Actually, scratch that.
It’s the honest truth.
We don’t need to have the whole “panic” discussion.
In no world should a healthy Celtics team be struggling this mightily with the worst teams in the NBA.
This season, they are now 12-3 against teams under .500.
Not a terrible record by any stretch, but a reminder, they went 29-4 last year.
It’s both bizarre and maddening at the same time.
Offense, defense, FT shooting, rebounding, ball movement, execution, it was all beyond terrible.
They fucked around and found out, simple as that.
With that said, let us begin
The Good
- New blog rule.
No trying to distract you with some KP highlights, none of it.
You have to earn that from me and right now, the Celts do not deserve it.
Play better and you will.
Continue to screw around and pay the price.
The Bad
- Where do we even begin?
There’s just so many places to start given how poor this team is playing at the moment.
Let’s start with the backbone of everything.
As we know, if you do not defend, you die.
What did we get?
Horrendous effort and execution from pretty much everyone not named KP.
As with most defensive issues, it starts at the point of attack.
Neither Derrick White or Jrue Holiday are producing any sort of resistance on the perimeter.
Guys are getting by both with ease and getting into the paint time after time after time.
When was the last time you saw them get up in someone’s airspace?
Play with any sort of intense ball pressure?
These are the two best defenders on the team right?
So…where is it?
It’s like a chain.
The whole reason why the Celts defense is elite is there’s nobody you could attack.
Right now, it’s possible for you to attack every single player on the floor.
That, is a problem.
Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett combined to go 7-7 while being guarded with JB.
Again, this is one of your best perimeter defenders, and what kind of execution is this?
Look at how he’s “fighting” over screens.
Do we think that’s an acceptable effort level?
Gambling for steals, leaving your man, overhelping, it’s all piss poor execution.
Jayson Tatum, the other wing, was no better.
Opponents shot a combined 8-12 against him in all of his matchups.
From top to bottom, every single Celtic that stepped on the floor was dogshit defensively.
That simply cannot happen.
Poor defense is like a virus.
It spreads to all aspects of your game.
If you’ve got the option to’t get stops, it puts pressure on your offense to execute.
Then, you start to press and get tense, which leads to mistakes.
In no world should any team the Celtics play start a second half 14-17.
The Raptors had a150 ORTGin the 3rd quarter.
I’ll remind you, the Raptors are one fo the worst offenses in basketball.
Where’s the pride?
Where’s the fight?
Where’s the resistance?
They shot 64% and 63% from those two zones.
For the season, they average 62% and 44.7% from those same areas.
When all you’re getting is wide open layups, it’s kind of hard to miss.
Guess how that worked last night?
3rd quarter, same thing.
Tatum plays the full 12 minutes, which means he needs to get his rest to start the 4th.
Then, once he comes back, he is not aggressive.
Another 4th quarter of Tatum taking 0 FGA in the 4th quarter.
Now, you know what comes with this.
More than good enough in terms of the bigger picture.
I have no idea what led to this change given how great they were last year.
Maybe because KP was out?
- Another reason for it?
The starting 5 has to figure their shit out.
I mean look at those numbers!
My brain can’t really comprehend how that is even physically possible.
ORTG: 118.8
DRTG: 182.4
Net rating: -63.6
yo be serious, I am begging.
Again, this was the fully healthy starting 5.
See for yourself
Just so bad across the board.
- There’s a reason people say the margins are important.
It’s because they are important.
How do you lose games you shouldn’t?
You fail at the margins.
TOR won 56-45 with 13 OREB and 11 2nd chance points.
including missing 4 in the 4th quarter.
TOR won that 35-24.
TOR won that 18-5.
You’re never going to win an NBA game getting worked like that around the margins.
I don’t care who you play, that’s losing basketball.
Is that a fucking joke?
His struggles are impactful because these minutes usually come in non-Tatum shifts.
When those happen, the shooters have to make their open looks to get to sustain things.
Right now, nobody can make a shot.
They cannot keep relying on Al Horford to be the only one from the bench to make shots.
Payton Pritchard is pulling his weight, and Hauser’s regression this season and especially recently has been brutal.
Jayson Tatum punted this game.
We know what it looks like when he punts a game and that’s exactly what this was.
No energy, no real interest in playing basketball, he was mostly horrendous.
To not be aggressive and take a single shot in the 4th is also on him.
Not just Joe or the other players around him, but Tatum himself.
He (and Jaylen) played like they were hung over, and well…..
Instead, the opposite happened.
Nobody could make a 3.
Their legs were dead to the point where Tatum got stuffed by the rim.
Was it due to their festivities the night before?
That’s loser shit not champion shit.
The Ugly
- Which is why we’re starting this section with Jaylen’s overall night.
You saw the defensive issues above, but things were even worse offensively.
He finished 4-16 (1-1), and was a brutal -23 in his 32 minutes.
Jaylen repeatedly found himself with possessions where it looked like his body completely forgot how to play the sport.
And let’s face it.
The execution and production in the shifts where he was the main guy were awful.
He went just 1-7 in the 4th quarter, with most of those FGA coming while Tatum sat.
If we’re going to talk about slumps, it’s also hard to ignore Jaylen’s play.
The thing is, that 20% isn’t coming off high volume.
He’s basically not taking any 3s anymore.
Just 3.0 a game and 1 3PA last night.
Over that 5 game stretch, he’s averaging a -6.8 +/-.
He’s been awful, there’s really no other way to describe it.
Lackluster defensively and in a big time shooting/scoring rut.
Is it a surprise that the Celts are 2-3 in those games?
- The same thing can be said for Derrick White.
His struggles are maybe the most impactful, simply because of how important he is to the equation.
22/10%!!!!!
Call me crazy, but those splits and 6 points a game is not going to cut it.
He’s now 3 for his last 29 from three over this span.
How is that even remotely possible when the majority of his looks are clean?
It’s very clear that with every miss, Derrick’s starting to press.
Just watch him immediately after.
His head is dropping.
It’s your classic case of a guy in a funk who desperately needs to see some shots fall.
To make matters worse, Jrue is shooting 41/25% over this same timeframe.
The problem is they are not defending at a level good enough to cause turnovers and easy baskets.
You combine those two things and you get losses like this.
- As I’ve blogged before, the Celtics are the worst 4th quarter team in the NBA.
I’m not sure how this could even be debatable.
That, is not the sign of a championship team.
Championship teams play all 4 quarters.
They all play out the same way.
The Celts can’t score, which makes them have to defend in transition, which they stink at.
Of the Raptors 13 OREB in this game7 of themcame in the 4th quarter.
Sorry, that’s pathetic.
So big picture, is there reason to “panic”, not to any rational person.
Take a deep breath.
But at the same time the Celtics are playing the worst basketball we’ve seen in years.
Until they cut the shit, things like this will continue to happen.
We know the standard this team can play to, and we know how successful that standard is.
It sure would be nice if they could play up to it.
