The C's caught just a brief glimpse of their complete, playoff-ready team on Sunday evening at the TD Garden, getting five highly productive minutes out of Shaquille O'Neal after a two-month wait. But then things went south again, and Doc Rivers' ballclub was left once again to search for answers.
Are the C's in real trouble here? Maybe, but they still have over a week to go. There's still time for them to figure everything out and reach postseason form.
Here are seven thoughts on the Celtics and where they stand today.
1. Shaq was far from the only player to go down with an injury on Sunday evening. Around the NBA, the injury bug was striking — in New Jersey, Dwyane Wade left the Nets-Heat game with a bruised thigh, and in L.A., the Lakers saw two key guys go down with knee injuries. Both Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum will have to go in for MRIs this week. The Celtics are far from the only contender battling health troubles this late in the season.
2. The Celtics proved on Sunday that they can still get the job done inside without Shaq. They beat the Pistons in points in the paint, they mutilated them in rebounding (37-26), and they got a solid interior defensive effort from Jermaine O'Neal. Perhaps Rivers is right — he'll take both of his O'Neals if he can get them, but one is all he really desperately needs. Statistically, here's the breakdown: the C's are now 7-6 this season when both O'Neals play, 21-6 with just Shaq, 5-2 with just J.O. and 20-9 with neither.
3. Ray Allen is off to a solid start in April, shooting 9-of-15 from the field and 3-of-5 from long distance in his first two games this month. That's an encouraging sign — Allen had been quietly going through a miserable shooting slump for most of March. Sunday's win over the Pistons, when Allen shot 5-of-6, was his first time over 50 percent in a game since March 19. He's had a lot of subpar nights in which he hasn't gotten the proper looks, and he's been pressing to get his shots up. Maybe he's starting to snap out of that now.
4. The Celtics' win over the Spurs on Thursday night was notable for a couple reasons. One, Boston became the first team ever to deal Tim Duncan his fifth consecutive loss in the NBA, and two, the C's have now won five consecutive games in San Antonio. Not since Dec. 9, 2005, when the Celtics were so pathetic that Ricky Davis was playing 43 minutes, have they lost down at the Alamo. Even the 2006-07 Celtics got a road win over the Spurs, which is bizarre because the C's were terrible that year and the Spurs won a title.
5. Another sneaky-good development from Thursday's win — Rajon Rondo is taking mid-range jump shots with confidence. He teases us with the jumper every now and again, only to get away from it again a game later, but seeing Rondo knock down clutch shots in a big win Thursday was really encouraging. Doc Rivers referred to it jokingly as "coaches' porn." It's easy to see why. If Rondo can keep hitting jumpers, the Celtics become a much tougher team to guard, and Doc's job gets a whole lot easier.
6. By losing to the Hawks the night after the Spurs game, the C's earned yet another loss on the second night of a back-to-back. There's good news and bad news on the back-to-back front — the bad is that they're now 7-10 on day two with just two back-to-backs left to play, meaning they're guaranteed to finish the season with a losing record. The good news? Both of their remaining back-to-backs end against the Wizards, including one at home (and the Wizards are 3-35 on the road). That'll help them right the ship. Plus, there are no back-to-backs on the schedule come playoff time.
7. The C's last six games are brutal. Yes, they have Washington twice, but the other four opponents are all playoff-bound East rivals dying to make a statement before season's end — Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, and then the Knicks in next Wednesday's season finale. Ray Allen, for one, is OK with that. "I would rather have it that way," he says. "These last six games, I want them to be against the six best teams in the NBA. I want them to be teams that will challenge us, keep everybody focused, so that we go into the playoffs with that vigor and that intensity."
We're still waiting to see this "intensity." Maybe the upcoming home stretch will bring it out.
