It’s been this bad — in the last 10 games the Celtics offense has averaged 96.9 points per 100 possessions (via NBA.com’s own stats), which over the course of the season would be 29th in the NBA. Barely better than what’s left of the Wizards. At the other end, Boston’s defense has been inconsistent (it was not good against Chicago Tuesday, it had been better in general of late).
The result is a 12-12 team that is the current eight seed in the East. The Celtics right now are average.
Who are the Boston Celtics right now? A defensive team that likes to run and has great shooters? It doesn’t show and they look like a team searching for itself.
I’m not ready to start shoveling dirt on the Celtics yet, we did that early last season and they pulled it all together for a very good playoff run. But the hole is dug and they seem to be lowering themselves into it this season.
To me the issues start on offense. What leaps out of the statistics in the last 10 games is that while Boston is not shooting terribly well, they are really getting hurt by a lack of offensive rebounding and turnovers. Both of those have been long-standing issues for the Celtics, but ones they were able to overcome in the past by knocking down shots and getting to the free throw line. However Boston is pretty average to slightly below average in their last 10 games in shooting and free throws, which is not enough to cover up the flaws.
Boston turned its offense more over to Rajon Rondo this year and Doc Rivers told A. Sherrod Blakely he thinks Rondo is trying to do too much.
Frankly, I’m not worried about Rondo getting his groove back. Or for that matter Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce contributing well now and better late in the season and the playoffs.
But the bench is another issue — Boston thought they were adding depth this season but Jason Terry is not playing as big a role in the offense as he did in Dallas, Brandon Bass and Courtney Lee have struggled, and Jeff Green has been the guy Oklahoma City was willing to trade (he teases you with flashes and a good game or two, then reverts to form). Rivers is throwing everything, every lineup he can think of against a wall but nothing is sticking. Not consistently.
Which comes back to the identity question. Boston has always been a defensive team, but they just gave up a triple-double to Joakim Noah. Not Derrick Rose, but Joakim Noah. Rivers and Pierce said after Tuesday night they are still searching to see who they are, as reported by Blakely at CSNNE.com.“This team is not a good team right now,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers whose team is now 12-12 on the season. “It’s who we are right now. We’re a .500 team and we play like that. We’ve won two games in a row for the season. Right now, we’re not a good team. We’re going to find, but not right now. We’re going to keep searching for it.”
“Right now we have no identity,” said a visibly disappointed Paul Pierce following Tuesday’s loss to the Bulls, their third straight. “We’re supposed to be a defensive team. But giving up 100 points every night, we’re inconsistent on the court ... we’re still searching, trying to find out who we want to be for this season.”
More than 20 games in, that’s not good. Especially in an East where the Heat know who they are (even if they don’t execute it nightly) and the Knicks have figured themselves out.
Boston has a long way to go to reach their goals. But we said that about them last season.