Have the Celtics checked out for the season, or will they flip a switch come playoff time?

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Brad Stevens took Saturday night’s loss to Chicago to heart, repeatedly pointing the finger of blame at himself.

Jaylen Brown stood before the media, and said all the right things that you’re supposed to say when you lose to a team like the Bulls that you know you have no business losing to. 

Kyrie Irving was disappointed with the double-digit loss to the Chicago Bulls, but didn’t seem overly bothered by losing to a team that they had beaten twice this season by an average of 42.5 points per game.

“I don’t get frustrated anymore,” Irving told reporters in Chicago.

Their collective responses following Boston’s 126-116 loss to the Bulls -- more than the loss itself or the lack of effort displayed by the team, more than anything else that went wrong Saturday night -- was disturbing. 

Following the loss, Marcus Smart questioned the team’s will to win. 

I’ll do you one better, Marcus.

I think the bigger concern is the Celtics’ will to compete. 

Because that more than anything else, was missing in the loss to Chicago and frankly, is absent or not in nearly as plentiful of a supply as it should be when they are facing teams that aren’t very good record-wise. 

☘️BULLS 126, CELTICS 116

You would be wrong to chalk up Saturday's loss to being “just one of those games” because it’s one of those games that this team seems to have more than their share of this season (read: Orlando twice; Phoenix; Brooklyn; Los Angeles Lakers; Los Angeles Clippers; and now the Chicago Bulls).

Again, it’s not the fact that they lost to all those teams, but more about how a lack of effort and respect for their opponent factored heavily in them going down. 

It’s like they get it in their heads that teams with bad records are just going to roll over after they hit them with an early punch. 

Look at Saturday night’s loss, a game in which Boston opened with a 7-0 run but soon got behind by as many as 25 points.

Hearing Brad Stevens talk about the need for him to do a better job -- while it sounds great -- is concerning, because it reminds us all that for the first time since he has been in Boston, he has yet to figure out how to make the parts he has been given to work with better collectively than they are as individuals. 

And that has been among the many challenges he has faced this year, and frankly struggled with being successful at on a level we have come to expect from him. 

Brown’s words were an act of respect towards the Bulls, which is the right thing to do most of the time. 

But that time isn’t now. 

Instead, Brown and his teammates should have shown some signs of anger, or at least frustration, over repeatedly playing down to the level of their opponents. 

Rather than do that, they looked and sounded like a team resigned to being consistently inconsistent with their effort and mental toughness, and instead saving that for the best teams.

But here’s the thing. 

Losing to teams like the Bulls makes the journey to playing those elite teams a lot harder than it should be, because those losses add up and run the risk of resulting in Boston having a less-than-ideal first round matchup. 

A win over the Bulls would have put the Celtics into a tie with Philadelphia for fourth in the East. By virtue of already winning the head-to-head series, Boston would get the fourth seed -- and home court advantage in the first round. 

But the loss to Chicago keeps them in fifth place and maybe more than anything else, raises more questions than answers about whether this team has the will to compete. 

Because if they think things will just instantly click come playoff time and the struggles of today will just disappear, they are in for a rude awakening.

If we’re talking just talent, this Celtics team is more than capable of navigating all the way to the NBA Finals. 

But the playoffs are about more than who is on your roster; it’s about how those on your roster are playing. 

As we saw against the Bulls, Kyrie Irving can have a sub-par game and still put up big-time numbers (he had 37 points and 10 assists but at best was the third-most impactful player in the game). 

Yes, Irving is that gifted. 

But the rest of his teammates need to go into the playoffs with some kind of rhythm, the kind of rhythm needed  in order for the Celtics to win games. 

And right now, it’s just not there as a group with the kind of consistency needed to be an elite, title-contending team. 

Some might look at it as just another bad game. 

But this team has bigger concerns beyond losing to a bad team here and there. 

They are playing the “flip the switch” game that we’ve seen veteran, battle-tested teams play from time to time. 

But this Celtics team is too young, too inexperienced and hasn’t done anything of significance to believe they can turn it on just like that. 

You can add that to the growing list of disturbing traits about this Celtics team as we inch closer and closer to when their will to compete will be put to the ultimate test -- the playoffs.

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