Friday night the Celtics lost a close game to the Jazz and it aggravated me as a fan and I was tempted to put poison and fire in my pen this morning. But sleeping gave me perspective - the Celtics lost a close game to a very good team on the road.

I was pleased with the Celtics' grit. Utah was hot starting the game and they stayed hot. The Jazz scored 38 points in the first quarter, 41 in the third and 37 in the fourth. They shot 53% from three point land. It seemed like every Jazz player was knocking down threes. With shooting like this, the Celtics should have been blown out. Some teams stop competing in games like this but the Celtics persisted. Good for them.

The Celtics kept working hard and eventually took a fourth quarter lead. They did this by turning over the Jazz 20 times. They did this by playing smart offense and pulling Gobert away from the rim. They outscored the Jazz by 10 in the second quarter. At first it was hard to let go of the failure to close the game. I believe the Celtics were up by 5 in the fourth at one point but Conley and Mitchell kept knocking down highly contested threes at the end to pull it out.

In the clear green light of the new day, I see a team that scored 130 points the hard way and they can build on that. The Jazz were HOT. They were like the Warriors when Curry and Thompson both have it going. So I'm going to congratulate the Jazz but tip my hat in respect to the Celtics. Better days are coming, this team is going to be good.