The Boston Celtics scored 143-points in their last game against the Miami Heat on Thursday, but the Celtics looked completely out of sync on Saturday night against the Clippers in Boston. The difference being that Kristaps Porzingis was ruled out with an ankle sprain, leaving his absence felt by the team.

As the first quarter progressed, Boston attempted a few opportunities above the rim with Al Horford and Luke Kornet, most of which were shutdown quickly. But it was the beginning signs of the Celtics trying to make anything work after a poor shooting performance to start, 26.9% shooting from the field and 16.7% from deep.

By halftime, the Celtics still hadn’t caught many baskets, shooting only 29.4% from the field and 17.4% from deep. Boston saw the third-biggest halftime deficit of their season at 55-39. At this point in the game, both Derrick White and Al Horford scored zero points on 10 combined shots.

The Celtics lost the margins across the board, shooting two less free throws (18-16), committing four more turnovers (7-11), and scoring 10 less second chance points (21-11). Not to mention six less rebounds (58-52), seven less assists (28-21), and 16 less points in the paint without Porzingis.

As I mentioned looking out of sync, Jayson Tatum said that the Celtics can’t be predictable and need to be able to adjust when playing against a good team and things aren’t going well. As a team, Boston finished the game shooting 36% from the field and 25% from deep.

“I just think we can’t be predictable. You have to be decisive and try to manipulate the defense. They have schemes, they’re well coached, they got good players over there, so you got to throw counter punches at them and make adjustments throughout the game.”

Jayson Tatum postgame interview, via CLNS Media

The Celtics didn’t do anything different until the end of the game when Joe Mazzulla released his bench into the game and they actually played better than the starters. I thought midway through the first quarter that this would be a great matchup for Neemias Queta and would allow the Celtics to play above the rim, unlocking a different feature into this game.

Tatum was asked how the team needs to adjust when Porzingis isn’t playing:

“Obviously we play a little different when he’s not out there, but we still have answers and feel like we have enough to win. We still have to have a certain identity on how we want to play and how we want to attack. But tonight, we just didn’t shoot the ball nearly as well as we’d like to.”

Jayson Tatum postgame interview, via CLNS Media

This was just an all around terrible shooting performance from the Celtics, or a “good old-fashioned ass whooping” as Jrue Holiday said after the game.

The Celtics play again on Monday when they host the New Orleans Pelicans.

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Photo Credit: Michael Dwyer, AP Photo