It is obvious, but it still needs to be said.
C’s most current three-game losing streak not only sums up what’s wrong with aspiring champions, but it also reduces the Boston club to less than 0.500, 20-21, for the first time since the start of season 1-2. In addition, although they lost the first of three sets to Utah Jazz, they continued to drop to non-playoff clubs at Cleveland Cavaliers 15-26 and last night at Sacramento Kings 17-24, 107-96, at home.
Of his 96 points against Kings, no individual Celtic scored 20. The top four on Jayson Tatum’s team, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart scored a total of 23 to 61, or 37.7 percent. And the key microcosm of the Celtics’ experience was the lack of production they collectively received from the rest of the team, although recently that would exclude Robert ‘Time Lord’ Williams, who has an average of 11 points, nine rebounds, and about three blocks per game in his last nine appearances, all off the bench.
In the race for the supremacy of the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are lagging behind, with a post-COVID Tatum, a Kemba fighting, a lack of depth and a big $ 28 million exception. They will go crazy if the exception is not used by that time. This team has no one outside of its top four guards / wards averaging at least 10 points per game. And because so much is in the top four players in their squad, all of whom are not playing their best, the team is currently in the play-in instead of the playoffs.
With 31 games remaining in the season, the Celtics, and one of the league’s lightest remaining schedules, they are about to embark on a four-game trip, including two straight to Milwaukee to face the Bucks. With the possibility of a widening gap between them and the upper echelons of the East – namely the Bucks, the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers – the pressure is on Boston to do something between now and the March 25 trading deadline, and potentially later on in the acquisition market.
At the moment, are you really choosing the Celtics in a series of playoffs against the Bucks, 76ers or Nets? Would they be the favorites against the Miami Heat too? We are right would they even easily get the Charlotte Hornets or the New York Knicks with as inconsistent as they have been? No no and no.
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And the Celtics also had no problems on the inside. They are only 27th in assists per game, 22nd in defensive classification, 21st in rhythm, 20th in three feats, 19th in points per game, 17th in rebound and 13th in defense.
For the first time, it will hardly be good enough for Danny Ainge and the Celtics. And he knows that they need to do something; he himself admitted.
“It has been a challenging year,” Ainge said via Boston.com. “We have been fighting to close games and we have been fighting consistently and you hear me talk a lot about determination. It seems that we don’t have many characteristics of a really good team, for sure, ”added Ainge. “We have some talented guys, but our team is now not playing as well as we expected.”
Whether it’s Andre Drummond, LaMarcus Aldridge, Steven Adams, Kristaps Porzingis or someone more unexpected, if there is any chance of capitalizing on your current window, a move should be made, unless they turn to reconstruction.