The Whiteboard: Celtics going cold in the clutch

After dropping a game to the Denver Nuggets last night, 115-109, the Boston Celtics have logged back-to-back losses for just the second team this season. The last time it happened was in early November, the sixth and seventh game of the season — an overtime road loss to the Timberwolves and then a road loss to the 76ers.

There's no real reason to panic — these last two losses were by a combined seven points and two two of the best teams in the league. But they also revealed some cracks in their clutch offense.

The Celtics offense went cold in the clutch

In seven minutes of clutch time against the Cavs and Nuggets, the Celtics managed just 10 points, shooting 4-of-12 from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc. Obviously, seven minutes is an extremely small sample and if even one or two of those missed 3-pointers had gone down things would look different.

But, there is a lot of variance in their clutch offense. Across the entire season, 46.2 percent of their clutch field goal attempts have been 3-pointers, the fifth-highest mark in the league and about the same as the league-leading 46.9 3-point attempt percentage they average across all minutes. For the most part, their clutch offense generates similar outcomes to their season-long offense and while lots of 3s may be a recipe for efficiency across an entire season it can lead to far different outcomes across a handful of possessions and a handful of minutes.

Jayson Tatum missed one of those clutch 3-pointers, a wide-open attempt from the corner that would have given the Celtics the lead with 45 seconds left. He's now shooting 31.9 percent on the season in the clutch and just 5-of-16 on 3s. For his entire career, he's hit just 32.9 percent of his shots to tie or take the lead in the final possession of the fourth quarter or overtime, including 4-of-26 from beyond the arc.

Of course, it's possible that none of this matters. The Celtics have the best point differential in the league by a wide margin. Across the entire season, their clutch offense has been very good and they've been generally winning clutch minutes because of elite defense. But just because they're clearly the best team in the league doesn't mean they aren't vulnerable to bad luck and cold shooting from their stars in the close games they'll need to win if they're going to win a title.

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The Timberwolves are on a roller coaster

The Timberwolves have had a wild 48 hours. Yesterday, news broke that Karl-Anthony Towns had suffered a meniscus injury with an undetermined timeline for his return, casting a long shadow over what has been one of the most successful seasons in franchise history.

Last evening, Anthony Edwards delivered one of the most dramatic highlights of recent memory skying for a block on a potential game-winning layup on the Pacers' final possession. He was high enough that he hit both his head and his shoulder on the backboard but the cost of that highlight was a hard fall that had him complaining about a sore wrist after the game was over.

Then, this morning, news broke that Towns would undergo knee surgery and would be re-evaluated in a month — avoiding a worst-case scenario but definitely not the best-case scenario for the Wolves either.

READ MORE:

• Wolves' Karl-Anthony Towns to have surgery on torn meniscus by Adrian Wojnarowski, for ESPN
• Anthony Edwards’ awe-inspiring block rescues Timberwolves: ‘I never jumped that high in my life’ by Jon Krawczynski, for The Athletic
• The Wolves Must Evolve Without Karl-Anthony Towns by Seerat Sohi, for The Ringer

The Big Three: Kyle Delaney on first-time champions, the Pistons 4 and Zion dunking

Kyle Delaney joined our FanSided NBA team in June and has brought wit, humor and panache to important stories like Jimmy Butler's country album, Russell Westbrook's self-awareness and the athletic benefits of darkness retreats.

Kyle joins us today to talk about which team he'd like to see win their first championship, who the Detroit Pistons need, and whether or not Zion Williamson can save the dunk contest. You can read more of his work here.

1. Which team would you most like to see win their first title in franchise history this season — Clippers, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Magic, Suns?

I think watching Anthony Edwards battle his way out of the West to win his first NBA championship would make for extremely entertaining television. Let's face it, that team is fun to watch. When they're both healthy, that interior duo of Gobert and Towns is a tough matchup for any team. The timing of Karl Anthony Town's injury is unfortunate.

However, even if KAT misses the rest of the season, Naz Reid is a reliable enough backup to the point where he should at least minimize Karl's absence. As talented as KAT is though, the T-wolves go where Anthony Edwards goes. Keep in mind, Anthony Edwards doesn't lack confidence and Towns' absence should only give Edwards more motivation to succeed. Ant's latest stat line without KAT confirms this, as he scored 44 points, matching his season high. I'm also curious how the West would react if the Timberwolves won.

Maybe this would cause a snowball effect that spawns the next superteam. Maybe that's the first step towards manifesting the LeBron-Curry duo that was teased earlier this season?

2. Jalen Duren, _________, Ausar Thompson, Jaden Ivey, Cade Cunningham — who is the fifth wheel to this young core that can help the Pistons turn it around next season?

Taj Gibson. Next question. Just kidding! (What on Earth are we doing?) Even though I'd love to see someone like, I don't know, Lauri Markannen join this Detroit team, we must be realistic. I'll spare you the 'why Dean Wade is destined to be a Detroit Piston' pitch. (Dean, if you're reading this, please.)

Truth be told, maybe the most suitable option is already here, because I love what I'm seeing from Simone Fontecchio so far. Simone has averaged 15.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in his first 10 games with Detroit. He's also shooting 41.5 percent from beyond the arc. I think he could be a sort of mustard-hiding-in-the-fridge type of player on that Detroit roster. He had 22 points in the Pistons' 118-110 loss against the Miami Heat and is a major reason why that game wasn't completely one-sided.

3. Zion Williamson  if he makes the All-Star team next year. Assuming this happens — more likely that this is a transcendent success that saves the Dunk Contest (for a few years), or an epic failure that ends it for good?

I'm willing to lean on the optimistic side here and say Zion participating in the Dunk Contest is a recipe for success. In my opinion, people want to watch the Dunk Contest. The problem is that it lacks excitement and explosiveness. As talented as Mac McClung is, there isn't much re-watchability there, it's kind of like rewatching the same action movie over and over again. You can only watch Tom Cruise motorcycle off a cliff a certain number of times before it becomes less exciting and more the norm.

Put Zion Williamson on an empty court and see if that's still the case. Again, we're talking about someone who polarized the basketball world with his high-school mixtape dunks. He's only gotten more athletic since then. Feel like we're due for that reminder. Plus, the second he pulls out that Spartanburg Day School jersey from high school, it's an automatic 50.

Recommended Reading:

1. Bang!: "Breen and Frazier have witnessed, called, or been a direct part of the Knicks’ greatest triumphs and worst heartbreaks since the Garden was Eden in the ’70s. They were the newly appointed voices of the team when Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell propelled it to the 1999 Finals. They narrated everything from Jamal Crawford’s killer crossovers to the rise of S.T.A.T. and Melo to those two sensational weeks of Linsanity. They leaned on each other through difficult broadcasts, like the game after Clyde’s former teammate and Knicks legend Willis Reed passed away last year, or the one that followed the loss of Kobe Bryant in 2020. And, of course, the duo has been on the call for the Knicks’ steady ascension over the past few seasons." The Timeless Two-Man Game of Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier

2. The Spurs are on the rise: "There has been a lot of talk over the past two weeks about Wembanyama's restlessness at the bottom of the standings. That sounds threatening to the Spurs, but it shouldn't. It's an opportunity. The Spurs know how good Wembanyama is. They will pick toward the top of the lottery this season, and maybe never again in the Wembanyama era. That is how it goes for generational superstars: They are so good, so fast, you ascend on their timetable.." Lowe: Boston's trump card, the Wemby era and why the Wolves can't win without KAT

3. Basketball, a force for good: "Violence fomented by what one report identified as “community-based militias” and “civil-defense groups” is commonplace. Refugees continue to flood the country, in the face of ongoing conflict within Sudan’s borders. Food security is an enormous concern. And violence against foreigners (including aid workers) is such that the U.S. State Department advises against Americans traveling there.

Given that backdrop, hoops would figure to be nothing more than an afterthought. And certainly there is sizable evidence of that, not the least of which is that this nation of 11 million people has exactly one indoor court, built in 2019.

Yet Royal Ivey, the former NBA guard and current Houston Rockets assistant tasked with coaching South Sudan’s national team, believes the sport can make a difference, even in a place like that. Somehow Ivey, whose 10-year playing career included two stints with the Sixers, has led his squad to a berth in the Olympics, which will be staged this summer in Paris." Former Sixer Royal Ivey’s South Sudan team ‘a beam of light’ for a young nation in turmoil