And it could be worse. The C’s needed overtime sessions to drop Milwaukee and Memphis, and narrowly escaped New Jersey, Philadelphia (twice), Minnesota, Charlotte and Detroit — all of which have lost considerably more than half of their games.
The Celtics, in other words, have a problem finishing off lesser opponents.
“[We] can’t keep playing with people,” Shaquille O’Neal said after Boston’s 86-82 comeback win over Detroit on Wednesday. “Great teams stay dominant at home, really beat the teams they’re supposed to beat, and stay above .500 on the road. We’re supposed to beat [Detroit] every time, but not by three, not by five, but [by double digits] … We just have to learn to put our foot on people’s necks and kill them right away. We can’t keep playing with people.”
It’s what every Celtics fan has been saying since Boston’s embarrassing loss to the now 8-35 Cleveland Cavaliers in the second game of the season — a loss coming directly after a thrilling, hard-fought win over the Miami Heat.
Saturday night was another shining example in the form of an 85-83 defeat at the hands of the Washington Wizards, owners of another of the league’s worst records.
“I really thought we deserved to lose the game,” head coach Doc Rivers said afterwards. “I thought we decided to just, you know, kind of play, not compete anymore. So I really thought we deserved to lose the game.”
This has been the Celts’ pattern throughout the last two seasons: Show up for the big games, mail it in for the rest. Rather, show up for perhaps the first half before bleeding a lead through a general sense of complacency in the third and fourth quarters.
Fortunately for the Celtics, they’re talented enough to get away with it most nights, but the pattern has, in the past, come back to bite them. Take their latter-season performance in 2009-10. The C’s suffered four different three-game losing streaks (they had only two others in the Big Three era) and finished 50-32, forcing the C’s to play the majority of the postseason on the road. That included Game 7 of the NBA Finals, in which they mounted and surrendered a 13-point third quarter lead in Los Angeles.
It’s easy enough to blame the behavior on injuries or age. There’s no doubt both of those are issues for Boston. Heck, Doc has yet to solidify a consistent second unit.
But that doesn’t explain the big-time wins over Miami (twice), Chicago (twice), Atlanta (twice), Denver, Orlando, San Antonio and Utah.
If the C’s could simply play against everybody the way they play against those teams, they’d be on track for 70 wins — maybe better. Perhaps Doc should tell the guys that every game’s gonna be broadcast on ESPN or TNT, or that Kobe Bryant is watching. And if he’s worried about encouraging his elder statesman to go hard every night, he can rest each of them on a rotating basis, or hold them out when they’ve got back-to-backs.
Whatever the motivation, the C’s have to show bigger fight in smaller games. Each loss is a step closer to hitting the road in the playoffs.
