BOSTON -- Utah’s Mike Conley swung the ball to teammate Joe Ingles who was quickly double-teamed by a pair of Boston Celtics players. Ingles got the ball back to Conley quickly while none of the Celtics rotated back to Conley in time before leaving him with a wide-open for a 3-pointer he drained with no problem.
Moments later, Conley got a screen from Rudy Gobert.
Kemba Walker went underneath it which created just enough space for Conley to knock down yet another jumper.
And with the paint cleared out later in the first quarter of Boston's 99-94 loss to the Jazz, Conley blew past Brad Wanamaker for a floater while drawing a foul on the play.
The ease at which Conley scored in a variety of ways, highlights what has to be among the chief concerns for the Celtics in recent games.
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Conley finished with 25 points in the Jazz win which was actually an improvement of sorts for the Celtics.
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“Limiting” Conley to 25 points snapped a four-game streak in which the leading scorer for the Celtics’ opposing team had tallied at least 37 points.
Boston (42-20) will once again be challenged in limiting the opposing team’s top perimeter scorers when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
And while the amount of production generated by opposing top scorers has been higher than usual lately, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens acknowledged this has been a challenge for him and his team all season.
"We’ve had that issue at times all through the year,” Stevens said. “It’s not just been the last couple of games. We’ve had our moments when we’ve been OK with that, but we have to be better.”
There are an array of reasons behind the recent defensive shortcomings by the Celtics.
“The other day we were late to rotate and challenge,” Stevens said. “But we also got beat directly off the dribble. It can be any combination of things. It can be an individual close-out gone wrong. It can be great offense that creates a scramble. It can be pick and roll defense where our bigs get beat or just lack of rotation help.”
Regardless of why it’s happening, players know their defense has to be better than it has been lately.
Celtics center Daniel Theis sees one of the biggest areas they have to do a better job at, is defensive rebounding.
“We’re giving teams too many extra possessions, extra shots,” Theis told NBC Sports Boston.
And those extra opportunities to score have been more prevalent this month.
While the sample size is still relatively small, Boston is allowing teams in the month of March to score 18.7 points on second-chance points which is more second-chance points per game than any other team this month.
All those extra points have also led to the Celtics’ defensive rating in the month of March dipping to 12th in the league, compared to having a defense that for the season is ranked fourth-best in the NBA.
Breaking down all that has gone wrong defensively of late for Boston isn’t where the challenge lies.
It’s getting it right, in time to make a strong postseason push.
“Every play is its own unique entity,” Stevens said. “We just have to get better at all of it. And hopefully we will.”
Don't miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Thunder-Celtics, which begins Sunday at 5 p.m. with Celtics Pregame Live, followed by tip-off at 6 p.m. You can also stream on the MyTeams App.