With their loss to Cleveland on Monday night, the Celtics have lost four out of their last five games, each of those being against an eastern conference contender. The loss to the Cavs also made it a three-game streak, one Boston is hoping to end tonight against the Trailblazers.
This nosedive has put the Celts at 2.5 games back from the Bucks and only 1.5 games in front of the Sixers. With only 16 games left in the season, the time has come for Boston to put their big boy pants on and finish the season strong.
WHAT HAS BEEN GOING WRONG
The heart of the Celtics problems lies in the offense. Similar to last years’ finals, Boston just hasn’t been meshing as a team on the offensive side of the court. Over the past five games (including the sole win), the C’s have turned the ball over seven more times than their opponents and have shot nearly 2% worse from the field on average.
While the stats don’t seem that drastic, an eye test proves that the team is going through a rough patch. Roles don’t seem to be explicitly known, and the players don’t seem to be on the same wavelength. Take Tatum’s performance in the double OT loss against the Knicks as an example. Sure, he dropped a 40 piece, but at the cost of shooting 12-30 and a plus/minus of only +4. His counterpart Jaylen Brown had a more efficient night, shooting 12-25 for 29 points and a plus/minus of +8, but when the first overtime rolled around, he only had one shot compared to Tatum’s three, which all missed.
I think the clearest solution for the Tatum/Brown dilemma is to run on a “heat check” basis on offense. However, this doesn’t mean that when one of them makes a shot to just feed them for the foreseeable future. That would be too predictable. It’s honestly hard to express my point without inspecting a game firsthand. There are just too many times where I feel like a basket is wasted when the ball could’ve been in hot hands, but ends up never touching them. And I feel like this is especially evident for Jaylen.
The Celts have also been missing big man Robert Williams since he exited the game against the Nets. He only has a hamstring issue though, so I don’t expect him to miss much more time.
CONCLUSION
Overall, we know the damage that this Celtics team can cause, its just disappointing seeing them underperform. Once the players get their mojo back and start clicking with each other, I have high hopes for another deep playoff run. And this time, I think they can win it all.