The Writing Was on the Wall: Celtics’ Loss to 76ers was a Long Time Coming

I try not to worry about the inexplicable.

Things happen that we just can’t predict, and I don’t judge life based on slip ups. I used to freak out about random Boston Celtics losses where they looked flat and uninspired, worrying that this team may not have what it takes to win a title. But after… they did that, I traded in my Celtics fatalism for a clinical dose of mercy, excusing inexplicable losses to the Trae Young-less Atlanta Hawks, or Paolo Banchero-and-Franz Wagner-less Orlando Magic. I tried to be better, be nicer and less of a grumpy bugger. For the most part, it’s been a good thing.

But the Celtics’ Christmas Day loss to the Philadelphia 76ers wasn’t inexplicable. It was so explicable, in fact, that I’m going to explicate it right now: the Celtics ran out of options.

First, they lost Sam Hauser around December 6, having scored zero points in three of the Celtics’ last four; second, they lost Jrue Holiday before the game to the injury report; third, they lost Kristaps Porzingis to a first-half injury; fourth, they lost Derrick White to looking discombobulated out there; fifth, they lost Payton Pritchard to being discombobulated out there.

That left Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown — who himself had a poor first half — and Al Horford to hold down TD Garden against one of the first healthy 76ers games all season, and against Caleb Martin’s one-night encore performance as himself in the 2022 hit sitcom “Caleb Martin Destroys Boston.” There. Consider the loss thoroughly explicated.

Weren’t we supposed to be better than that? Wasn’t this team constructed so far above the second apron because we couldn’t run out of options? The security blankets are everywhere, and even Caleb Martin — who killed the former iteration of the Celtics — wasn’t supposed to be able to rip through all of them. I’m not confused about what went wrong, but I’m confused about how on earth it did.

The Celtics’ main strength is their depth and their pointed lack of heliocentric basketball. By not relying on any single player to carry the team on either end, they are supposed to be insulated against any one creator having an off night. And they could always respond to any cold streak with stifling defense, which for years has kept them in games they might have lost an hour earlier.

But Christmas saw the Celtics struggle initially, which happens plenty, but then fail to craft a coherent response. They were confused, floundering and complaining; Payton Pritchard has followed up taking a stranglehold on the Sixth Man of the Year award by three-straight single digit scoring performances. When he isn’t scoring, he’s out there getting hunted by Tyrese Maxey and getting lost on the game-clinching switch that sent the Celtics packing.

Without Holiday, Pritchard needs to play big and quality minutes, but he couldn’t stay out there. Horford filled in valiantly, but he’s not the volume scorer the Celtics needed. Derrick White may have salvaged his box score with strong closing minutes, and was a big reason the Celtics only lost by four rather than 12. But he was offensively cooked most of the night, and after we all coronated him the Celtics’ third star, that’s concerning.

But all of this makes sense. Pritchard and White’s struggles mixed with Porzingis’ injury left the Celtics short-staffed and facing the best version of their opponent. But how did this all happen at once. Are the Celtics unlucky? Unprepared? Discovering new ways to fail hitherto never before seen on the parquet? The Celtics team I knew earlier this season doesn’t lose like this, so I’m worried something is seriously wrong.

The Celtics are a basketball team. But these Celtics are an institution, bigger and better than your average team that explicably struggles in a big game against generational rivals on Christmas Day. This season has lacked the signature performances in big spots befitting of that institution, and the Celtics must prove they aren’t just “too big to fail” and are actually the best. Losing to Philly may have made sense, but they’re better than the 76ers. And they’re better than that.