The Lights Are Off for the Boston Celtics

After last night’s Celtics game against the Detroit Pistons, I found myself thinking about Dennis Green and his now famous rant after his Arizona Cardinals lost to the Chicago Bears.

We all remember it.  It began like this, “The Bears are who we thought they were. They’re who we thought they were.” Green continued on, but it is really the beginning of the quote that is relevant to the Celtics.

The Celtics are who we thought they were.  Or maybe a little more precisely worded, the Celtics are who they have proven to be.  And unfortunately for all of us who thought this team could contend for a title this season, the Celtics are not that team.

I wanted to believe the Celtics were a title contender.  I wanted to believe they were just in a rough patch.  But nearly every game over the last two months has told me differently.

They are a good team. They are not a great team, they are not an elite team, and it is time to admit, unless something changes, they are not a legitimate title contender.

This was evident even last night in a Celtics victory.  Boston defeated the Pistons 105-100.  It was a grind it out, never pretty victory against a struggling Detroit team.  The Pistons had lost three in a row and five of seven entering the game, and were just 6-12 in their previous 18 games.

Yet, Boston trailed heading into the fourth quarter, and if it wasn’t for the bench, most notably Nate Robinson and Glen Davis who combined for 15 fourth-quarter points, the Celtics very well might have lost last night as well.

Anyone who had not yet admitted that the Celtics are not the title contenders we once thought them to be, expected a more inspired effort last night.  The reason being that the Celtics were coming off one of their most embarrassing losses in years, falling to the pathetic New Jersey Nets at home.

That loss came on the heels of another embarrassing loss, where the Cleveland Cavaliers essentially toyed with Boston for three quarters, before outscoring the Celtics by 21 points in the fourth quarter on their way to a 108-88 victory.

Watching last night’s game on NBA TV, Ernie Johnson and Kevin McHale talked beforehand about the Celtics likely starting the game with a lot of energy in an attempt to show that the loss to the Nets was a fluke.  That is what good teams do.

They would be incorrect, though, as Boston showed no more energy, no more emotion, and the game was tied at the end of the first quarter.  By halftime, the Celtics had allowed the Pistons, the second worst scoring team in the entire league, to total 52 points.

During halftime, Johnson and McHale talked about how they were surprised at the lack of energy, especially on defense, from Boston.  Hearing them talk like this really struck me, because it was only a few weeks ago when Eric Snow, also on NBA TV, said of the Celtics after a loss to the Chris Paul-less New Orleans Hornets, “You’d expect the Celtics to have a little more fight in them at the end.”

That would all be true of the 2008 or the 2009 Celtics.  It was also true of the Celtics we thought we would see this season.  But if you have been paying attention the last two months, you would know, the Celtics just are not that team anymore.

There has been talk about the Celtics being bored with the regular season and that they will flip a switch when the games matter.  In general, that makes some sense.  But in reality, that is just a lie to cover up the real problems holding this team back.

Some teams do get bored at times in a long regular season and some teams do have a switch they turn off and on.  Boredom or a switch being in the off position is not why Boston is 14-16 in its last 30 games.  If that were the case, the switch would have been turned on, at least on a few nights.

It would have turned on at some point before being swept in the regular season by the Atlanta Hawks or before losing three of four to the Orlando Magic.

The Celtics would have turned it on at some point before losing 11 games at home, which is one fewer than they lost at home in the previous two seasons combined.  And certainly, if there was a switch, it would have been turned on in last night’s game after the loss at home to the Nets.

But the switch stayed off.  Yes, Boston won.  They will win games because despite their flaws they are still better than a number of other teams.  However, the reason Boston has been so sloppy the last two months has nothing at all to do with a switch or boredom.

I think many Celtic fans have realized that, but unless the Celtics themselves admit that their struggles have nothing to do with boredom, and everything to do with talent, and focus, and chemistry, and hustle, they have no chance of righting the ship and being mentioned again among the top teams in the NBA.

NOTES

• What has happened all too often this season is the Celtics will play well for a quarter or two, and then fall flat all of a sudden in another quarter.  It happened again last night, with a 17-point third quarter.  Luckily, the opponent was the Pistons, and Boston could overcome its bad quarter.

• It was only about ten days ago when Boston won three in a row out of the All-Star break, including winning at the Lakers, and optimism was much higher.  A closer look though, revealed that even in those wins, the Celtics exhibited the same flaws that have caused them to lose many of these games.  The most significant flaw is poor quarters, especially in the second half.  In the win at Sacramento, Boston managed only 38 second-half points, at the Lakers just 34 in the second half, including only 11 in the fourth quarter, and even at Portland, Boston after a 56-point first half, scored just 17 in the third quarter.

• I see two reasons for the quarter-to-quarter struggles – Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce.  Right now, Rondo is the Celtics best player.  As good as he is, I don’t think he is ready to be the best player on an elite team because he remains inconsistent.  At times, he is electric on the court.  Last night, he tied a team record with his seventh straight double-digit assist game.  When Rondo is playing well, the offense looks unstoppable.  But he also has terrible droughts for long stretches, where it is almost as if he isn’t even on the court.  When that happens, the offense comes to a halt.

• Some examples are, against Cleveland, Boston led 56-48 at the half with Rondo scoring 14 points and dishing out 8 assists.  In the second half, Rondo had just five points and three assists, with just four points and no assists in the fourth quarter. Last night in Detroit, Rondo had 11 first-half points, but failed to score in the second half until four free throws in the game’s final 30 seconds.

• Which brings me back to Paul Pierce.  The captain has suffered a number of injuries this season.  Nothing major, but they have clearly taken their toll on him.  Over his last eight games, Pierce is averaging just 11.4 points on 36-percent shooting from the floor and a Rasheed-esque 28-percent from three.  Pierce is so important to this team because when the pace of the games does slow down, and Rondo’s effectiveness is diminished, Pierce has the ability to more than pick up any slack and be the focal point of the offense.  But, he needs to be healthy.

• Speaking of health, a positive note is that Kevin Garnett continues to look healthy on the court.  He will never be the KG from even two years ago, but we aren’t seeing him limp his way up and down the court like we were just a few weeks ago.

• Good to see Shelden Williams get some playing time last night.  He had six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes.  It was the first meaningful game action he has seen since the beginning of January.  Doc Rivers likely called on Williams last night because Kendrick Perkins was out with the flue.  But even when Perkins returns, I wouldn’t mind seeing Williams play over the other free agent power forward Danny Ainge signed last offseason. At least Williams hustles.