This team looks to have quit on Joe

[blink]

I think it is too early to think that the players have quit on the coach.  If this tailspin continues and we drop to 4/5th in the east, then it might be a concern. 

I miss the emphasis that Ime had on defending.  Mazz doesn't seem to mind, just shoot more 3's!

So I think this is mainly a players thing right now.  Our guys are experienced enough to know we need to play better on def. 

[hpantazo]

It's got nothing to do with Joe. This is what this Celtics core does every year at some point. They had stretches where they quit under Brad, under Ime, and now under Joe. They take parts of the season off for whatever reason. They are their own worst enemy.

[goCeltics]

Bring back Ime

[ozgod]

Sky's falling in again? I thought all was well after the Milwaukee game and the four game win streak? 2 losses, one a blowout and the world is ending?

This is the type of result that happens when you don't take the opponent seriously, lapse on defense and let them shoot 50% from 3. You will get blown out. It's a good thing it happened, they got the result their effort deserved. Would it happen if they were playing a top class opponent? In a seven game series? I wouldn't think so. But premature to jump to conclusions, especially after a loss like this.

Ever since their hot start, I've always felt that the biggest risk they face is boredom and maintaining that high standard through 8 months and 82 games, playing teams they consider to be inferior. Last season they started bad, were at .500 most of the year so our expectations were low, and had to basically win most of of their games in the 2nd half of the season to get a decent playoff seeding. This season, they're front running and it's probably the "meh" part of the season for them, where they want to get to the playoffs already but they have to play another 44 games just to finish the regular season. Today they came out with the wrong attitude, didn't take care of the ball, messed up their coverages, let the other team shoot .500, and got what they deserved. This game tells you who the guys are who didn't take this game serious - Al with 2 pts on 3 shot attempts, 2 rebounds, GWill 0 points, 1 shot attempt, Smartacus getting ejected after a 2nd T were just the ones that came to mind. In a way I'm glad they got thrashed, because this is the type of result that you can't hide from, that the media will be all over, that will force them to look at each other and say how did we let a team like OKC do that to us. And either they will respond positively or not, and we will get a better idea of their Finals credentials based on how they respond.

Bad game, but just as people were calling for Udoka to be fired after December last season, and Joe after our West Coast road trip and 0-3 start to the homestand, any overreaction is premature. We can't expect to go through a whole season and not deal with adversity. We just, as any fanbase, tend to overreact to adversity. Let's see what they can do to turn it around before getting rid of everyone. They haven't had the same personnel to execute the defensive coverages they were able to last season, mainly because Timelord has been out most of the year and was out again tonight. To me the biggest issue is they seem to pick and choose which games they are going to play well in - not all of them, but some of the lesser lights are not as consistent as the others in terms of their effort. That's got to be Joe's No.1 priority to fix. Bench those guys if they aren't putting 100% every night to send a message.

But I won't lie, it's fun raging and sticking the boot into them after a bad performance - cathartic even

[Birdman]

They need more scoring help besides Tatum & Brown..Gallinari was suppose to.. Smart, Grant, White are not gotta get u points… Al is 36..Malcolm been up & down

[Roy H.]

They need more scoring help besides Tatum & Brown..Gallinari was suppose to.. Smart, Grant, White are not gotta get u points… Al is 36..Malcolm been up & down

While we could use another scorer / shooter, I think that the bigger issue is that we’ve completely abandoned defense.

[Banner18now!]

I don’t think the team has quit on Joe. It’s just “normal” now for good teams to get blown out by weaker opponents. We’ve seen it with the Bucks recently. I think players now just don’t play hard every game. They’re just waiting for the playoffs. With all the DNPs and load management, it’s really hard to figure out how teams are looking at the regular season. Perhaps the only concern is to get healthy and make a run in the playoffs. That’s just how I see the modern NBA. It’s hard to take losses like this, but it’s also hard to argue against Joe when you look at the standings (i think we’re tied with BKN now in the loss column). As bad as the team has been playing of late, they’re still on top of the East.

I agree on this. Unfortunately about 80% of the regular season is unwatchable to me. Just watch the big games when players show up and the playoffs. I would never pay for a ticket unless it’s a big game. Load management and players not playing hard is just part of the NBA now.

[Celtics2021]

I'm not calling for his firing, but if this play persists, then he needs to go.

They allowed the most points to a team in 3 qtrs....in franchise history. Let's not forget they're without their best player as well.

A team with this amount of talent would have to try to be that bad.

Something is very wrong. Joe has this team regressing and I'm not sure if he has the answers.

TP for saving me from having to create this thread. If we go on another losing skid, it may be time to make Stoudamire the interim coach.

I clicked on this thread thinking it was you who created it, but it’s in brand for angryguy too.  I strongly disagree with both of your opinions.

[mig3zwo]

another "the sky is falling because we lost to a lousy team" thread.
*yawn*

the standings don't matter, I guess...

[Roy H.]

The sky isn't falling, but we've lost 7 of our last 12.  That run of sustained mediocrity is worrisome.

[Moranis]

The sky isn't falling, but we've lost 7 of our last 12.  That run of sustained mediocrity is worrisome.

As I've said elsewhere this just seems like regression to the mean.  Boston wasn't as good as it started the year, it was only natural it would come back to where it should be.

[Celtics4ever]

At first Joe looked like a offensive wizard at the beginning of the season.  This may have been the players eager and hungry after the finals lost.  The sky is not falling but this troubling play is a pattern.

1)    He trusts his players, this is going to get him burnt.   You can trust a guy and still ride him when he is under performing.    Like I said, earlier he wants to be their friend not their coach.    Human nature is too slack when there is no accountability.
2)   The lack of emphasis on D, is horrible.    It is perplexing,   Some of it is personal, Al is not young anymore, Timelord was out, but this has not improved once he came back.   Were like the Phoenix Suns at the beginning of the year with great offensive and poor D.    Now the offensive has spluttered and the D is not there and that is a recipe for bad teams to walk all over you
3)   Can't manage the game, has no concept of timeouts, his out of timeout plays are bad.
4)    Can't motivate the guys to play with solid consistent effort.  Bad teams lick  their chops when they see us.   The effort coming our of the second half last night was abyssmal
5) Can he lead?   I have my doubts.   Trap games seem to happen a lot under his tenure. zero accountability.   I get treating the players like adults and putting trust in them but some of this play is unacceptable
6)   This team talks the walk but does not walk the walk.  This goes all the way to the coach
7)   No adjustments game to game
  We live and die by the three and we been dying a lot more lately.  Denver was so hot that one game that one is not on him.

We appeared to have that intensity under Damon or it could have been the team getting up for a good team.

I wonder if guys do not respect him  ( pure speculation) as he was not a NBA player, but if they like Joe, and it appears they do, they better turn this around quickly.  He has to be tough, as he played for Bob Huggins and if you have ever  been around Huggy Bear he demands toughness from his players.  Someone needs to tell him it's ok to get on the players.

Guys get promoted all the time, above their capacity.    I don't think he has done anything to remove the interim and quite frankly is should not be removed.  He is learning on the fly, to his credit.   He was placed in a really rough situation with Udoka's suspension and dealt a hand of bad luck when he lost Gallinari.  So it has not been easy for him.   But things are getting worse, not better.   Perhaps that was inevitable with the hot start?

 Hopefully, he turns it around, but we will see, it looks grim at present.   Best wishes to him he just needs to make some tweaks.

[Vermont Green]

The sky isn't falling, but we've lost 7 of our last 12.  That run of sustained mediocrity is worrisome.

As I've said elsewhere this just seems like regression to the mean.  Boston wasn't as good as it started the year, it was only natural it would come back to where it should be.

The regression to the mean theory has some merit.  I think the entire team and maybe coaching staff started to believe they were better than they really are.  But I don't think the team has quit on the coach.  I think they are coasting though, which isn't as bad as quitting but still is not good. 

I don't know if Mazzulla is a good coach or not.  It is too early to tell.  As a fan, there is just too much that I don't know to make a judgement at this time.  Some adjustments are needed, tactically and mentally.  Our defense is not working.  Some tactical adjustments are needed.  Or maybe just some additional emphasis on some details of the execution of the scheme.  But something.

And then someone needs to say out loud that just coasting through the regular season, expecting to make the finals, is not acceptable.  I don't think this team, relative to the other top teams, is good enough to expect to be able to just flip the switch.

It is a long season.  This stretch is not the end of the world, but it is concerning to me.  Mazzulla has to handle this.  It is what good coaches do.  Not all by himself, the team leaders have a role here too but this is at least in part a coaching issue, something the coach needs to address and fix.

[Csfan1984]

Players have quit on the team by not following the scheme and style of play. But that can be unrelated to Joe and not even intentional by the players themselves (bad habits). Everyone needs to get back to the offense they were running to start the year and last year's defense. And I mean everyone on the team.

[Kernewek]

I'm not calling for his firing, but if this play persists, then he needs to go.

They allowed the most points to a team in 3 qtrs....in franchise history. Let's not forget they're without their best player as well.

A team with this amount of talent would have to try to be that bad.

Something is very wrong. Joe has this team regressing and I'm not sure if he has the answers.

TP for saving me from having to create this thread. If we go on another losing skid, it may be time to make Stoudamire the interim coach.

Better yet, let's get Amar'e in.