The Celtics got bogged down by 3 points in Colorado

THE Celtics delivered disappointing copy to Denver. For 48 minutes, Joe Mazzula’s men insisted on three-pointers without any aiming, as evidenced by this low 28% success rate (12/43) at the end. The only bright spot on a complicated evening: this nice pass by Derrick White in the second quarter, where he scored 18 points including four free throws to give Boston a one-point lead going into the locker room.

Except this heatstroke doesn’t last. Derrick White then misses all of his shots from distance in the third quarter, to finish the game with 20 points on 6/14 and 4/9 shooting from distance.

“I was taking the same shots but I missed them”, summarized by Derrick White. “I don’t know how many shots I took in the second half, but I missed them.”

If Denver did not shine even from a long distance (15/43), David Adelman’s men still had 11-0 at the end of the third quarter. A “run” during which the Nuggets took advantage of Boston’s clumsiness to string together baskets on the counter, like this dunk new recruit KJ Simpson.

The shots never came back…

“We missed our shots and they took advantage of those missed shots to score in transition.”analyzed by Derrick White. “We have to be better offensively, getting in some shots would help us a lot, and we have to come back better defensively.”

Trailing by ten points entering the fourth quarter, Jaylen Brown’s teammates didn’t change their plans and continued to rely on outside shots to try to get the score back. Then follows a seven-minute sequence where Boston takes eight shots from distance and manages only one…

“We had a lot of good shots, open catch and shoot, but we missed them”scout Jailen Brown. “It was a complicated night in shooting. Now we have to move on to the next game.”

For his part, Joe Macula continues to applaud the defensive work of Nikola Jokic’s gang: “You have to give Denver credit. They were very aggressive on the ball carrier. We executed poorly on offense and missed shots, but Denver did a great job defensively.”

This deadlock puts a full stop in Boston’s four-game winning streak. After a four-game trip to the West, the Celtics will return to TD Garden this Friday to challenge the Nets.