The Celtics are sleepwalking after a blowout defeat against the Knicks: 8 takeaways

The Celtics continued to advance to the regular season finish line on Thursday, losing 118-109 to the Knicks in a less than impressive performance on TNT.

Here are the points to remember.

1. There are three reasons to have strong opinions about the outcome of Thursday’s game, if you’re a Celtics fan.

• You paid real money to attend and were disappointed to see your favorite players perform the moves without passion (even the Celtics thought the boos were fair).
• You chat a lot with people on Twitter.
• You are employed by the Celtics and are part of the team’s Stay Ready team.

The regular season is almost over. We promise.

When this ends happily, the Celtics will have to start worrying about it again. They will no longer be able to experiment. They will have to try. Every loss will be In fact be a source of concern. Every victory will count. We won’t need to do the “Well, remember they have the best record in the NBA locked in” dance every other night. We won’t need to talk about the Denver Nuggets sleepwalking through the end of their regular season last year.

In the meantime, games like Thursday are pretty straightforward. The Celtics have 62 wins and no reason to play as hard as they can. The Knicks still have an outside chance at the No. 2 seed, and they fend off several teams vying for the No. 3 seed. The Knicks are a very good team that could challenge the Celtics in the East (OG Anunoby is perfectly built to upset the Celtics’ best players), but much like Tuesday’s loss, Thursday’s contest had more to do with standings than with talent.

“I didn’t like the effort level in the first half, but… I think it’s just a tough situation,” Joe Mazzulla said afterward. “I think our guys handled it the best they could. Our last two games were against two very, very desperate teams, and as much as we want to be able to simulate that, that’s just not the position we’re in.

“But actually the result of the last two games doesn’t bother me, because I think it’s important. Coming in with a bunch of wins and feeling good about yourself is no better than having bloody lips because of a game. So they did their best during that stretch, whatever it was, a week and a half, but no, I didn’t like it in the first half.

2. For their part, the players seem confident they will be ready when the playoffs begin.

“We definitely need to nip this in the bud now,” Jaylen Brown said. “We do not allow this. It’s different if you win or lose X’s and O’s or whatever, but teams just got 20 more shots on the glass, and it bounces back. I only had one rebound tonight. We just have to bounce back. We have to play physical, stronger, and we have to get the job done. We just need to nip this in the bud.

Tatum noted that the Celtics have lost two in a row, but that doesn’t define them.

“We’ve had a great season so far and a great job managing the season,” he said. “You play 82 games, we had three bad days. But overall, the best record in the championship, with 15 games ahead of second place. We’re not perfect, but, you know, we can learn from it and it’s a tough position. But we asked for it, so, you know, we have to be better.

Kristaps Porzingis understands fans’ frustration.

“Maybe we’ll get our ass kicked one more time to start the show, who knows?” he said. “And then it’s a wake-up call for us. But most likely, if I have to bet, we will perform at the level we need to. But it’s our fault. It’s our fault and like I said, I don’t think it’s… Yeah, I don’t think it’s a habit for us.

3. The Celtics didn’t have a single player in the top 20 in scoring. Tatum had a team-high 18 on 5-of-13 shooting, but he and Brown combined for an ice-cold 2-of-12 from 3-point range. In the second and third quarters combined, the Celtics finished 3 of 20 from behind the arc while the Knicks finished 11 of 26 (42.3 percent), so if you were wondering when the game was away from the Celtics was when the Knicks made eight more 3-pointers in 24 minutes.

4. Jalen Brunson scored 43 and 45 points on consecutive nights before playing the Celtics, and he was fouled in the final seconds of the third quarter with 38 points, giving him a real opportunity to score 40 again. Instead, he went 1-for-2 at the free throw line and couldn’t extend his streak to three.

Brunson is having a special season.

5. The Knicks dominated the Celtics on the offensive glass, especially in the first half, and outscored them 22-12 in second-chance points. As Mazzulla noted, doubling Brunson is problematic against the Knicks because it keeps a rebounder away from the rim.

“It’s a struggle,” Brown said. “I just have to have the mentality: ‘If I don’t want to get the ball, he’s not going to get it.’ It’s a choice. We kind of like to expect the ball to bounce in our direction. Other teams jump over our backs and we just watch. We need to be better at this. I think that’s the mentality and we’re going to limit that.

6. Before the match, Derrick White received the Red Auerbach Award, given to the player who “best exemplifies what it means to be a Celtic.” White received the award for “demonstrating passion, determination and leadership” this year.

Afterward, a reporter asked Mazzulla if there was a White moment this year that stands out.

“He represents everything it means to be a Celtic and a great teammate,” Mazzulla said. “So I mean, no, there’s not one room. There are probably a thousand plays. A thousand things he does in training or in the locker room or off the field that lead to this. There aren’t many people more deserving than him.

7. The Celtics’ bench unit actually made the Knicks sweat briefly in the final minutes, flying around the court and playing with gusto to cut a lead that stretched as high as 31 to nine. Led by Sam Hauser and Payon Pritchard (respectively 12 and 10 points in the final quarter), the bench unit dominated the Knicks 38-18 in the final 12 minutes.

8. The Celtics face the Hornets on Friday before closing out the regular season against the Wizards on Sunday.