The Celtics held their own without injured star Jayson Tatum through the first month of the 2025/26 season and entered Friday’s game with an 8-7 record. However, hosting the lowly Nets, Boston experienced its most discouraging loss of the season, falling 113-105 to a Brooklyn club whose only two previous wins had come against Indiana and Washington.
As Jay King of The Athletic writes, star wing Jaylen Brown expressed frustration after the game with what he saw from his team, suggesting that Boston’s effort level wasn’t where it needed to be “for the majority of the game.”
“Come ready to play, or don’t play at all,” Brown said. “That’s my whole thing. We’ve gotta come ready to play. We just went through the motions today. Like, I don’t understand it. … Regardless if you’re making or missing shots, regardless of anything, we’ve just got to come out and play with great energy, great enthusiasm for the game. Like, want to win. It just didn’t seem like that was the case tonight.”
“… At the end of the day, we’ve all got a job to do,” Brown continued. “We’re all getting paid to do what we love to do. Come ready to play basketball, or you’re doing a disservice. So everybody’s got to come here and be ready to do their job and have great energy, enthusiasm and want to win. That’s what it’s about at the end of day: Celtic basketball.”
Besides losing Tatum to an Achilles tear that is expected to sideline him for most or all of the 2025/26 season, the Celtics traded away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis over the summer, so there’s less talent on the roster than there has been during the past couple years. As a result, the team can’t afford to take any nights off, head coach Joe Mazzulla told King and other reporters.
“I think it’s true of any basketball team, but I think the margin for error is smaller for certain teams,” Mazzulla said. “And the margin for error is smaller for us. We have to be the best. We have to be sharp physically and mentally every night. We’ve understood that that’s a strength of ours when we’re at our best, and we have to try to play at our best.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Just 24 hours after Paul George told Tony Jones of The Athletic that Tyrese Maxey is the “heart and soul” of the Sixers, the star guard submitted arguably the best performance of his career on Thursday in an overtime win over Milwaukee, with 54 points and nine assists, per Steve Megargee of The Associated Press. Maxey is now the league leader in minutes per game (40.7) and ranks second in scoring (33.4 PPG). “We’re asking him to do so much. We’re asking him to play a ton of minutes and he’s delivering,” George told Jones this week. “… This is similar to what Allen Iverson once did for the city. He’s our battery, and we’re witnessing one of them ones.”
- Joel Embiid still has some soreness in his right knee, but Sixers doctors have determined he’s making positive progress toward a return, tweets Jones. The 76ers also said that big man Adem Bona, who is out with a right ankle sprain, will miss at least two more games, Jones adds.
- Nets lottery pick Egor Demin was benched for the final 20 minutes of a loss to Boston on Tuesday, according to Dan Martin of The New York Post, who notes that the rookie guard was struggling defensively. However, Demin bounced back on Friday, hitting a big three-point shot in the fourth quarter to help Brooklyn secure an upset victory over the divisional rival Celtics, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “He played so hard, and that’s why he earned the right to be out there. And he showed composure,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said after Friday’s win.
- Darko Rajakovic won just 25 and 30 games in his first two years as the Raptors‘ head coach, but he’s making an early case for Coach of the Year consideration this fall, contends Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. While Brandon Ingram‘s arrival and a deeper bench have been difference-makers for the 11-5 Raptors, Rajakovic deserves kudos for integrating Ingram – one of the NBA’s premier isolation scorers – into his “free-flowing” system and getting the most out of that bench, Lewenberg says.
I know some people are going to disagree with me, but Jaylin Brown needs to start taking some of the blame for himself. Much of the time when he brings the ball into the front court, the offense goes stagnant. Celtics have point guards in Pritchard and Simmons. The offense runs much better when they bring the ball up. When players aren’t part of the offense, they often let down on defense. If Brown truly played as a team first player, the Celtics would have more than one title in the past 5 years. Had 8 turnovers in one game, and all the headlines read the Celts were led by Brown’s 27 points. Be a team leader or stop talking like one.
This is just a low effort reply regurgitating takes from the last 5 years.
The Celtics are 8-8 BECAUSE Brown has taken a step forward in the offense and filled the Tatum void.
Pritchard isn’t a Point Guard. He is a SG in a PG’s body. Simons is a likewise a rich man’s Jordan Clarkson / poor man’s Jordan Poole. Turn the offense over to those guys and the team will drop like a rock.
Hmm, Pritchard not a point guard? With all those minutes he plays with very few turnovers? And honored as the Bob Cousy best point guard in college? He just happens to shoot threes well. I would rather you had observed Derrick White would be better as a SG than a point guard.
I stopped reading when you said the offense runs much better when “Simmons” brings the ball up. For one thing, his name is Simons, and for another, it doesn’t.
Exactly. Brown is definitely not the problem with that team.
Demin is a disaster with absolutely no character or integrity.
A bit disappointed when I hear our star Jaylen Brown say such. The one play that stuck out to me, besides that awful ref 5th foul on Brown, was went Brown and Walsh didn’t rotate on an out of bounds play and Brooklyn got an easy layup. Walsh looked to the bench and it looked like Brown was just lazy.
What I saw in both Brooklyn games was uncoordinated Celtics defense. So many uncontested Brooklyn shots. I blame Coach for that. But, overall, I like how Coach is playing lots of young guys. Actually I wish he would play Hugo and Ron Harper. And give Baylor the ball as I think he’s a blossoming “Luka D” type. Go Celtics!
Oh, and I don’t blame Jaylen for playing a lot of one 0n one. We need that in addition to a passing offense.
Jaylen loves to criticize for a max player who can’t go left. Made silly fouls in the game. Thinks he is a PG too to often. He needs to look in the mirror as well.