On Wednesday night, it was the Clippers, who got up by 23 early on and held on for a 108-103 win. On Friday? It was the 76ers. Another team the C's should have been able to beat handily, and again they came up short.
The C's beat themselves in the fourth quarter on Friday night, missing eight consecutive shots down the stretch to cough up a game they led in the fourth quarter. Between Ray Allen's 3 with 6:26 remaining in the game, putting them up 81-79, and Kevin Garnett's layup in the final seconds when it was already too late, the Celtics were without a single field goal. They made several costly turnovers down the stretch, including a couple plays when they tried to rush their way back into the game unnecessarily.
"Think of those transitions — I didn't think anything was there," coach Doc Rivers said. "We were trying to get something out of nothing. We're usually the team that executes well down the stretch, and I just think we went too fast tonight."
Doc said it best. Put in more simple terms, the Celtics frankly didn't look like the Celtics on Friday night in Philly. Their trademarks — solid ball movement, collaborative team defense, smart decision-making — weren't there.
The C's problems weren't limited to the last six minutes. For the second consecutive game, it was a matter of the Celtics slacking off and playing down to their opponents early on — against the Clippers, they fell behind 23, and against the Sixers, they fell behind by 10 multiple times in the third quarter before finally turning it on and working for it.
"It was just bad possessions," Rivers said. "I thought everybody kind of tried to do it themselves, a lot of forced turnovers. Give them credit — I thought the game was called very physical, they allowed us to be physical, and I didn't think we handled that very well. I didn't think we played through contact well at all tonight. Think about how many plays we had at the basket where they stripped us, or they took the ball from us. Usually if you can hold onto the ball, that's at least a foul, but we couldn't hold onto the ball tonight.
"I just thought they were the more physical team. We knew they'd be the more athletic team before the game, but they can't be the more physical team as well."
It was opposite day for the Celtics on Friday night — rather than lean on their four All-Star starters to carry the load, they watched their starters flounder for most of the night, while a hodgepodge of new guys scraped together a comeback. The Celtics were minus-7 for the night with Ray Allen on the floor; they were plus-4 with Jeff Green.
The team has brought in five new guys over the last two weeks, and it's been a struggle to get Celtics new and old to work together. But that can't be their excuse. Not in March, with the season winding down and the games starting to really matter.
"No excuses," Garnett said. "Whenever you dress up, suit up, come out here, tie them up, you've got to get it done. Period. Point blank."
The Celtics have had a pair of games this week where they've gotten lazy on both ends, fallen way behind early, and tried to claw their way back. That doesn't work in the NBA, where every team can beat you if you let them.
The C's have some adjustments to make, and they're more mental than physical.
"Whatever we do, we've got to fix it," Garnett said. "We've got to be more consistent with what we do. I think right now, we're playing in spurts. We're all figuring this out on the go, but we've still got to get it done."
