The Celtics Enter The Break Playing Some Of The Worst Basketball In The NBA

“Just get this team to the All Star Break”

That’s what we’re hearing a lot of right now as the Celtics dropped yet another game to fall a full 2 games behind TOR for the top spot in the East. Last night was the 5th time in the last 6 games the Celtics have fallen behind by double digits, and they’ve now lost 4 of their lat 5. In fact, since their first game in January the Celtics are 9-9. All in all it’s safe to say that things have not been great. Here’s my problem with that quote above though. Who’s to say “rest” is going to solve their issues? We’ve already had a little sample of what an ASB can give. This team played 1 game in 10 days when they went to London. How did they look immediately after? 

I understand the Celtics have played 59 games, which is the most in the East. But guess what, TOR has played 57 and they are THRIVING right now, why aren’t they as tired? Look at the recent stretch the Celtics just finished where they went 2-4. Five of those six games were at home. The only travel they did was to go to IND. They hadn’t played since Sunday before last night. This is NOT the same sort of grueling stretch they had pre London, so sorry if I’m not convinced that simply “rest” will fix everything. To me, it just feels like the next excuse  people are going to after talking about how the blowout in TOR was “just one game” instead of being honest while looking at this team play over the last six weeks. Look at all of the players in the NBA in terms of minutes played and you won’t find a Celtic until Jayson Tatum, who is 29th in the league in total minutes. Horford (45th), Kyrie (46th), Jaylen (52nd) all have been managed. So yeah, the Celtics have played more games, but their main pieces are nowhere close to the lead in minutes so the whole tired thing confuses me. They aren’t just playing terrible basketball, they look disinterested. They look defeated. They look like a lottery team.

The good news is the playoffs do not start on February 15th. There is plenty of time for Brad to figure this shit out, and for the players to you know, actually try. I said it in a previous blog we would all take 40-19 at the break given how the season started, but that doesn’t mean they are playing at that level right now. They’re clearly not as good as the team that won 16 in a row, and they’re not as bad as the team we’re seeing now that can’t stop a nosebleed. I will say this, after the break they go DET/NYK/MEM/CHA so the opportunity is there for them to get back on track.

With that all said, let’s get started.

The Good

– I hate wasting Kyrie Irving offensive performances like this

33/8 on 11-21 shooting (5-7 from deep) Kyrie was doing his best to put this team on his back and carry it to the finish line. It was his big 15 point third quarter that kept the Celtics alive in the first place, and it was good to see him snap out of his funk from behind the arc. Irving had been shooting like 24% from three in Feb heading into this game, so it was only a matter of time before that started to level out. I thought Kyrie did a good job of not only stretching the defense, but also attacking the rim and living in the paint/rim area which is when he’s at his best. Offensively, it was hard to have an issue with Kyrie last night.

– The same could be said for Horford. On the offensive end, he was the second best Celtic next to Kyrie, finishing with 20/4 on 8-17 shooting (2-4 from deep)

Al was the only guy that showed up offensively in the fourth, scoring 10 of his 20 in that frame on 4-7 shooting. It was clear that Brad made an effort to get Al involved early and often, as his 17 FGA were his most since 12/6. This felt like a game where Al didn’t settle for his jumper, with 8 of his 17 FGA coming from inside the paint. That I can get behind.

– Out of nowhere, shouts to Marcus Morris on his 13/11/3 on 4-8 shooting off the bench. He was great

Is it absolutely terrifying that this offense is at the point of relying on Morris 3PA and isolations? 100000000% But just when you think he’s taking a bad shot, he hits nothing but net. Without the effort from Morris in this game not only in terms of scoring but also on the glass, this game is even more of a disaster.

On the season, Morris is shooting just 41% which isn’t great, but his three point shot is a legit option. Coming in at 37%, he’s currently having the second best shooting seeing from behind the arc of his career (career best is 38.1%). His averages of 12/5 is about what you should have expected given his previous stops, and he’s doing it on just 10.4 FGA a night. His offense may make you pull your hair out, but it hasn’t been terrible on the whole.

– I thought last night was the best Greg Monroe has played as a Celtic

8/5 on 2-3 shooting in 9:33 of action, I thought Mornoe provided exactly what the Celtics expect of him despite the limited minutes. He blocked shots, he scored in his opportunities, and he rebounded the ball well. Yes his defense was perhaps the worst thing these eyes have ever seen, but we knew that. He’s not here to defend, he’s here to do all those things I just mentioned. After looking like a disaster against CLE, this effort made me feel a little bit better about his role in the second half.

– Confident Terry is a scary Terry and a scary Terry is a HOF talent. Not debatable

A little bit of everything from Rozier in this game with a final line of 13/3/7 on 5-12 shooting in 28 minutes off the bench. Watching him play a few things popped into my mind:

1. Rozier is the best buzzer beating shooter on the team

2. I think playing with Kyrie is rubbing off on Terry because you watch some of his crossovers into pullups, and then that big Fuck You Three in the fourth, it sort of looks like a poor man’s Kyrie doesn’t it? Not in terms of skill level, but how they move looks so familiar. Rozier has always had the sauce, but it feels like Kyrie is showing him how to use it.

– Look at least the Celtics won the rebounding battle 46-43 and the fast break battle 21-8. That’s cool

– I don’t know if it’s a good thing that the Celtics turned the ball over just 8 times, or a bad thing that they still lost while making 15 threes and turning it over just 8 times. I want to love it, but then I get mad when I think about it.

The Bad

– With two days of rest, I find it pretty bullshit the way the Celtics came out and started this game on both ends. For this section though, I want to focus on the offense. It’s no secret we’re all getting a little antsy about how this team has looked, so to see them start with 33/42% splits was annoying as hell. Kyrie going 1-5, Horford 1-4, Baynes 2-5 (tooooooooo much) and Tatum 1-4 was pretty brutal to endure. Look at this disaster

Mind you, this is at home with a rested team. This quarter set the tone and the Celts were climbing an uphill battle, needing to use more energy just to climb back into the game by the half.

– I don’t know what it is, but someone is going to have to explain to me why all the sudden Kyrie can’t stop turning it over when he tries to split the double team. This dude has the best handles on the planet and yet….

It’s just really weird to see this happen not one, but multiple times. It feels like Kyrie has been getting his pocket picked more and more and that is something I am in no way prepared for.

– It’s pretty simple, with no Hayward, if the Celtics are going to be successful they need to get consistent production from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. How did that work last night? They combined to go 8-25 for 22 points. They need to be closer to 38-50 points if this team wants to go anywhere in the playoffs or even get back into the top seed in the East.

Since London, Tatum has really taken the dip. He’s averaging 12.5 points on 42.5/33% splits, and when you look at their most recent skid over the last two weeks those drop to 41/31%. If you remember when this Celtics team was beating everybody, these two guys were extremely locked in on both ends. Compared to the first two months, their defensive ratings are 8 and 6 points higher. They went from having net ratings of +7.7 for Jaylen and +6.8 for Tatum to being -1.2 for Jaylen and -0.8 for Tatum this month. That’s a pretty drastic change and to me a big reason why this team has regressed. Young players are going to be up and down, but we need these guys to start an upswing badly.

– This wasn’t a late game execution issue, but it was frustrating nonetheless. After Terry Rozier made that three to put the Celtics up 99-95 with just under 10 minutes to go, the Clippers finished the quarter on a 34-20 run. This team for whatever reason just hasn’t been able to get over the hump against teams. They had all the momentum in the world, and came out of that timeout and gave up a 10-0 run in just 2 minutes. From up 4 to down 6 in a blink of an eye. Fuck that shit.

The Ugly

– Which brings me to my main thing with this game and with this team over the last week or so. They are defending like complete assholes. In fact, I don’t want to show any disrespect to bad defense by saying the Celtics are playing bad defense. They aren’t playing ANY defense. Not one person. Here is how things look in February

Pick a name, Kyrie? Awful. Horford? Certainly not acceptable. Marcus Morris? I thought he was supposed to be a defender but maybe not.

I heard all the time that the reason the Celtics are struggling is because of their offense. NO. The Celtics are struggling because they stopped trying on the defensive end. Period. You know how I know that? Because when the Celtics were winning all their games they were still one of the worst offenses in the NBA. That’s not their formula. Their success is rooted on the defensive end, and it starts with their best players.

Over this brutal stretch Kyrie’s defense has been as bad or worse than anything we saw last year. As one of the leaders, it starts with him and Al. Over the first two months of the season Kyrie lived around the 102 Drtg mark. A massive upgrade at the position on that end, it made all the difference in the world. Well, look at how the team has performed with his level of defense recently, it’s a disaster.

But this isn’t just a Kyrie issue. Horford is every single bit as responsible. Same thing, over the first two months of the season Horford lived in the 101 rating zone. Not as drastic of a dip in February, but still not acceptable. My issue last night with Horford was he was basically a tissue. Once a guy was beat at the perimeter, they were taking uncontested layups. No challenge, no hard fouls, nothing. I mean look at this from last night!

What even is that? Who are those guys? Horford, Kyrie, Tatum, Morris all with ratings over 120 is flat out sickening.

– The main issue for the Celts on the defensive end last night was the fact that they in no way could guard a P&R. Because the defense on the perimeter was nonexistent this left Horford with two choices. He could rotate over to stop the drive, but with no weak side rotation combined with it being DeAndre Jordan, this turned into an easy lob. If Horford doesn’t rotate and stays home on Jordan, the guard finishes at the rim uncontested. That’s why the key to this defense has always started with the perimeter players. If Kyrie, Jaylen, Rozier, Tatum are doing their job and actually trying on the defensive end, we don’t see the same sort of issues.

– Anytime you can break your season high in points allowed the very next game after giving up what was the previous season high you have to do it. Everybody knows that.

– Here’s where I don’t want people to get confused. Marcus Smart does not solve every single one of their defensive issues. They’ve had poor defensive showings with him in the lineup at times this season. But we’re at the point now where we can’t deny his overall impact. I don’t care if he never makes a shot for the rest of the season as long as he helps this team get back on track on the defensive end. I think a lot of the time we like to make fun of Smart’s impact being things that don’t show up on the box score and all this shit, but we’re seeing it’s true. This team does not have the same fight and the energy without him. They are playing soft basketball and letting teams impose their will. Smart may have his limitations, but he doesn’t let that shit happen. This team is missing his competitive spirit more than anything else because you watch these guys play and they’re just going through the motions. There’s no fire.

Brad talked last night about potential lineup switches and things of that nature which probably makes some sense. Why not try and switch it up and find that same spark you had for 75% of the season so far. Maybe that means starting Theis over Baynes, maybe that means starting Morris over Tatum, we’ll have to wait and see. With teams like TOR and CLE playing their best basketball, the Celtics need to figure this shit out and get back on track. I’m of the belief that you want to be playing your best basketball in April not February, but I would also appreciate if the Celtics didn’t make themselves look like they would lose a playoff series to the Hawks.

See everyone after the break.