The Celtics tripped and dropped their nine-game winning streak despite taking a 30-point lead in the first half against the Hawks on Monday, falling 120-118.
Here are the takeaways.
1. A lot of Celtics fans are going to be upset about that loss (which was the Celtics’ biggest blown lead since 1996). A lot of Celtics fans are going to try to write that loss off as nothing. A lot of NBA fans are going to want to make jokes at the Celtics’ expense.
So we’ll try to be as measured as possible in this space, partly out of respect for Joe Mazzulla’s comments earlier this year in which he (quite fairly, in our estimation) called reporters and fans out for saying the Celtics should be “embarrassed.