The Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown became the happiest All-Stars in the NBA last season … [+]
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One would expect a little more pleasure from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. After all, the first one was just selected to his first All-Star Game just hours earlier, and the last one got his second straight nod. “I don’t feel much like an All-Star,” Brown told the media. Tatum expressed joy for his teammate but added to his opinion.
“It’s very difficult to focus on that when we’re not where we want to be as a team,” said Tatum.
Where exactly are they as a team? Well, after a 110-107 loss last night to the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Celtics are now 15-16. They are sixth in the Eastern Conference and are in danger of falling out of eight relatively quickly. Despite their run of injuries, it’s amazing that this talented team has struggled so much, but their current record rightly represents what we’ve been up to. seeing on the court.
For the record, Brown should have known he was right in his opinion: this team has not lost so much during his time here. The last time the Celtics were below .500 was past the ten game mark of the season was April 15, 2015. Brown wasn’t even in college at that time.
What happened that put them below the balance sheet? Well, days after allowing the New Orleans Pelicans to lose their biggest return in team history, the Celtics lost another winning game. Well, the Celtics went cold in the ever-dangerous fourth quarter and let the Mavericks put together a two-digit lead. After walking through much of the second, they made the case back to go back in the final minute of the game. It almost seemed to work but then Luka Doncic did what Luka Doncic does, hitting on three incredible directional points to secure the victory. When it could have been a momentum building momentum, they ended up almost as sad as they fell against New Orleans.
“Of course that’s another big loss, but that feels a little different than it did on Sunday,” said head coach Brad Stevens. said after the game.
That’s right, but “different” doesn’t mean “much better.” ”It’s not just that the Celtics’ offense is inconsistent outside of their All-Star duo, it’s that the team is clearly giving up defensively, something that is reflected in their 103.1 defense rating. at games that were not effectively decided. It’s ultimately not so encouraging that something in the team moved late in the game last night, but just at the point where it was on the verge of being inaccessible. If they had anything close to that level of commitment during the value of a game in the previous quarter, the Celtics could have taken a lead that could have sustained last year’s literal heroes at Doncic.
So the question is what now? Yes, the trade exception that GM Danny Ainge worked so hard to find after losing Gordon Hayward to the Charlotte Hornets. The problem is, whoever would get by with that exception, they are unlikely to move the needle as far from where they are now. They could get a useful piece for a team that actually looks like a tournament competitor but those Celtics feel closer to falling out of the playoff mix altogether than playing. slip into the NBA Finals. One may dream about a big trade but it is hard to know how many sellers there will be at the date of the trade.
What needs to happen for the Celtics to reverse the course? It might all come down to their usual All-Stars, but maybe not as you think. On the Celtics radio broadcast yesterday, broadcaster Sean Grande suggested that the young players had reached the stage where they have improved themselves but had not yet reached the next level where did they know how to make the team better. Brown, despite his maturity, is still just 24 while Tatum turns 23 next week, it makes sense that they aren’t quite there yet, we shouldn’t expect that they will be at that stage of their growth.
The problem is that they already have the team. They no longer have Hayward, Kemba Walker is not the only player he was last year and now Marcus Smart is on the shelf. It feels like a cliché to use the term “growing pains,” but that’s exactly what this Boston Celtics edition is going through. Fans may not want to hear it, but it’s very possible that what’s wrong with them won’t be fixed over time. The problem is, it’s hard not to notice that this is exactly what’s filtering away from them.