Since about (checks notes) late October, many have felt something eventually was going to have to give with the Boston Celtics.
Despite being loaded with talent, they began the campaign underachieving wildly, but many figured they’d turn it around once and for all. At times it looked like they had, but as we sit here with the C’s last game of March now finished, the reality remains they still have not shown many flashes of consistency.
Case in point, the back-to-back the Celtics just finished. After earning a gutsy win over the Indiana Pacers on Friday, they turned around and delivered a dreadful second half performance in a 110-96 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
Sure, the Celtics were without Kyrie Irving (back) and Al Horford (leg), and the Nets are fighting for a playoff spot, but Boston had more than enough manpower to deliver more than the uninspired performance it gave Saturday.
After the game, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was asked about his particularly visible frustration when he called a timeout in the third quarter. Stevens used that as an opportunity to share something he felt the Celtics haven’t been good at all season, and in turn challenged them to change if they want to make a deep playoff run.
“I was really frustrated,” Stevens said of the timeout, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics postgame coverage. “I don’t think we value possessions at the level we need to to be a good team, that’s what I just talked about (with the team). And I get it, we played really hard (Friday), last night was a tough game, but every possession all year matters and we haven’t been great at that, and that’s one of the things that if we’re going to make it anywhere significant, they’ve all got to matter equally. Offensively, defensively, moving it, all of those things. And I didn’t think anybody was on their A-game by any means tonight, and I think that we’ll all just need to be better.”
There have been so many team meetings and whatnot this year that it’s tough to tell what, if anything, is getting through to the Celtics. So while there’s certainly a lot of merit to what Stevens is challenging his team to do, who knows if they’ll actually do it.
Here are some other notes from Saturday’s Celtics-Nets game:
— Gordon Hayward was one of the brighter spots for the Celtics on Saturday, scoring a game-high 19 points.
Celtics play-by-play announcer Sean Grander dug up a pretty interesting stat about Hayward. The C’s on the road this year were 10-0 when Hayward scored 14 or more points. With Saturday’s loss, that record now sits at 10-1. When Hayward scores 13 or fewer points on the road, the C’s were 8-19.
— The Celtics now are tied with the Indiana Pacers, who fell to the Orlando Magic on Saturday, for fourth place in the standings.
Neither team has been great on the road this season, so earning home court advantage for the almost certain first-round series between the two will be a tremendous difference-maker.
— Entering Saturday’s matchup, the Celtics had won 11 of their last 12 games against the Nets.
