It's not so much that the Celtics aren't playing well defensively against the Wizards, though they certainly aren't.
In Brian Scalabrine's view, it's that they're not doing the things that good teams do to prevent the long runs that Washington has gone on in virtually every game of this series.
"When things aren't going well defensively, a good team in the NBA rights the ship," the CSN Celtic analyst said Monday morning on Toucher & Rich after the Celts allowed a 26-0 Washington run in their 121-102 Game 4 loss Sunday night. He later added: "They sit down, they get stops. [The Celtics seem] to wait until . . . they get it going [offensively] again. That's a huge flaw that they have to figure out . . .
"[You] can't call timeout every time [the opponent] goes on a 6-0 run. You have to right the ship, as players. And that usually is bearing down [and] getting a stop on the defensive end.
"[The Celtics] don't do that. They wait until either Isaiah [Thomas] saves them, or someone makes a tough play at the rim, and all of a sudden things are good again.
"They have to figure out a way to get stops when things aren't going well."