The Hospital Celtics Unfortunately Fumbled Their Chance To Make NBA History By Having The Worst Performance Of The Joe Mazzulla Era

Julio Aguilar. Getty Images.

Heading into this game, I'd say we were all excited to see the full version of the Hospital Celtics attempt to keep the road winning streak alive and secure the Celts spot in NBA history as the greatest road team of all time. It was going to be a tall task going up against a Magic team that was playing their guys and desperately needed the game to solidify their spot in 7th, and without Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, or Kristaps Porzingis active, the Hospital Celts were going to have to be close to perfect to do it.

Unfortunately, they were mostly a disaster.

While none of these final games have meant anything, this one in particular you can certainly overlook given this was really the Maine Celtics against an NBA playoff team while also playing on a B2B. You add all that up, and you get a performance like this. I'll admit, the Hospital Celtics have been so dominant for so long that I certainly didn't expect things to look like this, especially with them going up against the worst offense/shooting team in the NBA. The fact that the Magic played the Uno Reverse Card and Mazzulla Ball'd the Hospital Celtics to death was certainly an experience.

In the end, it was the worst offensive performance in the Joe Mazzulla Era. At no point since he took over had the Celts scored under 91 points in a game, and last night they didn't even get fucking close to 91. I would describe this game as a blend between the Summer Celts and the Preseason Celts, and if anyone has ever been to Vegas for Summer League you know how offensively challenged those teams are. It's gross basketball, but that's part of the charm.

To get that product in a "real" game? Not ideal. No big deal obviously, but I'm selfish. I wanted the 34-7 road record. I wanted the NBA History. I'm not sure other fanbases can truly understand our struggle with now only being the 2nd best road team of all time. Nobody, and I mean nobody has it tougher than us.

It certainly wasn't pretty, but as you know we do not run from the disasters. We take it on the chin, blog through it and turn the page. Let's begin.

The Good

- Look, in a game in which the Celtics scored 76 points, shot 39/17%, turned it over 15 times and never had a quarter scoring over 21 points, there isn't really a whole lot that you could classify as "good". But you know what? I'm leaving here with something, so we're going to go with the continued progress and potential of Baylor Scheierman

Tied for the team lead with 15 points on 6-14 (1-7), in his 35 minutes, he also added 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal, while you probably would have liked to see a little better production from deep, I walked away somewhat impressed with Baylor's night. It's not like he was able to play off the gravity of the Jays or anything like that, the Magic are legit defensively and for the most part I thought Baylor held his own.

At this stage of his development, his only real goal for me this year was to show us that he's a playable NBA player. That had to be the baseline, and up until now there hasn't really been a Brad Stevens draft pick that's proven they have the ability to play at that level on a consistent basis. Granted most of his picks have been late 1sts or 2nd round picks, but as of now this is the drafting record for Brad

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1. JD Davison (53rd)

2. Jordan Walsh (38th)

3. Baylor Scheierman (30th)

4. Anton Watson (54th)

JD has been fantastic in Maine, just won the G-League MVP, but despite 3+ years of development still hasn't made the NBA jump. That doesn't mean he can't or won't, it just hasn't happened yet. Jordan Walsh showed flashes in some of his appearances this season, but there wasn't exactly a Year 2 leap with him either. Anton Watson isn't even on the team anymore.

Which leaves us with Baylor. 

Given how expensive the roster is and how restrictive the 2nd apron penalties are in terms of roster construction, it's pretty damn important that eventually, Brad start hitting on some of these late 1st round/2nd round picks. He's incredible at finding UDFA's, but his draft results are spotty at best so far. Even if you accept the fact that he's picking in ranges that almost never produce consistent, playable NBA players, that's unfortunately what he has to do. That's his challenge. 

Of all the selections, Baylor definitely looks like the prospect that has the best chance to fill that role. I'm still not selling my Walsh stock given how young he is, but we all watch the games. The level we see Baylor play at compared to any other draft pick isn't even close. This is a guy who looks like he belongs on an NBA court. That doesn't mean he's perfect, it doesn't mean he doesn't have weaknesses that need to be addressed, and it doesn't mean he's ready for any type of playoff role or anything like that.

But this is the baseline for him, and that's encouraging. Given how he looked to start the year, what we're seeing at this stage of the season looks like a completely different player. The confidence is night and day, the offense is legit as either an off ball shooter or even an on ball creator, he plays hard as shit and he has a feel for the game that is unlike any other reserve player.

I imagine we're going to see heavy Baylor minutes in the final two games against CHA, so I'd like to see Joe give him the keys and have him run the Tatum offense. Let's see some reps from Baylor as a point forward. His passing is dynamic enough, he has good size, and that was something I felt like the Celts should have done more last night. Run high P&R with Baylor, let him get downhill into space and see what happens. 

- I'll never forget the moment I watched Luke Kornet morph into Dirk Nowitzki from the midrange. I get how strange that sentence is, so I may as well show you

Ignore score and focus on the bag instead. Real question, is there anything Luke Kornet can't do? The more he plays, the more the answer to that question becomes "no, no there isn't". You may want to say shoot 3s, but Luke can do that he just chooses not to. He came into the league as a three point shooting stretch big, so the foundation is there. As you see above, he can make Dirk level fadeaways. He's an elite rim running center, he's the best offensive rebounder in the league, he gives you rim protection, he's a hilarious human, he makes his FTs, he barks, he's a tremendous passer, he processes things quickly, the list goes on and on,

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Is Luke Kornet actually a perfect basketball player? That's not for me to say. All I know is I legit gasped when I saw him take that shot so it deserves some praise. 

- As I said, it's slim pickin's when it comes to "good" things from this game, so outside of those two things the only other moment I feel qualifies was the Neemy poster. That was nuts

Ignore the -17 in his 25 minutes and instead just focus on this dunk. I'll say this about Queta, he has the ability to produce some rather impressive posters. His length, the fact that he jumps from super far away all combined with his fearlessness makes plays like this an option while he's on the floor, so at least there's that. 

Easily the most roller coaster player on the roster, when he's good he looks like a future rotation player, but when he's bad he looks like a guy who has never played the sport before. I guess that's all part of developing, and this play was a look into what he's capable of .

- OK, we can move on. Everything else about this game was gross.

The Bad

- We all agree that this game was a bit of an usual situation, so everything should be taken with a giant grain of salt. Having said that, heading into this game with Pritchard and Hauser being the only normal rotation players active, it was going to be on them to carry the offense to some degree. They were going to have to make shots, be efficient from deep, and provide the scoring to help prevent big scoring droughts. Playing on a B2B with that load is tough for guys that are normally role players themselves, and the results were uh……not great.

Payton Pritchard: 7-17 (1-7) and a -12

Sam Hauser: 4-11 (2-8) and a -17

The reason I don't completely throw this out is that there is already some level of concern that in a playoff series against tough defenses who play with elite ball pressure and have size, this was another instance of those guys struggling to deal with that challenge. Considering the Magic are a potential playoff opponent, I don't think you can completely ignore it.

While Pritchard's role in a normal game would be different, he would be off ball MUCH more compared to what we saw last night, Hauser's role was virtually the same. This performance told me their legs were probably shot with the B2B, and once it became clear that neither guy had their magnet ball, it's not surprising that this team didn't even crack 80 points. Those two were going to have to shoulder the load, and neither guy could buy a bucket.

- Generally, I'm mostly a moron. Especially when it comes to current events, laws, the stock market etc. Right now, it's impossible to avoid hearing about tariffs this and tariffs that and how it's tanking the stock market and whatnot. I don't really give a shit about any of that stuff as I have more important things to focus on like the health of Jaylen Brown's knee, but after last night I think I finally understand why everyone is all bent out of shape.

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One look at my Jordan Walsh stock after last night, and now I get it. It has cratered. For him to only play 9 minutes in this game specifically is very telling to where he stands. Granted, his minutes were a disaster as he was a -16 in those 9 minutes, but he was the only player on the roster not to play a single second in the second half. Unless there's an injury I'm not aware of, that certainly was not great. 

It's not like the other wings outside of Baylor were all that good either, which is the concerning part. Torrey Craig did not make a single shot in his 28 minutes (0-4, 0-3). Drew Peterson made 1 3PM but was a -8 in his 13 minutes. Shit, Miles Norris played 19 minutes and he's been on the team for like 2 weeks! 

This is why the Baylor development is significant, because to this point it's fair to say Walsh still isn't ready. We're now entering Year 3, so the clock is ticking, as a decision will need to be made about a rookie extension. At this point, I'm not sure that's coming.

- The Celtics did a great job cutting a 19 point deficit down to 8 over the final 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter, and momentum felt like it was shifting. They then followed that up with this type of performance over the next 24 minutes

Woof. If you care about the eFG% Rule when it comes to winning the title, it feels like after this disaster of a shooting performance, the Celts can most likely kiss that goodbye. They dropped to 56.1% on these season, with 3rd place being 56.6%. Unless they go nuclear in both games against the Hornets, that dream of getting back into the top 3 feels dead. 

The Ugly

- You want to talk about being horrible around the margins, this game was the perfect example of what happens when you are bad in virtually every aspect of the game.

Shot margin? The Magic won it 91-82

3pt shooting? The Magic outshot the Celts 16-7 3PM. 

Rebounding? The Magic outrebounded the Celtics 49-43 with 12 OREB

Poor ball control? The Celtics finished with 15 points and 25 points allowed off TOs

No real ball movement? The Celtics finished with just 20 AST and their lowest point total in 3 seasons

Bench production? Cole Anthony nearly outscored the entire second unit by himself

No matter where you looked, the Celts were mostly dogshit. I guess they were 5-6 from the FT line so there's that, but overall? Nowhere close to good enough.

What we saw is what normally happens to an NBA team when they are terrible in every facet of the game and don't have Jayson Tatum around to save them. When that happens, you usually get blown out. You'll never believe this, but the Celtics were down by as many as 26 and were blown out.

- Even though it doesn't matter, it's still annoying that a team that is dead last in the league in 3P% finished 16-35 (35.6%). Once we saw the Magic actually make their 3s you knew it was going to be a long night, especially when the Celts continued to miss every shot they took. Sometimes that's just how it goes.

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I will say, for a team to make 16 3s and still not crack 100 while playing all their guys while going up against the Maine Celtics does make me feel better about a potential playoff matchup, but it was definitely annoying to watch in real time.

My guess is some of the regulars will be back for at least the first half tomorrow against the Hornets, and this is also the best team in the league following a loss so a bounce back performance is to be expected. The Hospital Celtics may have blown their chance at history last night, but I am willing to forgive them if they secure the back to back 60 win seasons for only the second time in my entire life. Just be normal, and the Hornets will do the rest.