The Boston Celtics keep telling us everything will be OK. They might be right, but it’s getting harder to take them at their word.
Boston is an underwhelming 10-9 over its last 19 games. That’s basically one quarter of the season playing roller-coaster basketball. More concerning is that they seem to be trending in the wrong direction during the back half of that stretch.
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After not enduring a double-digit loss over its first 35 games of the season, Boston has suffered four lopsided losses in its last 10 games. Thursday night's 21-point thumping at the hands of the rival Lakers was the Celtics' second-worst defeat of the last two seasons.
Boston’s offense has fallen off a cliff, even with numbers partially juiced by a 40-point thrashing of the Golden State Warriors to start the week.
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Maybe the most maddening part is that there isn’t one singular issue to blame. Every one of Boston's losses seems to be its own snowflake -- something unique and slightly different from the last. Yet there are troubling trends, such as the team’s ice-cold shooting and inconsistent perimeter defense.
Kristaps Porzingis is playing some of his best basketball in green, and yet the team’s numbers are alarmingly poor even as he finds a groove while further removed from offseason surgery. Boston's starting five was impossibly bad through its first 10 appearances together but seems to be trending upward, even if that group still couldn’t save the Celtics from the Lakers disaster.
Jrue Holiday hasn’t been nearly as crisp on both ends. Jaylen Brown’s offensive efficiency is way down in January. It sometimes feels like the Celtics could pry themselves from this funk if Derrick White could just find his mojo, but his current slump coincides with Boston’s struggles (13.5 points, 32 percent 3-point shooting over his last 18 games).
Jayson Tatum is having his most complete season, yet we’re still waiting for him to more frequently put the Celtics on those broad shoulders and carry them out of this rough patch.
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Perhaps most concerning is this all feels a lot more like the 2022-23 season -- the struggles at home, the instances of playing down to shorthanded competition -- than it does the 2023-24 championship campaign.
Boston was so focused on getting back to the championship stage in 2022-23 that it sometimes skipped steps. In doing so, the Celtics routinely complicated their path, had to grind through the first two rounds of the playoffs, then bowed in the Eastern Conference Finals against an inferior opponent.
Recognizing that the status quo wasn’t good enough in the aftermath, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens made some bold offseason decisions that shook up the core of the team and delivered Porzingis and Holiday. Boston recognized that it could no longer sit on its hands and wait for a better outcome.
Which naturally makes us wonder about the current state of affairs.
We all know the core of this team is prohibitively expensive. Keeping this group together beyond this year will not be easy. And after potentially spending $6 billion-plus to buy the Celtics, a new owner soon will have to decide if they want to further splurge to keep that core intact.
Stevens is on this trip out west with his scuffling squad. Cameras showed Stevens and assistant general manager Mike Zarren in conversation during the Lakers game. Does the brain trust of this organization believe it when the players say they will get it together?
Before this month-long funk, the biggest trade deadline query was seemingly whether Boston should try to move Jaden Springer’s $4 million deal in order trim luxury tax costs and add veteran bench depth. The team is limited in potential maneuvering, and even amid this slump, it feels reactionary to consider a bolder swing utilizing a piece of the core.
But this team is too expensive to keep stumbling along.
The Celtics play six more games before the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline. That stretch is bookended by a Finals rematch against a undermanned Dallas squad on Saturday, and a showdown with East-leading Cavaliers on February 4. The Celtics can make Stevens’ job a little easier by backing up what they say and finding a little groove.
Ironically, Springer might be the only reason there isn’t full panic in Boston right now. His heroics against the Clippers prevented a full meltdown against a ridiculously understaffed opponent. Boston would be just fine if the rest of the this core was playing with as much effort as Springer has displayed over the past 48 hours.
The Celtics are one CJ McCollum layup (and that Springer rescue), away from being 3-7 in their last 10 games. The three teams they did beat convincingly -- the Nuggets, Magic, and Warriors -- were all missing key players during those games.
Take away the gritty, back-to-back road triumphs against Minnesota and Houston on January 2 and 3, and it’s hard to remember Boston’s last signature win. That Cleveland triumph on November 19 feels like a decade ago.
It’s time for the Celtics to get off this roller-coaster. Even if this is just January malaise and Boston truly is just bored with the process, it would be helpful to see a two-week stretch where the Celtics really ramp it up, if only to prove that they can truly go to another level when needed.
But even that is a dangerous gambit. These Celtics need to eliminate some of the bad habits that have crept in. They need to get back to looking a whole lot more like 2023-24 than 2022-23.
It’s time for Boston to stop saying everything is going to be fine, and show it consistently.