Even though the Celtics are top of the Eastern Conference, they were no match for the red-hot Clippers and Jrue Holiday has explained where it all went wrong for the C’s.
Boston have an impressive 35-11 record on the season, yet in their last ten games, have lost to other top teams Milwaukee, Denver and now LA after Saturday’s 115-96 defeat.
Celtics guard Holiday only managed to score seven points, three rebounds and four assists in the loss and spoke candidly about his team’s performance.
“A good old-fashioned a**-whooping,” Holiday told The Athletic. “They did everything better: Rebounding, transition, 50/50 balls, it seemed like they were a step ahead.”
He went on to pinpoint the C’s shot-making as one of their downfalls, since they shot shot 36 percent from the field and 25 percent from three-point range.
“Honestly, I think especially at first, we had a lot of good shots. Lot of wide-open shots. Missed them,” Holiday said. “I think sometimes that kind of affects our defense, but at the end of the day, you still have to take them. Even when they’re not falling it looks bad, but you just have to have the confidence to keep going out there and shooting them.”
What made the defeat even worse for Boston was that it was on the franchise’s home floor, where they have otherwise been rock solid this season.
“Definitely humbling, I think, to be able to kind of come home and get your butt kicked,” Holiday said. “But we know it’s a long season. We know we can learn from this and just kind of hold it in our back pocket. It’ll always be in the back of our head when we have a good game the game before.”
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