Celtics demolish Jazz in blowout

The Boston Celtics destroyed the Utah Jazz 125-97 tonight. Can I end the recap there? No? Okay, FINE.

At no point during the game was it competitive. The Celtics came into this one with the #1 defense in the league and the #3 offense and it’s hard to imagine this doesn’t put them #1 for both. You can see it on every possession on both ends of the floor. They swarm on on defense with physicality on every possession. At no point are they okay with the other team scoring. On offense it’s the same, they move the ball and are playing with supreme confidence. In the first half alone they shot 63% from three against the Jazz’s weak perimeter defense. The Jazz did up their effort in the second half holding the Celtics to just 52% from three for the game. For the game they had 37 assists, the Jazz had 13.

The score was closer than the game felt. This felt like one of the most demoralizing losses the Jazz have had all season. Is it because the Celtics are that dominant? Are the Jazz just pretenders? Is it both? It’s hard to gauge after getting taken apart in this way.

If there is a positive note from this game, it was Donovan Mitchell who somehow managed to score 37 points shooting 54% from the field.

Outside of Donovan Mitchell’s 37, what do you take from this? The Jazz’s defense has never looked more exposed. The Celtics looked like they were taking practice shots all night and at no point looked impacted in any way. On offense the Jazz shot 22.2 percent from three and had 13 assists. There was nothing that you could point to that went well. Some might blame Eric Paschall starting but a team that has Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert should do better than this.

After the game Mitchell mentioned that the Jazz never matched the Celtics’ energy and they deserved to lose.

At what point do we see this Jazz team bring the right energy? If not now, is it when the playoffs start? At this point it’s not clear if the wiring for this team will work when that switch gets flipped.