The Boston CelticsĀ are not playing particularly good basketball right now.
They’ve droppedĀ seven of their last eight games, including a 104-95 loss Monday to a less-than-stellar Charlotte Hornets squad. After that game, head coach Brad Stevens placed the brunt of the blame for the team’s woes on his shoulders.
Gerald Wallace did not agree with that assessment.
āThat sounds very crazy,ā the veteran forwardĀ told Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. āI think, all due respect to Brad, having a young team, heās just trying to take the blame.
āBut this isnāt his fault. Itās on our starters. Theyāve got to get us off to better starts in games, and right now weāve been very sluggish at the start — and itās been happening all year. We dig ourselves a hole thatās hard to get out of, and we just canāt afford that. We spend so much of our energy battling and fighting to get back into the games that by the time the fourth quarter comes, weāre burnt out because weāve used all our gas getting back into the game.
āSo our starters have to do a better job controlling the momentum and the tempo of the game from the start.ā
Slow starts have killed the Celtics of late, as they’ve all too often found themselves staring at double-digit deficits before halftime. As one of the team’s elder statesmen, Wallace said he’s willing to work with Stevens to help remedy this issue, but that his teammates must buy in in order for change to come about.
āIād have no problem talking to coach about that,ā the 32-year-oldĀ said. āBut right now, my thing is just trying to help these guys understand what theyāre doing and how they can help the team out and what we can do to change this thing and get us headed in the right direction.ā
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images