The Celtics still may have the best roster in the league, but they haven’t looked like the defending champions for the past two weeks, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. Boston is 3-4 in its last seven games, including losses against the sub-.500 Bulls and the short-handed Magic. Coach Joe Mazzulla was candid about his team’s recent play after falling to Philadelphia on Wednesday.
“We’re playing inconsistent basketball, so we’ve got to be better at both ends of the floor,” he said. “Got to be more consistent at both ends of the floor.”
The Celtics are second in the East and third in the NBA with a 22-8 record, but Robb notes that their schedule is about to get much more challenging. There are limited off days and a few back-to-backs coming up over the next three weeks, which could be taxing for a veteran roster and provides little opportunity for practice time.
“We’ve got to be better,” Jayson Tatum said. “It’s still a long season. Nobody’s panicking. We’ve got to navigate the emotional roller coaster of the NBA season. It feels a lot worse than it actually is. We’re not panicking or anything. We’ve just got to man up and look in the mirror and figure out some things that we’ve got to do better at. Everybody’s fully capable, and we’ve always done a really good job of responding, and I have no doubt that we will. So I’m not panicking, but we’ve got to be better, and we will.”
There’s more from Boston:
- Tatum provided an explanation of the illness that made him a late scratch for Monday’s game against Orlando, Robb adds in a separate story. He described it as a “a 24-hour, 48-hour bug” that began to affect him after warmups. He was still feeling some effects from the virus on Wednesday, even though he managed to post 32 points and 15 rebounds in 41 minutes. “Maybe a little fatigued, I guess, from being sick the last few days, but I’m just trying to push through it, catch my second wind, things like that,” Tatum said.
- The Celtics weren’t able to provide much information on a left ankle injury that sidelined Kristaps Porzingis for the second half of Wednesday’s game, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. Porzingis seemed to tweak the ankle early in the contest, but he was able to keep playing before having his status downgraded at halftime. “I noticed that he played through it,” Mazzulla told reporters after the game. “I asked him how he was. He said he was okay and then he got re-evaluated at halftime. But I haven’t heard anything.” Porzingis didn’t talk to reporters, but Terada observed that he didn’t seem to have much protection on the ankle in the locker room.
- Jaden Springer hasn’t played much since the Celtics acquired him in a February trade, but the fourth-year shooting guard tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe that being in Boston has been a good learning experience. “I’ve grown a lot,” Springer said. “Coming to a different organization you get to see a different way of basketball. Everyone plays a different style, so coming here you learn new things, pick up on new styles of play, and playing behind another great group of guys. (Jaylen Brown), (Tatum), Jrue (Holiday), Derrick White, (Porzingis), Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, a bunch of guys. So being able to learn from them and watch them every night, it’s been pretty big for me.”
Maybe they should run an offense instead of chucking 3’s and going 1 on 5 after 20 seconds of dribbling. Let Holliday, White and Pritchard run the offense instead of Brown and Tatum bringing the ball into the front court. Play the subs, and give the starters some rest.
So you think they should do the opposite of what won them the chip last year.
Interesting.
He’s not entirely wrong. Jrue attempted 17 3’s earlier this month against Memphis in a game, which they lost by 6. There is zero excuse on why he attempted that many 3’s when he’s a career 36% 3 PT shooter and only 32% this year. I get that it was the main reason (along with playing defense) that led you to a title last year but teams always adapt and adjust. Boston should not have lost against Chicago at home last week, nor against a short handed Orlando team that’s missing both it’s stars.
A championship team that’s on pace for 60 wins isn’t gonna change things up.
Nor should they.
You do know there’s other ways to get 3 points drive to the damn basket and get and 1’s with the refs these days it’s a given and idk if your up by 10 with less then 5m just get the easier 2 making every trip the other team has to come away with points to at least have a chance
You should be coaching the Celtics instead of Mazzula.
Last year was a horribly weak year. This year is not. Many teams are better than last year. Celtics are the same. The same approach may not work, especially if they get into 7 game series and all of the starters play 40+ minutes.
It definitely may not work, But they obviously arent gonna change it up.
Celtics have lost games to the Bulls, the injury-decimated Magic, and the Sixers recently. They’ve also only played four games against the Western Conference this year and are 2-2 in those games. They have 12 games against Western Conference teams in January. If they’re not careful, the Cavs will run away with the #1 seed. They are already pulling away. Knicks may even catch the Cs for #2.
They’ve seem to trouble the magic for yrs now so it just might mean they have their number or they are in the C’s head
Do the Cavs and Knicks play the West coast too?
Yup, every team in the East will play western conference teams. That’s how the schedule works. Cavs are 6-0 (lakers, pelicans twice, warriors, nuggets, and jazz) and the Knicks are 6-3 (wins vs wolves, pelicans twice, suns, spurs, and nuggets) vs the west. Celtics beat the wolves and clippers and lost to the warriors and grizzlies.
Is that how the schedule works? It also works like this link to tankathon.com
Celtics have the 26th hardest schedule remaining.
Cavs have the 9th hardest schedule remaining.
Knicks have the 7th hardest schedule remaining.
So, the Celtics have played the toughest schedule, by far, of the three teams to this point in the season. This kind of info is easily available BTW
I mean who knew?
Only people paying attention.
So why didn’t you say that? I thought you didn’t know. I was just trying to be helpful. Sorry I mistook your snarky comment for confusion
Haha.Sorry man. It was all snark,
Tatum ain’t no MVP 3 point period
And you aint Hemingway.
Tatum is making his threes again this year. He lost his three point shot last year leading to his not playing much in the Olympics.