On Friday in Boston, the Celtics went into the fourth quarter against the Sacramento Kings with the game tied at 76-points, as the visitors went on to score 38-points in the final quarter, outscoring the Celtics by 17.

The Celtics struggled shooting from behind the arc, finishing 11-of-41 (26.8%). They were also outshot by Sacramento by 18, as uncommon as it is for Boston to be on the negative end of a shooting variance.

In the fourth quarter, the Celtics went 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 from behind the arc. They finished the quarter scoring only 21-points and had four rebounds and four assists.

On poor shooting nights, the team’s effort is put into question, as it’s been a common theme of low effort and energy when the three-ball isn’t falling. It tends to put too much pressure on the defense when the offense is inefficient, as head coach Joe Mazzulla explained during his postgame press conference:

“It’s not a long-term effort thing, but in the short term, yeah, I think our inefficient offense put pressure on our defense, and they were able to take advantage of that with effort plays, whether it was offensive rebounding, open threes. You’re coming down missing them and they’re coming down making them, it’s going to take a toll on you.”

Domantas Sabonis put a toll on the Celtics on his own. He finished the game with 23-points and 28 rebounds, joining only Moses Malone as the only players with a stat line like this against the Celtics.

Sabonis took the air out of the TD Garden in the fourth quarter. The Kings reeled in an offensive rebound that led to a wide open 3-pointer from Sabonis, which then led to the TD Garden crowd to boo the Celtics off their own court three-minutes into the quarter.

The Celtics cannot allow themselves to play poor defense when they’re not making shots on the other end and thats what happened at the Garden on Friday, as Boston is now 13-7 at home this season.

Immediately after the game with NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin, Mazzulla explained what happened in the second half, specifically in the fourth quarter, for the Kings to pull this game away.

“It was a tied game at halftime, tied game at the end of the third. I thought we had some empty offensive possessions that put pressure on our defense. They were able to make open shots, they were able to get extra possessions on their offensive end. So I thought our offense, so I thought our rebounding put us in a tough spot to win the game.”

Boston’s next game is in Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans at 6:00 PM at the TD Garden.

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Photo Credit: G Fiume, Getty Images