The NBA’s longest winning streak came to an end Monday night in Queen City, having gone six games.
With two minutes remaining, the Hornets mounted a comeback to end Boston’s six-game winning streak after the Celtics had blown a nine-point advantage.
The Boston Celtics continue to have the best record in the league at 11-3. However, they haven’t performed well in their previous few games. Against the Charlotte Hornets, they were ultimately burnt for it as they lost 121-118 in overtime.
NBA.com quotes Jayson Tatum as saying, “We’ve got to regroup,” following the defeat. “We’ve won six or seven games in a row, and it may be easy to get complacent, and we paid for it tonight.”
The four-time All-Star tied his career best for points scored in the first half of the game with 31 points in the first 24 minutes after exploding for 23 in the second quarter.
The former Duke Blue Devil appeared ready for another 50-point performance in Charlotte. He loves to put on a show when he gets back to North Carolina. But in the last 29 minutes, he scored just 14 points—a development as unexpected as his team’s loss.
Just 22 points were scored by the Celtics as a team in the third period and 21 in the fourth. Their field goal percentage was a chilly 34%, with 6/23 (26.1%) made from beyond the arc in the second half.
The home team scored 20 second-chance points, had a 24–9 lead in fast-break points, and forced 15 turnovers from the opposition. These three elements had a major role in determining Monday’s result.
“Getting back in transition, I kept getting back cut, we gave up some offensive rebounds, gave them second, third chance opportunities,” said Tatum.
The last thing Boston wanted was to lose in overtime at the end of a four-game road trip.
But they have to get back up quickly after a disastrous outing that included losing a nine-point lead, going scoreless in the final two minutes of regulation, and Jrue Holiday fouling out on a free throw attempt that would have given the Celtics a four-point advantage with 10.1 seconds remaining.
Maybe this defeat will enable them to forget about their recent bad performance and refocus going into Wednesday’s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks.
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