MPJ, Nets beat Celtics; Jaylen Brown calls for more effort: Takeaways

Boston Celtics

Boston dug itself a hole that ultimately proved too deep to scale its way out.

The Celtics were thoroughly outplayed by Michael Porter Jr. and the Nets on Friday, falling 113-105 in a loss that drew a call to action from Jaylen Brown.

Here are the takeaways.

Michael Porter Jr. killed the Celtics with one play.

Porter Jr. got hot in the fourth quarter, scoring 16 of his 33 points in the period with a flurry of shots from all over the floor.

Porter, however, set the stage for his fourth-quarter takeover earlier with a single set that the Nets ran over and over, confounding the Celtics nearly every time.

The set wasn’t complicated: Porter Jr. simply started in the corner, ran off a dribble hand-off screen at the top of the key and either drove (if the defender trailed him around the screen) or rose up and fired a 3-pointer using his 6’10 frame to get a clean look.

The Celtics, for whatever reason, had no answers, and when the Nets started to get shaky in the fourth quarter as the lead slipped as low as two with TD Garden roaring, Porter’s run stymied the enthusiasm entirely.

The Celtics were without Jaylen Brown for a while.

Brown, who finished the game with 26 points on 9-for-18 shooting, gave an unfortunate object lesson in how important it is for a superstar player to value their fouls.

The problem actually began in the second quarter, when Brown picked up his third with just under a minute remaining. Then, just under a minute into the third quarter, Brown picked up his fourth foul – a very unfortunate sequence of events for the Celtics, since he then was susceptible to a fifth. That one came with just under six minutes remaining when he smacked Terance Mann in the face as he attempted to break free from Mann, who was grabbing his hip. Joe Mazzulla challenged the play hoping that Mann’s contact would be enough to overturn the call, but the challenge was unsuccessful and a disgruntled Brown was forced to take a seat.

Over the next five minutes, the Celtics fell apart, trailing by as many as 18 before they spent most of the fourth trying to put the pieces back together again.

So many games in the NBA are won or lost on the margins, and if Brown could have gone 51 seconds without committing a foul in the second quarter, his quick one at the start of the third might not have been so damaging.

Instead, the Celtics dug themselves a hole that ultimately proved too deep to scale their way out.

Brown said the Celtics didn’t play hard enough.

A less-than-pleased Brown was asked what happened defensively after the game, and he initially tried to take a diplomatic tack.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I guess we’ve got to look at the film and see what happened tomorrow, but I’m not sure what happened tonight.”

When pressed slightly, however, Brown surrendered his real thoughts.

“What’s my initial takeaway? Come ready to play, or don’t play at all,” he said. “That’s my whole thing. We’ve got to come ready to play. We just went through the motions today. I don’t understand it.”

Mazzulla and the rest of the Celtics have been honest all year about how much harder the Celtics have to play this season, which isn’t just a call to dive all over the floor for every loose ball – playing hard also means attention to detail, boxing out and maximizing every possible opportunity to gain an advantage with a less talented roster.

“We need to play with an edge defensively and offensively,” Brown said. “We’ve got to be the harder playing team. That can’t be negotiable. And tonight we weren’t. Brooklyn was the harder playing team. They played with more edge and they deserved to win tonight.”

Mazzulla agreed.

“We have to play at such a different level physically, mentally,” he said. “We have to play at a different level to be at our best. If we don’t play at that level physically or mentally at our best, we could lose any night to anybody.”

Mazzulla and Brown credited the Nets repeatedly for playing well, but the subtext was clear: The Celtics can lose to anybody, including a Nets team that improved to 3-12 with Friday’s win. The Celtics will need as many wins as they can get down the stretch to make a playoff push, which gives a loss like Friday’s a little extra sting.

Anfernee Simons played one of his better games.

Filling in for Brown as the team’s primary scorer, Simons put together one of his better performances.

Unlike his scorching first half against the Magic earlier this month during which he got otherworldly hot from three, Simons scored in a variety of ways – he finished with 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting while finishing just 2-for-6 from behind the arc. Simons was also more aggressive than usual defensively and dished out four assists.

“I thought he was one of the better guards tonight at handling their aggressive pick-and-roll coverage, whether it was hitting the pocket pass or beating to the outside leg and being kind of dynamic in his offensive attack,” Mazzulla said. “I thought his presence defensively was probably the best it’s been all season. I thought he played well, and he deserved to be out there.”

Simons said filling in for Brown wasn’t “entirely difficult.”

“I think I had the ball in my hands a little bit more, just feeling the game out,” he said. “I think I did a pretty good job of it to get us back into the game. As a unit, we just made the plays to get back into the game and kind of chipped away. But obviously, it wasn’t enough.”

Derrick White had another tough game.

White’s struggles continued on Friday – he finished 2-for-13 from the floor and 1-for-7 from three with three turnovers. Perhaps most jarring: He missed layups, including a driving attempt with 4:43 remaining that the Celtics really needed to stay within a possession of the Nets.

White is an excellent defender and a very important player for the Celtics operating in the pick-and-roll, but when he struggles to score, it makes the entire machine more cumbersome.

“He’s doing okay,” Mazzulla said. “Didn’t play well tonight obviously, missed some easy shots, but overall as far as the season goes, I think his creation in 2-on-1s is one of the best things he does, getting downhill in pick-and-roll in 2-on-2 and either making the right play for him or kick out. So he’s just got to continue to work on it.”

Jordan Walsh and Hugo González are useful players during a comeback.

Walsh and González were the only two Celtics who finished in the positives in plus/minus (+8 and +12 respectively).

Walsh has proven himself to be a highly useful defender over the last few weeks, which has earned him a recurring spot in the starting lineup. On Friday, he showed another of his uses: If your team needs to make a late double-digit push, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a hyper-energetic 21-year-old defensive specialist who thrives at causing chaos. Walsh helped the Celtics speed the Nets up during a crucial stretch when they trimmed the deficit while Brown remained on the bench in foul trouble, and while Walsh only recorded one steal, his aggressive defense made a difference. González pitched in as well – another high-energy defender who can cause a little havoc when the need arises.

What’s next

The Celtics have a series of tough games looming. They will be home for the next two: The Magic visit TD Garden on Sunday at 6 p.m. before the surging Pistons make an appearance on Wednesday. They then close the month of November with a road back-to-back against the Timberwolves and Cavaliers next Saturday and Sunday.

“Every game is a test.” Brown said. “Every game is a test so I just take it one game at a time. The schedule is the schedule and we just have to keep going.

“I’m focusing on how can I better prepare myself and how can I make my teammates better. But we’ve got to have some enthusiasm for the game. At the end of the day you’ve got to play basketball.”