Voice of the Celtics Mike Gorman said on Toucher and Rich Wednesday that the Celtics are 180 degrees different from what he expected them to be.
Anticipated to be a strong defensive team who might have difficulty offensively, the C’s currently rank 29th in the NBA in defensive rating and are fifth in the league in points per game.
Gorman says injuries at points to Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder and Al Horford have held the team back, but that they aren’t playing as hard as they have in the past.
“They just don’t seem to be playing with the same passion, with the same sense of cohesiveness,” Gorman said. “When the Celtics are at their best defensively, yes, you’ve got Avery Bradley and yes, you’ve got Marcus [Smart] and you’ve got Jae as outstanding individual defenders, but it was a team defense that really led them to where they were in the defensive rankings last year. They’re just not playing together as a team right now.”
The Celtics will look to improve upon their 3-3 record when they face the 1-5 Wizards Wednesday in the nation’s capital.