5 takeaways as Jazz wins a duel against Jaylen Brown and the Celtics

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The Boston Celtics closed their long trip to the West Coast with a 122-108 loss to a Utah Jazz team that looks quite like a true contender.

Five takeaways as the Celtics can (finally) return their attention to their homes.

The Celtics looked tired and the Jazz looked better.

To be fair to the Celtics, road trips on the West Coast are grueling, and finishing a long against perhaps the best team in the league right now is a daunting task.

That said, the Jazz was just plain better, and probably would’ve been better even if the Celtics had opened their road trip to Salt Lake City. The ball went round and round, and even when the shots weren’t falling, the Utah attack created looks that seemed enduring. The Jazz defense, as expected, channeled Boston straight into Rudy Gobert, and the Boston shots around the rim were all an adventure with Gobert in the paint. Donovan Mitchell cleared the imbalances in the third quarter, helping the Jazz build a double-digit lead.

“You can’t make any mistakes against these guys,” Brad Stevens said. “They are exceptionally well oiled in attack. Just a special team to compete against, and when you make a mistake, they charge you. “

Jazz has it all – a young slashing superstar in Donovan Mitchell, good defense and a ton of shooting. Brad Stevens compared them to the 2014 San Antonio Spurs, and upon closer examination that statement contains water.

The Celtics’ defensive strategy was pretty solid.

At the start of the game, the Celtics made it clear that they were planning to change everything (except for a few zonal chunks). Sometimes the Jazz (almost entirely Mitchell) punished them, but the change helped move the Jazz away from the 3-point line for much of the game. The Jazz love to spin teams around by swinging the ball around the field, and Boston has tried to take that part out of their game.

Utah, which accumulated 74 points in the second half, is just a tough team to keep. Small breakdowns against a team with so much shooting and playing are magnified. In Tuesday’s hectic game, Utah’s offense had too much juice.

“They seem to be playing the best basketball right now,” Jayson Tatum said. “The guys over there are playing well, and they just click. They play really well together.

Daniel Theis is hot from the 3 point lineup.

In December, Theis shot 2 for 13 of three. Since then, he’s 21 for 36 deep – 58 percent – after shooting 5 on 6 against Utah. The Jazz were ready to give Theis three-point picks, and Theis made them pay off until he was excluded from the game in the fourth quarter.

Theis has always had the potential to be a good shot. Back in the days when reporters were allowed into the Celtics’ training facility, Theis could be seen splashing triples from far and wide with consistency. Obviously he won’t continue to shoot nearly 60 percent, but if Theis gets teams to stick to his reach, he adds a lot of value to the Boston Slashers.

Jaylen Brown did look very healthy.

Ahead of the game, Brad Stevens said Brown – who has served two straight games with a sore knee – was back at full power, and he watched the role on Tuesday: 33 points on a 12 for 20 shot. started the game with three consecutive trebles and kept the Celtics in the game when Utah threatened to retire. Having a few games off may have helped save his legs a bit as a long road trip came to an end.

Brown told reporters after the game he briefly struggled in the third quarter with his knee, but felt much better after dealing with pain for a few weeks.

Kemba Walker’s struggles continued.

At one point, noting Walker’s struggles over and over again is like taking it out on him, but his importance to this team cannot be overstated.

That’s why it’s so worrying for Boston that Walker just couldn’t find the lineup for much of that road trip, and he didn’t seem to have much of a split against Utah. Walker finished 2-for-12 on ground and 1-for-4 deep, posting just seven points. After Tuesday’s 1-for-8 performance inside the arc, it fell to 33.3% on 2 points.

We will continue to say it: there is still time. Brad Stevens still expresses his confidence in Walker. But the concerns are certainly real.

“We have to look for ways to do a better job as a staff to help it,” Stevens said. “Definitely we’ll continue, because he’s struggled to shoot the last two games, but he’s doing a lot of other things. He is part of us, if we want to be what we want to be. I really, really believe he’ll be that guy.