Eddie House identifies ‘little red flag’ for Celtics early in season originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

When you’re the reigning NBA champion, you hold yourself to a higher standard. So while the Boston Celtics own the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 9-3, there is still room for improvement.

That much became clear Tuesday night, when the Atlanta Hawks handed the Celtics a stunning 117-116 loss at TD Garden in their first game of NBA Cup group play.

How could a Hawks team missing three of its starters (including Trae Young) upset Boston as a 16.5-point underdog? First, the Celtics committed a whopping 20 turnovers, leading to 19 Atlanta points. But the C’s also dominated on the glass and in the paint; the Hawks grabbed 20 offensive rebounds to Boston’s six and scored 68 points to Boston’s 32.

The decisive score for Atlanta was — you guessed it — an offensive rebound and a second-chance shot by Onyeka Okongwu, who topped Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown on a putback tip.

Tuesday night wasn’t the first time Boston has been beaten in the paint this season. In fact, the Celtics allow 52.2 points in the paint per game (24th in the NBA) while scoring just 39.8 points in the paint per game (30th in the NBA) for a differential of negative -12 ,4.

And if you ask former Celtics guard Eddie House, it’s cause for concern, to say the least.

“Right now we’re giving up 52 points in the paint per game. That’s the bottom third in the league,” House said after Tuesday’s game. Celtics Postgame Live. “And then we’re down to 39 points (in the paint).

“I know we shoot a lot of threes, so I understand that. But we’re last (in points in the paint). So we have to find some kind of balance. Sometimes it’s OK to go to the rim to get a easy bucket, to get a deuce we don’t always have to shoot a 3.

“This isn’t an exaggeration. I’m not going to hit the panic button on this. But these are little red flags, and even though they’re small, you want to stamp them out so they don’t become big red flags that could impact later in the season – or something that someone could look at and say, ‘This is how you can attack this team. This is how you can beat this team.’

The Celtics take (and make) the most three-pointers in the NBA by a significant margin, so it makes sense why they rank last in paint points per game. But their interior defense and recovery appear to be areas of weakness through twelve games this season, as shown in the stats below:

• Celtics offensive rebounds per game: 9.9 (19th in the NBA)

• Opponent’s Offensive Rebounds/Game: 10.6 (T-13e)

• Points in the paint/game: 39.8 (30th)

• Opponent points in the paint/game: 52.2 (24th)

• Second chance points: 13.8 (19th)

So, what’s the solution? Obviously the return of big man Kristaps Porzingis will help, but the Celtics need more from their big man rotation of Al Horford, Neemias Queta and Luke Kornet, who have had their moments but have generally lacked consistency.

Jaylen Brown, meanwhile, believes it’s a matter of effort rather than personnel.

“We’re switching, so we have to fight,” Brown told reporters after the game. “We are a team that wants to change, but you have to rebound and be able to fight.”

The Celtics’ interior defense will be tested again Wednesday night against a Brooklyn team that scored 54 paint points against Boston as the C’s went to overtime last Friday night.