Joe Mazzulla shares message for Celtics after embarrassing loss

Collapsing like a game of cards to the Toronto Raptors perfectly encapsulated everything that has been wrong with the Boston Celtics of late.

Toronto, a team better suited to retire Cooper Flagg than clinch a playoff berth, pulled the rug out from under Boston on Wednesday night. The reigning champions were at full health and arrived at Scotiabank Arena as the seventh-worst 3-point shooting team — at 32.8% — in the league since the start of 2025, and even that wasn’t enough of a wake-up call.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for one season low 26 pointsas a duo, on 9-of-31 shooting from the field en route to a 110-97 defeat.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla sent a message to the Boston locker room in Toronto amid a 7-7 slump in the team’s last 14 games.

“Just stick together,” Mazzulla told reporters, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “Obviously, we’re not playing our best basketball. You can’t expect things to always be easy. You can’t have an expectation that it’s always going to go your way, because it’s not. We’ve just got to find a way to enjoy the challenge, but make sure we do it together. … You just have to enjoy the challenge of going through it. It’s a big test of what the NBA season has to offer, so we just have to find the joy in it .”

Boston less than four weeks ago bullied the same Toronto team during their New Year’s Eve meeting at TD Garden, issuing a 125-71 loss that marked the worst ever in Raptors franchise history. This time, Toronto’s revenge overpowered, overachieved and overwhelmed the Celtics in the middle of a safe game.

Once the Raptors discovered the formula for punishment — inside scoring — the uphill climb was an avalanche effort from the C’s. Boston’s defense allowed Toronto to shoot 73.7%% from the floor in the third quarter and cement the game-setting run to exploit the Celtics and their ongoing issues – scoring, intensity and adjustments.

Mazzulla ultimately succumbed with 1:22 left in the fourth quarter and made a five-man substitution to empty the bench.

“We just weren’t good on either end of the floor,” Mazzulla said.

Payton Pritchard’s 20 points off the bench and Tatum’s near triple-double (16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists) were the few rays of hope that kept the Celtics in contention for a win. Tatum’s lackluster 5-for-15 performance from the field didn’t get in the way of the five-time All-Star’s involvement in every other area, but it was far from enough to clean up the bigger mess.

Derrick White’s All-Star candidacy collapsed — White is shooting 22% from three over his last five games — combined with the team’s defensive struggles against the pick-and-roll with mobile big men making the C’s pay the price . That price was too high for Mazzulla’s clipboard, Tatum’s toughness and Boston’s willingness to play catch-up.

Toronto snapped its 10-game losing streak when they faced the Celtics, moving them to 28-12 on the campaign after their 21-5 start.

Until Boston puts its foot down firmly, teams across the league will continue to poke at their vulnerabilities and exploit the defending champions in ways that will call into question whether or not the championship hangover is in play.