Celtics’ showdown with Nuggets will test the ‘good loss’ theory originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Is there such thing as a good loss?
No loss feels good in the moment. Especially not when you fumble away a 22-point, fourth-quarter lead and watch your superstar lollygag his way into a back-iron fadeaway like the Celtics did in a one-point loss on Tuesday night in Cleveland.
So when Kristaps Porzingis, bless his unfailingly positive heart, suggested in the aftermath that a little adversity might have been good for these previously steamrolling Celtics, we can’t help but scrunch our face.
But Porzingis’ positive spin after Tuesday’s loss in Cleveland did jog our memory back to this team’s last “good loss.” Both coach Joe Mazzulla and his players came away from a narrow January loss against the Nuggets feeling suspiciously encouraged.
If Tuesday night’s debacle in Cleveland forces the Celtics to address lingering final-shot clunkiness, and serves as a firm reminder for the necessary defensive energy required over the course of 48 minutes against a playoff-caliber opponent, then maybe some good can come out of a maddening finish.
A lot of good has undeniably come since that Denver defeat. Boston is an NBA-best 16-3 since that game. The three losses were 1) A rare clunker against the Clippers, 2) A complete dud against the star-less Lakers, and 3) The fourth-quarter disaster in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
Since that loss to Denver on January 19, Boston owns the best net rating in the NBA at +14.8, which is 6.6 points better than the next closest team (Minnesota, +8.2) and more than double the next best team in the Eastern Conference (Cavaliers, +6.7).
Boston’s offensive rating since that game is 124.2 — best in the NBA by five full points — and their defensive rating is 109.4, trailing only the season-leading Timberwolves in that category.
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Maybe, just maybe, Porzingis was right when he offered optimism after that Denver loss, that notably ended with another less-than-ideal miss by Jayson Tatum at the buzzer.
“Even though we lost, it’s a great game for us,” Porzingis said in January. “There are many things I think that…