The Boston Celtics thought they were peachy early in their 2026-27 NBA season. Then, they got slapped with a rough 109-93 loss to the Houston Rockets. Much of their identity on both ends of the floor collapsed. Everyone on Coach Joe Mazzulla’s squad scored under 20 points, including Jayson Tatum. The Celtics’ head coach admitted they made a schematic blunder after seeing the collapse. It all comes down to how they use Mitchell Robinson.
Mazzulla names Celtics’ schematic blunder that revolves around Robinson
The Celtics were all but ready to face the league-leading Rockets. They were on a five-game winning streak entering this game, then everything fell apart. Jayson Tatum willed Coach Joe Mazzulla’s squad to a first-quarter 29-point tie. Afterward, the Celtics just lagged in every aspect of the game.
The Celtics did win the rebounding battle, with 38 total boards to the Rockets’ 36. However, Coach Mazzulla noted this was the one aspect the Celtics needed to improve. It wasn’t that Jayson Tatum and Co. all scored under 20 points; the focus is on fixing their rebounding woes. He further explained the problem on the boards by emphasizing that the Celtics weren’t using Mitchell Robinson properly, via Jay King of The Athletic.
“I would say for his (Mitchell Robinson) offensive rebounding impact, we have him a little bit further away from the rim, setting screens and playmaking for us on the perimeter as part of our offense. I think that has a little bit to do with it,” the Celtics head coach declared.
Robinson is averaging only 1.8 offensive rebounds and 4.5 boards in total. That’s far from his previous season’s average of 8.8 total rebounds and 4.2 offensive rebounds. His ORB% also dropped from a career-high 23.9% to 10.6% over the past few games.
The Celtics still have an ORB% of 28.9% as a team, which is 11th in the NBA. However, their defensive rebounding has them sunk to 69%, which is 27th in the league.
Sure, Tatum and the Celtics need to score more. However, rebounding remains their biggest woe. Robinson was acquired for this specific reason, but he hasn’t been much help so far. Can Coach Mazzulla conjure up schemes to patch all of these problems after getting exposed by the Rockets?
