Big game from Monta, his best since the Utah win before the break and maybe his best since he rolled his ankle in the Kings game. Too bad Curry and Wright had off nights, and outside of David Lee no one else really showed up offensively.

While the Warriors won the rebounding battle decisively and came close from in terms of matching free throw attempts, there just wasn’t enough defense to stop Boston’s solid passing.

So the road trip continues with a game tomorrow afternoon in Philly, so it will be interesting to see how this team recovers. They should be able to take something positive from this loss, though all too often this season they’ve failed to capitalize on “good” losses against elite teams and instead jump down below the level of the followup competition.

One bright spot is that “Big Baby” Davis won’t play, as he strained a tendon in his knee in their last contest. This makes the Celtics dangerously thin up front — Shaq and Jermaine O’Neill are still out, and they just traded Kendrick Perkins. Unfortunately, this is probably the worst possible weakness for the Warriors to try to exploit given their troubles in the paint. And I seriously worry about what a crafty vet like Garnett will do to Udoh if they get matched up at the 5.

So we’ll see: no one expects the Warriors to win this game, so maybe they’ll pull another of their rare surprise victories over tough teams. But I wouldn’t bank on it.

The Warriors play a nice first half, but missed chip shots and an endless procession of Celtics layups off bad rotations and missed-shot-fueled-fast-breaks led to a complete collapse late.

Overall, they got killed on the boards, killed in the paint, and killed in terms of shooting percentage. And the assist number also show just how well the Celtics moved the ball around on their way to easy buckets — or does it show how poorly the Warriors defended even minimal ball movement?

The one bright spot? The Warriors got to the line, big time: 28 foul shots to the Celtics 11. Hopefully that’s something they can take out of this one.

But ultimately, this game shows just how far the Warriors have to go to match the defensive intensity of an elite team. The Celtics shoved them around and didn’t give them anything easy inside, and the Warriors response was to turn into a jump-shooting team. And you’re just not going to win consistently by relying on jump shots.

The game also continued an ugly trend of getting completely shut down in the second half after competing well early against good teams, like we saw during the Florida roadie back a few weeks back. Not a good sign that the elite teams can seemingly shut this team down at will.

Now, Friday’s game against Atlanta takes on added importance, as it’s the last home game of their Oracle-centric stretch. Let’s hope they get some rest, because I’m not exactly excited about the interior matchup against the Hawks…

• Rust. With no reliable post-up game, the Warriors are a bit more susceptible to rust than most teams. If they can’t get it going from outside, can they at least drive to try to get easier buckets near the rim? Not easy with KG on patrol, but better to try and fail than to become, in the immortal Fitz’s words, “too perimeter oriented.”
• Run. At the same time that the Warriors will be trying to work up a sweat for the first time since last week, four of the Celtics’ starters played in the All Star game on Sunday (just too bad it was in LA instead of, say, Miami). If the Warriors can turn it into a track meet, you’d have to imagine it would pay some dividends.
• Make it Count. The Warriors face one of their more consequential home stretches in years, as a bad run in these final 27 games will likely lead to wholesale changes in the offseason. Can Smart make himself indispensable to the organization; can Reilly make something happen before the trade deadline, and, if not, can the roster he put together make a run; and can so-far-limited players like Udoh and Williams turn a corner and solidify their standing for next year? Starting tonight, we’ll begin to find out.