Jaylen Brown scores 37, but sloppy Celtics fall to Blazers

Boston Celtics

The Celtics will wrap up their 2025 schedule with a contest against the Jazz in Utah, which tips off at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

The Celtics had plenty of chances down the stretch in Sunday’s contest against the Trail Blazers, but their execution failed them badly late in a 114-108 loss. 

Here are the takeaways.

The loss is fine … probably

Celtics fans seemingly have taken much of this season in stride, secure in the knowledge that this team likely isn’t a contender (although the recent stretch of wins begs some interesting questions). Some of the heavy expectations that have burdened the increasingly broad shoulders of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for nearly a decade were lifted by Tatum’s injury, and a retooling year became a season for some players to develop (Hugo González, Jordan Walsh), for some players to test their limits (Payton Pritchard, Derrick White), and for some players to simply show out (Brown). 

Under that light, a 19-12 record after Sunday’s loss feels a little like checking your balance after holiday shopping and seeing a healthy amount remaining: You might not love what just happened, but you’ve banked enough to weather it.

The Celtics won’t win every game they play against inferior competition this year. That was true last year (bad losses to the Kings and Raptors rankled in January), and it’s doubly true on this team that has significantly less talent available. One loss after a four-game winning streak isn’t apocalyptic, even if they kicked away a gettable win. The Celtics need to extinguish the wick with a win over the Jazz. If they do, Sunday’s meltdown will be forgotten quickly. 

But, in a season where wins against the best teams can’t be expected like they were last year, beating teams who are under .500 as often as possible is an essential way for the Celtics to keep their lofty place in the standings. 

The Celtics got absolutely crushed on the glass

In the first quarter, the Celtics appeared to be poised to get whatever they wanted offensively, which did not bode well for the Blazers. 

But, Portland had answers on the other end: 7-foot-2 center Donovan Clingan and a dogged determination to crash the glass. The Blazers finished with 15 offensive boards as a team, and the Celtics struggled all evening to bring possessions to an end. 

Nobody was more damaging on the offensive glass than Clingan, whose size predictably proved difficult for the Celtics to handle. Neemias Queta got himself into foul trouble with plenty of time remaining. Luka Garza couldn’t do anything about Clingan, and at one point, he got dunked on so hard by the former UConn star that he hit the floor hard as Clingan stood over him and bellowed directly at him, which the officials ignored. 

The biggest offensive rebound Clingan claimed, however, came with 22 seconds remaining. The Celtics had just trimmed the Blazers’ lead to one with a clutch 3-pointer by White, and Deni Avdija hoisted a tough triple in response, which he missed. Clingan, however, muscled his way into great position against González, moving aside the smaller defender and earning a foul as he laid the ball back up and in. His free throw pushed the lead to two possessions, which was more than enough given what happened next (we’ll get to that in a minute). Clingan finished with an eye-popping 17 rebounds, seven of which were offensive. 

There’s only so much to be said about this — the Celtics are much better than anyone expected before the season, but they aren’t perfect, and there are only so many ways to hide their warts against a team with a player like Clingan who is tailor-made to uncover them. 

The Celtics turned the ball over a ton, especially late

The Celtics can, however, control how many times they turn the ball over, which they uncharacteristically failed badly to limit on Sunday. The Celtics have the lowest turnover percentage in the NBA this season according to Synergy Sports, but they coughed the ball up 20 times against an aggressive Blazers defense. 

The penultimate turnover was the nail in a nearly-shut coffin: Following Clingan’s 3-point play, on a sidelines out-of-bounds set, the Celtics ran a play to get Brown free for a quick basket, but Brown and White miscommunicated — Brown flared to the corner for a 3-pointer, while White fired a pass that would have freed him for a quick layup with no shot blocker at the rim.

That wasn’t the only late turnover. Shaedon Sharpe tied Brown up nearly the halfcourt line and knocked him backward with just over a minute remaining and the Blazers up by one. Sharpe went 1-for-2, which propped the door open, but White and Brown helpfully closed it for him with another turnover near the halfcourt line—this time a bad pass from White to Brown, which Camara disrupted.

The Celtics missed a ton of 3-pointers

The Celtics have had more disastrous nights from three, but they weren’t good—13-for-44 from deep (29.5 percent), and only Brown (2-for-5) and Walsh (who barely played) shot 40 percent or better. 

Add up 20 turnovers, sub-30-percent 3-point shooting and a dominant performance on the offensive glass by your opponent, and it doesn’t take a mathematician to find a loss. 

Derrick White and Payton Pritchard struggled

The NBC Sports Boston broadcast pointed out that the Celtics are winless when White and Pritchard combine for fewer than 25 points, and that record held up on Sunday. 

White scored 12 points, and while he made a big 3-pointer late, he was just 2-for-10 from deep and 5-for-16 overall.

Pritchard, meanwhile, made his first 3-point attempt but otherwise was largely invisible—nine points on 3-for-10 shooting.  

Jaylen Brown had a huge first half

If there was any question whether Brown would tie Larry Bird’s record for most consecutive 30-point games against Blazers defensive specialist Toumani Camara, Brown put those questions almost entirely to bed early. He scored 27 points in the first half, ending the second quarter with a 3-pointer at the buzzer after which he turned to the Portland crowd and barked at the fans. He quickly surpassed the 30-point mark in the second half with a tough layup in transition before he was fouled on a 3-pointer. He tripped over the line by going 1-for-3, but he rolled over it all the same. 

The Blazers, however, slowed Brown down in the second half. They threw multiple defenders at him on several occasions, and Camara worked hard to get the ball out of his hands. Brown tossed up and missed a couple of difficult jumpers as well, and while he finished with 37 points on 14-for-24 shooting, he turned the ball over a wince-inducing six times. 

Still, Brown was excellent — by far the Celtics’ best player on a night when their most important secondary stars let them down. Brown’s shot making has become so varied — his bag so deep — that there isn’t always a lot of repetition to the ways he scores. He can get a defender on his back and elevate through contact to score over the defender in front of him. He can get to the rim and navigate multiple defenders to find impossibly narrow windows to fit the ball off the glass. He can set up defenders by beating them off the dribble and scoring at the rim, only to throw on pinpoint brakes and create miles of separation for himself with his handle. 

Brown has been tasked with a lot this season, and he has come through repeatedly. On Sunday, he was imperfect, but he did more than his part.

Anfernee Simons returned to Portland

In a nice moment during the first timeout, Anfernee Simons was honored with a lengthy tribute video by the Blazers. Simons, of course, spent the first seven years of his career in Portland, and in his last four years, he hovered around 20 points per game.