So much for me saying this team was untouchable. The Celtics have been absolutely dreadful since the all-star break as they’ve gone 3-4, lost the lead in the East, and have blown three 10+ point leads in said span.
Is this just a mid/late season stumble, or the Celtics getting found out by the rest of the NBA? I hope the former, but I fear its more likely the latter.
Despite unanimously being the favorites for the NBA title only a few weeks ago, the Boston Celtics have fallen off a cliff in the weeks since as they’ve lost four of their last seven games and the lead atop the Eastern Conference. Okay, saying the Celtics have “fallen off a cliff” might be a bit of an overreaction, but it’s true the Celtics have not been themselves in the final stretch of the regular season.
From being one of the most efficient, prolific, and fast-paced scoring teams in the NBA, the Celtics have turned away from said style of play in favor of slow, lethargic, and heavy-ISO focused offensive attacks (mostly just with Tatum and Brown) that negates the strengths of this team: the strong rotation and depth scoring.
Perhaps out of hubris or old-tendencies, but the Celtics offense has unfortunately morphed into either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown getting the ball, moving it up court, and attempting to either hit a 3-pointer or drive the rim by themselves. Sure, when Brown and Tatum are paired up, they can do these things consistently enough (but I’m hesitant to say as a solo act) but losing the unpredictability the Celtics rotation has against teams is not worth relying on Tatum and Brown’s individual heroics.
Having nightly 10–20-point contributions from the likes of Grant WIlliams, Robert Williams, Al Horford, Malcolm Brogdon, Payton Prichard, Derrick White, Luke Kornet, Sam Hauser, etc. is so much more important as it not only forces the opposing defenses to respect their scoring talents, but it also frees up Tatum, an MVP candidate, and Brown, and all-star, from double teams and gives them the space to thrive.
That may seem obvious but having 5 capable scorers on the court is almost impossible to defend, while just two players scoring all the points can be stopped. There’s a reason why the Celtics were the runaway best team in the entire league for most of the season running with a rotation scoring system.
And, like I alluded, I’m not entirely sure Brown and Tatum can bail out the Celtics night in and night out on their own against competent teams like the New York Knicks (which the Celtics have lost to twice since the break) and Cleveland Cavaliers (which the Celtics have also lost to twice since the break) as their 3-4 record suggests.
For example, even though Brown posted 32 PTS, 13 REB, and 9 AST in Tatum’s absence last night against the Cavs, Brown and the Celtics offense were painfully wasteful and allowed the Cavs to get back into the game. Brown himself shot only 12/26 from the field (46%) and 1/7 from the 3-point line (14%), while the Celtics as a whole shot 42-101 (41%) from the field and 16-48 (33%) from the 3-point line.
That’s not good enough for an all-star player and NBA title contenders.
Simply put, the Celtics were so wasteful with their shot selections that they might as well have been turning the ball over (which they did 12 times), obviously giving the Cavs enough chances to force the game into overtime and win it 118-114.
Now, I will give the Celtics a little leeway as Tatum, Robert Williams, and Al Horford (three of the staring five) were out with minor injuries, but these minor injuries forcing players out of the lineup are becoming very frequent occurrences. I feel like every night there’s a new Celtic out with an injury, which has forced Tatum and Brown to pick up more of the offensive slack.
And it has cost them their lead atop the East as they now have a 45-21 record, putting them 2 games back of the 1st place Bucks (46-18).
Hopefully, this run of poor form will motivate the Celtics to abandon their induvial-scoring bad habits and go back to the efficient, fast-paced, rotation style of scoring as that’s what made them the best team in the league to begin with.
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