You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the Boston Celtics played respectable levels of defense against a player who finished with 28 points on 11-of-21 shooting. In a game where they blew a second half lead as high as 24 to wind up losers to the New Orleans Pelicans 120-115, you probably wouldn’t even care.
But in what was perhaps Boston’s worse loss of the season, silver linings are the only thing worth focusing on. And for a defense whose proficiency has fluctuated across the first 30 games of the season, efforts like these against one of the game’s hottest players are what you try and build off of moving forward.