BOSTON — As a team without the benefit of elite, All-Star talent, the Celtics often must rely on effort and execution to keep them in games.
That hasn’t been the case over the past week, and the players in the locker room are starting to get fed up.
Boston led for most of Friday’s contest at TD Garden but faltered down the stretch in an eight-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks, their third consecutive defeat and fourth in their last five games.
Isaiah Thomas led all scorers with 29 points, but he didn’t mince words when asked what has gone wrong for the Celtics of late.
“We’ve got to figure it out, get our heads out of our asses and stop feeling sorry for ourselves,” Thomas said. “For whatever reason, that’s the problem. We’re not playing with a sense of urgency and, like I said, we’re out there feeling sorry for ourselves, and I don’t understand why.”
Thomas appeared especially irked by his team’s lack of enthusiasm.
“We just didn’t have any energy,” he added. “No sense of urgency. We almost led the whole game and you wouldn’t have even thought we did.”
Thomas wasn’t the only Celtic who felt that way. Jae Crowder, the team’s second-leading scorer with 24 points, observed the same relative flatness on the court.
“I don’t think we’re playing with the same type of swagger,” Crowder said. “We don’t show any passion and excitement anymore, and we’ve got to get back to that.”
Boston will face one of the most passionate players in the league Monday when Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves come to town.
As one of the younger teams in the league, the Celtics appear to lack a strong veteran like Garnett to turn to when things go south. Boston has an excellent coach in Brad Stevens, but according to Thomas, he and his teammates need to hold themselves accountable and figure things out on their own.
“Coach can’t always help us out on the court,” Thomas said. “I feel like this team always looks to Brad. When things are going wrong, (they’re) always looking to the bench, and a more mature team doesn’t always need to look at their coach.”
Thumbnail photo via Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports Images
