BOSTON -- There's no sugarcoating it: Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers marked one of the Boston Celtics' worst performances of the 2023-24 season.
The C's followed their dominant Game 1 win with a deflating 118-94 defeat in front of their home crowd. They shot an uncharacteristic 41.3 percent from the floor and 22.9 percent from 3-point range while allowing the Cavs to make 54.7 percent of their shots -- 46.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Unsurprisingly, that didn't sit well with Celtics star Jaylen Brown.
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"I think it was just a bad game," Brown said when asked whether Boston's struggles were due to a lack of execution or effort. "Obviously, we didn't shoot the ball well tonight, but defensively it was an unacceptable performance. I think that's where we look at that and I'm the most upset. Defensively, we gave up 118 points and on top of that, we lost the rebound battle. So we didn't help ourselves tonight."
Cleveland scored 60 points in the paint, including 22 of its 30 first-quarter points. Later, the Cavs caught fire from 3-point range while Boston went ice-cold, going 7-of-10 from deep in the third quarter as the C's missed all eight of their attempts.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said in his postgame press conference that the defensive woes were a byproduct of the team's offensive struggles. Brown agreed, again using the "U" word to describe how the team performed on both ends of the floor.
"Overall, maybe we missed some shots and we let that translate. It's the playoffs, that can't happen," Brown said. "I don't care if you're missing shots, you gotta guard the guy on the other end. That allows you to miss more shots if you're playing defense but you can't miss shots and then allow them to make shots on the other end. That was unacceptable."
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The Celtics' 22.9 3-point shooting percentage marked their lowest since Feb. 27 vs. the Philadelphia 76ers when they were just 22.7 percent from deep -- their worst 3-point shooting performance of the season. Those misses allowed Cleveland -- particularly Donovan Mitchell (29 points, 10-19 FG) -- to wreak havoc in transition.
Boston hopes to bounce back like it did after dropping Game 2 of its first-round series vs. Miami. (The Celtics won Game 3 by 20 points and went on to win the series in five games.) Brown looks forward to making up for the "unacceptable" effort.
"You learn from it, take it on the chin, and you come out and put your best foot forward for the next game," he said. "Obviously, this was an unacceptable performance. We need to be ready to respond."
Game 3 in Cleveland is set for an 8:30 p.m. ET opening tip on Saturday. Coverage begins with Celtics Pregame Live at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Boston.