feel like their shot quality dropped off at all. They didn’t get impatient and kept creating decent looks as they had for the rest of each game.
They just didn’t fall.
There was a lot said about the loss to the Cavs when it happened, as is to be expected after a loss. It’s just how this all works. Cleveland got to the finish line behind an absolute burner from Donovan Mitchell. He finished the night with 41 points, and Boston seemingly had no answer for him.
What was frustrating, as Mazzulla alluded to on Wednesday, was the surplus of second chances Evan Mobley was able to create on the offensive glass. Though these rebounds didn’t directly translate to points, the Celtics still had to defend for an extra 14 seconds at a time because of them. The more energy you expend on defense, the less you’ve got on the offensive end.
What we all witnessed over the past 12 days was certainly extreme. The Celtics aren’t THAT bad in the fourth quarter, right?
Well, I wouldn’t say they’ve been good. This season, their fourth-quarter net rating is -2. Last year, it was +7. Boston has dropped some head-scratching games throughout the 2024-25 campaign and could serve to tighten things up down the stretch.
There will always be moments where you just have to sit back and watch Brice Sensabaugh drill five threes or see Luka Doncic bank in a crazy one from the sideline.
It happens.
And again, the Celtics still managed to win games in spite of these lapses. It can be done. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t look to take more control in some of these areas. As Mazzulla mentioned, they can always control their effort on the glass, as well as ensure that they remain focused on getting key stops.
