The Celtics stalled out in the final game of their Western Conference road trip, losing to the Denver Nuggets 103-84 on Wednesday night.
The ugly loss featured Boston’s worst shooting performance of the season, as Joe Mazzulla’s club converted just 34.9% of its field-goal attempts and 27.9% of its 3-pointers.
It was the first time a Celtics team shot worse than 35% in a game since December 2022.
Jaylen Brown, who returned after sitting out Tuesday’s win in Phoenix with a knee contusion, led the Celtics with 23 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, but he went just 7-for-21 and 1-for-6 from deep. Derrick White scored 18 in the second quarter, but his only other points were two fourth-quarter free throws. He and Brown combined for seven of the Celtics’ 14 turnovers.
Needing a spark in their third game in three states in four nights, the Celtics did not get one from their bench, which combined to score just five points before garbage time (plus another 12 after Mazzulla lifted his starters with more than five minutes remaining). Together, top reserves Payton Pritchard and Nikola Vucevic went 2-for-13 from the field and 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic also was inefficient as a shooter for Denver (11-for-28; 4-for-13 from three) but finished with 30 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
The Nuggets were missing injured starters Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson and played most of the night without point guard Jamal Murray, who exited with an illness during the first quarter and did not return. They broke the game open with a 15-0 run in the late third and early fourth quarters.
Boston, which cruised through the first three games of its West Coast swing, dispatching the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Suns by an average of 16.3 points, will return home Friday night to host the Brooklyn Nets. They’ll play four of their next five games at TD Garden — with the possibility of a Jayson Tatum return looming over that stretch.
The Celtics held Jokic to 4-of-11 shooting in the first quarter — with one of his makes coming on a tip-your-cap one-footed 3-pointer from the corner — but gifted Denver a handful of extra possessions through turnovers and offensive rebounds. Still, Boston led 24-21 after one, with Brown providing 12 of those points despite what he seemingly viewed as several uncalled fouls.
Neemias Queta made all three of his field goals in the opening quarter, including a nice turnaround hook shot over Jokic and a last-second alley-oop from Pritchard, whose penchant for buzzer-beaters likely drew Denver’s attention away from the lurking big man. Queta also shared the court with Vucevic for multiple stretches — the first time Mazzulla had deployed his top two centers together since Vucevic’s arrival in early February.
A 7-0 run gave Boston an eight-point lead early in the second. But Denver erased that during an ugly stretch that featured a couple of ill-advised Jordan Walsh shooting fouls and seven Nuggets offensive boards, all in a span of less than four minutes.
The Celtics’ bench totaled three points (by Pritchard) in the first half, with Vucevic, Hugo Gonzalez and Ron Harper Jr. going a combined 0-for-9 from beyond the arc. It was the second straight subpar shooting night for Pritchard, who also went 2-for-13 against the Suns on Tuesday after scoring 20-plus in six of his previous seven games.
And yet, Boston entered halftime with a 48-47 lead, thanks largely to a terrific second quarter by White. The veteran guard scored 18 of his team’s 24 points in the period, including four 3-pointers.
The game remained tight for much of the third quarter, which featured nine lead changes and two ties. But the Celtics shot just 28% from the field in the quarter — with Vucevic, especially, continuing to scuffle — and the Nuggets eventually found a groove offensively.
Veteran reserve Tim Hardaway Jr. spun past White for a go-ahead layup, then fed a cutting Cameron Johnson for two on the ensuing possession. Those sparked an 11-0 Denver run to close the quarter, during which Boston missed two layups and was outpaced in transition.
Jokic scored 15 points in the third quarter. He subbed out to start the fourth, giving the Celtics a chance to capitalize against a Nuggets team whose efficiency plummets when its best player sits. But Boston promptly surrendered back-to-back baskets to Jokic’s backup, Jonas Valanciunas, that put Denver up 81-67.
The Nuggets led by double digits the rest of the way. Mazzulla waved the white flag just past the midway point of the fourth quarter, sending in deep reserves Luka Garza and Dalano Banton to close out the game.
The loss dropped the Celtics to 38-20, preventing them from clearing a benchmark all but three NBA champions since 1980 have cleared. The rest all won at least 40 games before their 20th defeat.
Boston maintained its grip on second place in the Eastern Conference, however, leading the New York Knicks by 1 1/2 games and the Cleveland Cavaliers by two.
