The Boston Celtics are not playing particularly good basketball right now.
They’ve dropped 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.
“That sounds very crazy,” the veteran forward told Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. “I think, all due respect to Brad, having a young team, he’s just trying to take the blame.
“But this isn’t his fault. It’s on our starters. They’ve got to get us off to better starts in games, and right now we’ve been very sluggish at the start — and it’s been happening all year. We dig ourselves a hole that’s hard to get out of, and we just can’t 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, we’re burnt out because we’ve used all our gas getting back into the game.
“So our starters have to do a better job controlling the momentum and the tempo of the game from the start.”
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.
“I’d have no problem talking to coach about that,” the 32-year-old said. “But right now, my thing is just trying to help these guys understand what they’re 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.”
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
