DENVER — The Celtics have done so many unforgettable things this year. But there is one hole in what they hope will be a championship résumé. They haven’t beaten the defending champs.
There is a simple question about this team now: Could it defeat the Nuggets in the NBA Finals?
Thursday night they showed once again that they can’t figure out how to beat Nikola Jokić. The Celtics have rolled through the league trying to outthink the opponent, but they can’t checkmate the NBA’s grandmaster.
“He’s such a good passer, but sometimes you help off the dunker (spot) and Aaron Gordon’s a great crasher,” Jayson Tatum said. “There’s no wrong answer, but the right answer can be different each possession.”
While Tatum gained momentum in the MVP race after the All-Star break, this game likely closes the door on that comeback. Jokić dominated once again while Tatum could not find consistency on either end of the floor.
This game was a litmus test for his candidacy and the lasting impression of him taking a backseat will likely impact his placement come voting time. It was always going to require the Celtics having a stellar record for it to happen, but Jokić looked so unstoppable and involved Thursday while Tatum just wasn’t as involved.
“I say it all the time, we talk about respecting each other’s space and understanding the flow of the game,” Tatum said. “So it’s not upon me to like hijack the game and try to make it about me and it’s a national TV game. Other guys had it going. So if I have to be in the corner, if I have to be a facilitator at times, so be it.”
Jaylen Brown scored a season-high 41 points and kept the Celtics within striking distance while their half-court offense was swallowed by Denver’s defense. But the Celtics had too many mistakes, including bad turnovers, fumbling the ball away, missing defensive assignments and Brown bricking free throws (7 of 14).
“And that, it starts with me,” Brown said. “It starts at the top, starts with Jayson, and we made too many mistakes and it cost us the game.”
As much as this loss was self-inflicted and could boil down to Tatum missing a wide-open 3 to take the lead in the final minute, Jokić won this game. The Celtics didn’t lose it so much as the former MVP dominated from start to finish.
To be fair, the Celtics tried almost everything. They started the game with a hybrid zone that tried to keep Kristaps Porziņģis in the paint with bodies planted in Jokić’s driving lanes. The Nuggets put that to rest quickly by putting bodies in both dunker spots.
The Celtics tried putting another player in a deep drop and helping off Gordon to stop the ball while Porziņģis stayed on Jokić. That didn’t work either.
Then when Porziņģis thought he had Jokić shaded where he wanted him in single coverage, the Denver big spun through him like Hakeem Olajuwon.
“When you give (Gordon) the ball, he is going to dunk it,” Jokić said. “Like I told the guys, sometimes I don’t even need to look because I know where he is. I just need to throw it out there and he is going to get it most of the time. But if he doesn’t get it, it is my fault.”
If Brown helps early and Tatum rotates down onto Gordon, Jokić finds Michael Porter Jr. for an open 3.
You have to hope Jokić misses. And even when he does, Gordon cleans it up. It’s hard to beat Jokić once he gets to his spot.
“He was definitely in his bag tonight and he’s just, he’s just an incredible basketball player. Some things I learned from him today actually,” Porziņģis said. “He’s just so smart, so crafty, so many things that you don’t see that he does on the floor that helps that team win. It’s incredible. Whenever you over help him just a little bit, he will find Gordon, he will find all these guys and it just speaks of how valuable he is for them and what he does for them. Really, really, really (hard to stop).”
The Celtics have not yet figured out the balance of stopping Jokić and playing their best lineup. Close the game with Al Horford? Put more guards on him and do little matchup zones?
“I feel like I should have guarded Jokić a little bit, a little more,” Brown said. “I wish I would’ve had those opportunities a little bit. I could keep him away from the basket and we could’ve took away some of those layups they got. But I feel like we still had every chance to win this game and just came up short.”
Brown has been insisting he takes on the biggest defensive challenges each night. If coach Joe Mazzulla is going to have a test managing his locker room, it’s about who gets the opportunities in the big moments.
Boston’s players have been talking the talk about still having another level and being motivated to reach it. But when you have a huge lead atop the standings, can you find that fire? Well, now they know they have the Nuggets standing in their way.
The Celtics have the best record in the NBA. But nobody will care by the end of June. You’re not the best team if you’re not the champs. So far, they can’t beat the champs.
When Porziņģis was asked if the Nuggets had the Celtics’ number, he pushed back at the notion.
“I don’t like this, that they have our number. I don’t like that kind of phrase,” Porziņģis said. “They beat us a couple times. The margins of who wins and who loses is small. They beat us at home. Hats off to them. Then they beat us in their own home. It’s very small. It could’ve went our way.”
After years of coming up short on frustrating, disjointed teams, Porziņģis has a wry smile after these kinds of games. This is only his second losing streak of the season. Last year, his team was a losing streak.
“I like that we have this loss in the regular season. It stings. It has to sting,” Porziņģis said. “And we have to learn and we have to improve and also some mental things that we could take from this game. We had some emotional plays that we cannot allow to happen in the playoffs. Some technicals that we don’t need completely. Those are things that we’ll take away from this game and bounce back.”
Porziņģis has been a difference-maker and the key to taking the Celtics from the upper echelon to its own plane this season. So when Jokić ran through him repeatedly Thursday night, it was a reminder that a huge lead in the standings and a generational net rating turns into a tiny gap between two winning teams once you hit the floor.
“Yes, they are a good team and yes, they basically have answers for everything, matchup wise, defense wise, offense wise,” Jokić said. “They are a well-built team and are playing really good. They are the best team in the NBA right now. It is really hard to play against a team that is long and tall. It is a great team.”
The Celtics are still great, but the Nuggets might have the upper hand. The Celtics’ talk of hitting another level sounds grounded in reality. They can beat teams by 50 all they want, but everyone knows the Nuggets are going to play them dead even.
“What I like is that there’s a margin for us to get better, to play better, and yeah, it’s possible,” Porziņģis said. “We hope to see them again.”
(Photo of Jayson Tatum and Nikola Jokić: Ron Chenoy/USA Today)
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