Through the first 43 games of the NBA season, the Celtics have been a bit of a disappointment as they aren’t living up to their preseason hype. They are starting with a mediocre 25-18 record and are 7 spots back in the Eastern Conference in the 5th seed. Las Vegas projected the Celtics to win 57.5 games before the start of the season, with the only team ahead of them being the Warriors. With the all-star break coming up in February, we hope the Celtics will be able to fix their issues and get back to winning.
The team’s last 7 games have been an inconsistent stretch. They went on a 4 game winning streak, blowing out the Mavericks and Pacers, and have since lost the last 3 games to 3 middle of the pack teams. During this stretch the Celtics have held a horrible 115.4 Defensive Rating, which puts them 28th in the league at defense. At one point in the game Monday against the Nets, the Celtics were behind by over 30 points, which is unacceptable, especially to a team who may not even make the playoffs.
In the team’s first loss of the 3-game skid on Thursday against the Heat, players Marcus Morris and Jaylen Brown were seen shoving each other during an argument on the bench.
Then, after the loss to the Magic Saturday, Kyrie Irving showed his frustration, criticizing himself along with the rest of the team, saying that “We all have high expectations. The players, the coaches, everyone. And that’s good, but we aren’t doing it yet… We can get there. We’ve got to be better. I’ve got to be better. We need to win these games on the road. That’s on me as a leader. I need to be a better leader and to help get us there.”
After last night’s loss to the Nets, where Irving and Morris didn’t play, Jaylen Brown took to the starting lineup and after the loss had this to say: “We gotta be more accountable as a group, It’s not one guy. It’s not the young guys’ or the old guys’ fault — it’s everybody’s fault. We all got to be accountable and turn this thing around. In stretches we play good basketball and in stretches we don’t. But we all got to have each other’s back.”
The Celtics are very frustrated right now, and if they want to be in a good position in the standings, they will have to come together and win at least 10 out of the next 15 games before the all-star break.