Celtics vs. Clippers takeaways: C’s blown out in L.A., 113-93

Celtics-Clippers takeaways: C’s face adversity for first time this season originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

For only the second time this season, the Boston Celtics have lost two consecutive games.

The C’s followed Saturday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors with another lackluster outing vs. the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night. They allowed a season-high 47 first-half points and never recovered as they were blown out by L.A., 113-93

Boston’s struggles from beyond the arc proved costly again as it shot just 9-for-39 (23.1 percent) on 3-pointers, including 1-for-11 in the third quarter. It was their worst 3-point shooting night of the season with their previous low being 27 percent. Though not quite as poor, it was reminiscent of last season when the Celtics infamously shot 4-for-42 on 3s against the Clippers.

Jaylen Brown tallied a team-high 21 points while Jayson Tatum scored a quiet 20 points. Malcolm Brogdon added 18 points off the bench.

Here are our takeaways from the Celtics’ loss, which brings them to 21-7 on the season. They’ll stay in L.A. for the final game of their road trip Tuesday night vs. the Lakers.

Paul George, Kawhi Leonard outduel The Jays

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been hailed lately as the NBA’s best duo, but Paul George and Kawhi Leonard issued a firm response to that statement on Monday night.

While both Clippers stars were banged up, they shook off their ailments to lead Los Angeles to an impressive victory. George notched a game-high 26 points with six rebounds while shooting 8-for-22 from the floor. Leonard (25 points) was a near-perfect 10-for-12 with nine rebounds and six assists.

Tatum’s stat line (20 points, 11 rebounds) doesn’t tell the whole story. The supposed frontrunner for NBA MVP looked off for the second consecutive night. After shooting 6-for-21 from the field and 2-for-9 from 3 against Golden State, he was just 7-for-20 on field goals and 2-of-8 from 3 against Los Angeles.

Story continues

Brown found himself in foul trouble early with three fouls in the second quarter. He made up for it with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting and was the Celtics’ best offensive player for the second consecutive game, but that isn’t saying much in what was another uncharacteristic performance for this group. Brown also had a rough free-throw shooting night as he was just 2-for-6 from the charity stripe.

The Celtics’ All-Star tandem will look to finish the road trip strong on Tuesday night.

Malcolm Brogdon, Grant Williams do their part

With the starters struggling, it was up to Boston’s bench to pick up the slack. Malcolm Brogdon and Grant Williams did all they could to keep the Celtics alive.

Brogdon started off hot and just like in Saturday’s defeat, he was a bright spot in a tough loss. The veteran point guard had 18 points (6-12 FG) and six assists in 31 minutes.

Williams has struggled offensively recently, but he did his best to keep the C’s in the mix during a brief third-quarter run. He stepped up to produce 14 points (4-7 FG) with four rebounds, two assists, and two steals in 29 minutes.

How will these C’s respond?

This Celtics team has been fortunate to not have had to deal with much adversity so far this season. Monday night’s defeat put them in unfamiliar territory as it marked only their second two-game skid to this point.

They went on a tear after their previous two-game losing skid, but these last two games felt different. Jayson Tatum showed flashes of his early-season struggles from last year and failed to come through against two worthy opponents in the Warriors and Clippers. The C’s offense as a whole has looked out of sorts, something we didn’t see through the first 26 games of the campaign.

Tatum talked about needing to respond following Saturday’s loss to Golden State.

“I think tonight was probably more meaningful to you guys (the media) than it was to us,” he said. “It’s one game. We want to win every game we play. It’s tough. You never want to lose. We’ve been playing well. … It’s not going to our dictate our season. It’s all about how we respond.”

So, how will Tatum and the C’s respond to taking their first punch of the 2022-23 season? They’ll look to make a statement in their final game of the road trip vs. the Lakers on Tuesday, then ride that momentum back to TD Garden where they’ll meet the Orlando Magic on Friday.