What the hell am I watching? For about a full calendar year we have been seeing the headlines out of ESPN, FS1, and other (somewhat) reliable sources guaranteeing that the Boston Celtics will without a doubt be either the 1 or 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. Now sitting TEN AND A HALF GAMES (good God I had not looked at the standings before writing this) this team is the most disappointing team of the NBA season without a doubt (unless you actually thought that LAL would make noise which like… seriously?).
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Oh Will, poor you! Watching both the Sox and Pats win their respective championships must be soooo hard when the Celtics are playing under par.” You know what I say to that? I’ve been standing by this team since they got Garnett and Allen, watching Kendrick Perkins injure himself in Game 6 of the Finals in 2010 and crying my eyes out after they lost to the ‘Melo Knicks in 2012 knowing full well they were going to deal Pierce and Garnett in the offseason. Then still paying attention to the performances of players like Phil Pressey and Brandon Bass during the overhaul years on 2013-16. The Celtics have been the one thing that keeps me out of a deep dark depression when the awful New England winter comes ’round so I don’t want to hear it.
Since February 1st, their only wins are against NYK/OKC/CLE/PHI/DET. With respect to Tommy and all of Sixers nation, their only respectable win is against OKC. The Celtics (and Al Horford) own Philly and no matter the number of times I got jeered at about SBLI at the Wells Fargo Center, it doesn’t change the fact that the Celtics have won 17 of the last 19 regular season meetings between these two franchises. All the rest of those wins are games you should be checking off the calendar in September.
Meanwhile, they have lost to LAL/LAC/MIL/CHI/TOR and now Portland since the beginning of the month. To make things worse, they are 0-4 since the All-Star break, giving them the largest losing streak in the league. They came out of the break against Milwaukee who won in a thriller. They then had a gimme game in Chicago before their Tuesday Player’s Only TNT game against Toronto. They came out of the gate playing well in the first before laying an egg in the second quarter leading to a 64-51 halftime deficit. Their offense wasn’t the problem but instead, their defense just could not stop Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen who scored 42 and 35/15 respectively.
At this point, I had given up on the season.
Then came the Toronto game. While I did not expect them to win, I had been to the game in Boston when Kyrie took over in the 4th quarter, so I kind of wanted it to be at least competitive like Milwaukee had been.
This want was less than satisfied. I left my apartment to go to my intramural volleyball game at the end of the first quarter with the Celtics leading 32-30 – dismal defense but I’d take a competitive game. After I got out a half hour later, the Raptors were up 66-45 at the half. Shocker. No player had a worse game than Kyrie Irving.
Irving, the self-proclaimed leader of the team, was the beginning of the problem. On too many occasions he was forcing shots against good defense and then not hustling back on defense leaving a layup for the taking. But hey, no team will beat them if he’s on the team!
During this latest Portland loss when the C’s played with absolutely no heart and no chemistry whatsoever, the ESPN announcers were nice enough to kick me while I was down with what seemed like endless comments about how this team played as if they don’t like each other. Thank you, Dorris Burke. I know. Dear Celtics, for the love of God, figure it out.
ReJoyce 