BOSTON – Tonight’s game between the Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks is a big deal.
Who would have thought this would be such an important matchup on the Celtics’ docket at this point in the season?
The Hawks (3-15) are a bad team in every sense of the word. They're a team focused more on building towards the future than battling for a playoff spot.
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And yet, no Celtics coach or player can feel at ease that Boston will come out tonight and play the way it's been expected to, which would lead to a comfortable win.
Indeed, nothing about this team has been comfortable on the floor and certainly not good enough to win consistently with ease.
Boston is a team searching for answers in what head coach Stevens referred to as, “a myriad of issues” that have contributed to a team many had on the fast track to the NBA Finals now being one that’s looking to avoid falling below-.500.
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You would have to go back to Stevens’ second season on the job to find the last time the Celtics had a below-.500 record at this point in the season.
Because there’s no one player or one area in need of shoring up, figuring out the best way to get back on track after losing three in a row and seven of 10 is a lot easier said than done.
Stevens will likely continue tinkering with the lineup and the rotations. Players will continue to talk about the problems offensively and how time, more than anything else, may provide the elixir to all that ails them.
They fall into deep holes early, claw their way back only to come up short in the end.
"I think that, at this point, it’s just tiring. Like I said, there’s no more time to wait,” said Kyrie Irving. “It’s not that I’m pushing the panic button or anything like that, I just think that there’s no more time to wait for games to start off and then go down in a hole where even our home crowd has been antsy and guys are pressing and stuff like that. It’s a long game but I think there are some controllable things in the beginning of the game that we can fix.”
Which brings us to tonight’s game at Atlanta, one pitting two of the NBA’s lowest-scoring teams in the first quarter.
Boston is averaging a league-low 23.8 points scored in the first while the Hawks aren’t much better, coming in at No. 24 (26.4).
Defensively, Boston’s defensive rating ranks No. 2 in the NBA this season (102.8) while the Hawks rank among the league’s bottom 10 defensively.
Celtics players and coaches caution not to get too caught up in the team’s defensive numbers. which have in large part been fueled by a strong start defensively.
Because if you take a look at the past 10 games, you’ll see a stark contrast when compared to what has been an elite Celtics team defensively for years.
In the past 10, Boston’s defense has dipped to ninth in the NBA (106.5) which is still good. But when you balance that with an offense that has yet to get on track this season, winning – even against teams near the bottom of the standings – is a lot easier said than done.
“One of the things we’re learning and I've talked about this in the past, is there’s a difference from where you are out there chasing teams trying to prove something, and the position we’re in now,” said Al Horford. “I think we just expect to get it done. You forget everything you need to do to win games.
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Horford added, “This is some adversity we’re facing right now. Honestly, I never want to go through this but this is the time. It’s still early enough we’re addressing it and we need to be able … if we want to do anything we need to be able to overcome this that we’re dealing with.”
Which makes tonight’s game against the Atlanta Hawks a big one – something no one would have envisioned being the case between these two teams this season.
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