Four games left, and the Celtics don't "know who [they] are"...

[Kuberski1]

After just watching the replay, yep, call me concerned.

You can dismiss regular season losses for any number of reasons, e.g. injuries, fatigue, etc.  But last night, none of that should have mattered too much.  It was clearly a big game, and meant as much to us (2nd seed) as it did to them.  And we were not only out-played, but "out-toughed".

When opposing teams have played us in the POs, they often commented on our toughness - I remember statements from the Cavs and Magic players last year.  I don't think we have that at the moment.

Chicago was all over the paint last night, and we were settling for jump shot after jump shot.  After a while, you didn't even have to look at the score - you knew Chicago was going to win, just by looking at the flow of the game.  

[celticinorlando]

pretty scary to hear that

[footey]

And yes, Im usually a positive guy, but between the celtics and sox im not having a good week 

Right there with you, my friend, in a very long line of depressed NE fans. 

[Drucci]

This is all just talk, good for stories and media fuss but in the end they know exactly who they are and what are their expectations. The playoffs can't come soon enough.

[BballTim]

  I think people would be more concerned if they said they didn't have any issues at all.

Maybe.  With me personally, I'd feel a lot better if guys were saying that they're trying some things out, trying to maintain energy for the playoffs, etc.

What worries me is that what we keep hearing is "We're trying, but we're just not good enough" or "We don't have an identity" or "We're still trying to build on court chemistry".  That's not encouraging to me.

I absolutely think that Shaq will make a difference if he's healthy.  However, I'm not sure if he'll be enough to suddenly restore the identity that Doc seems to think was lost.

  Agree somewhat, but I'm not sure that "we're coasting a little" won't fly very well.

[Tai]

I won't call these guys liars by any means, but do they really think they don't know who they are, or do they think they aren't playing the way they think they should be, based on their identity? The latter's definitely happened lately, for the most part.

As in, will they not know who they are if/when Shaq comes back?

[pearljammer10]

Does this concern anybody else?

"We made all the moves, so it's tough to really know who you are," Rivers said. "We knew that when we decided to do this. But we'll discover that and we've got to do a better job of figuring that out."

"We need to look in the mirror and find out who we are," added Jeff Green.

Link.

As Ken Berger says,

During their four-year run of relentless success, the Celtics have always been the team with no doubts about who and what they were. Until now.

Also from Doc:

Rivers said typically the team has a sense of its identity going into the playoffs. Asked if that sense was missing, Rivers said, “I would say that’s true, yeah.’’

Link.

I worry about this stuff.  I know a lot of people don't buy into the chemistry issue, but when the coach says that after 78 games the team doesn't have an identity, I worry. 

I'm hoping for the best with the playoffs.  There's a lot more downtime after the season and in between playoff games than normal, so hopefully this team can find a way to gel.  However, I'd be lying if I said I was particularly encouraged right now.

These are the exact reasons you dont blow up a number 1 seeded team at the trade deadline and try to start all over to improve. The Celtics chemistry went much deeper than what we saw on the court. The trust that you gain while off the court carries over to the performance on the court and that was lost with all the deadline moves. The celtics have lost the bad boy swagger and trying to search for a new "identity" now is probably the worst thing that could have happened to them. Perkins meant a lot more to this team than a lot of people really understand... It goes being his talent.

[Junkyard Dawg]

I'll say that I'm very concerned, and feel the problems the C's are having this year are unlike anything they've struggled with before. 

However, to me, we are still clearly better than 27 teams in the NBA, and although it didn't look like it last night, I think in a 7 game series we are right there with the Lakers or the Bulls.  Not having HCA is going to hurt, but these guys know it's probably their last shot at a title.  Lakers got lucky last year with Perk going down, maybe this year we get a little luck.  I doubted them last year, I'm not gonna do it again.

[wahz]

yes those statements are all concerning.

As much of a homer I am, if you would have told me last summer, we'd have Shaq and Jermaine, but we would trade Perk and not get a defensive center back and JO and Shaq would hardly play come playoff time, Id have easily said  yes,"we" can't win it then.

This years hope was based on having better and more bigs, more depth otherwise, and the core 4 not dropping off. I thought we could win 65 games with this team and still be taking it easy IF we were healthy.

What went wrong is:

1. JO never filled in for Perk before Perk came back
2. Shaq played more than anyone expected because of that and got hurt
3. Marquis played well but got hurt mysteriously again, so we lost a back up for PP
4. One of the better back up points and shooting guards in the league, Delonte, missed almost the entire season.
5. The core 4 and Baby played way more minutes than you and I ever imagined they should, and they played great until the all star break and at least worse than expected after.
6. Nate, who I actually know, honestly played very poorly except with the first unit which mattered because of Delonte
7. We trade him and Perk. Perk was one of the things that went right. He came back VERY early and immediately had an impact.
8  By trading Perk and not having Shaq, Jo or Sheed, we go from always having a good to great post defender the last 4 years to having virtually NO post defense. Does KG feel like he is back in Minny?
9. By trading Perk we have somehow blown up Rajon. It was obvious immediately but now its gotten silly. I have nothing to say about it now because now I really don't understand it. I mean is Rajon this fragile mentally really? Im not saying he is but he is playing about like in his 2nd year.

So we go into May and clearly what we need is the big 4 and Baby to play like they did early this year; we need Shaq and JO to put in 35 minutes total, and we need Delonte to stay healthy and no other injuries. We need ALL of these things but wouldn't you have felt too that we needed all of these things last summer?

As far as yesterday, I wouldn't expect a win with Jo playing 18 minutes and only Baby down low otherwise. I wouldn't.

[vinnie]

It is interesting that some believe the players are "making stuff up" and just saying these things for the sake of saying them. They clearly have no identity right now. They clearly do not know who they are. Just watch them play. And, to depend on Shaq coming back, being healthy, and contributing at a high level -- that's a bet that I wouldn't take.

Danny blew up the team 2/3 of the way through the season and my guess is that the team and the fans will pay for this in the end.

[Tai]

It is interesting that some believe the players are "making stuff up" and just saying these things for the sake of saying them. They clearly have no identity right now. They clearly do not know who they are. Just watch them play. And, to depend on Shaq coming back, being healthy, and contributing at a high level -- that's a bet that I wouldn't take.

Danny blew up the team 2/3 of the way through the season and my guess is that the team and the fans will pay for this in the end.

He blew up the team by trading Perk? You mean the Celtics haven't been better since, and that's it. Calling the trade "blowing up the team" is an exaggeration, plain and simple.

[PosImpos]

Yep . . . . hearing these sorts of comments robs me of any hope that the post-season will turn out well for the Celtics. 

We just need to hope somebody beats the Lakers.


#18 is somewhere far off . . . not to be attained with any of the players currently on the roster.

[vinnie]

It is interesting that some believe the players are "making stuff up" and just saying these things for the sake of saying them. They clearly have no identity right now. They clearly do not know who they are. Just watch them play. And, to depend on Shaq coming back, being healthy, and contributing at a high level -- that's a bet that I wouldn't take.

Danny blew up the team 2/3 of the way through the season and my guess is that the team and the fans will pay for this in the end.

He blew up the team by trading Perk? You mean the Celtics haven't been better since, and that's it. Calling the trade "blowing up the team" is an exaggeration, plain and simple.

He traded 5 guys, not just Perk. And again, for the millionth time and what I have been saying from the beginning, it is not the specific players who were traded, but the fact that they changed almost 50 percent of the roster with fewer than 30 games left to play. And, I will add that the new guys really have not had a huge, positive impact on this team.

[Rondo2287]

It is interesting that some believe the players are "making stuff up" and just saying these things for the sake of saying them. They clearly have no identity right now. They clearly do not know who they are. Just watch them play. And, to depend on Shaq coming back, being healthy, and contributing at a high level -- that's a bet that I wouldn't take.

Danny blew up the team 2/3 of the way through the season and my guess is that the team and the fans will pay for this in the end.

He blew up the team by trading Perk? You mean the Celtics haven't been better since, and that's it. Calling the trade "blowing up the team" is an exaggeration, plain and simple.

He traded 5 guys, not just Perk. And again, for the millionth time and what I have been saying from the beginning, it is not the specific players who were traded, but the fact that they changed almost 50 percent of the roster with fewer than 30 games left to play. And, I will add that the new guys really have not had a huge, positive impact on this team.

Right but out of the 5 guys that he traded, 4 of them were injured or not contributing.  And I know your big problem is that he brought in too many new guys so late, but where would we be if we were left with one healthy body instead of the guys we got back.  Wouldnt we be in even worse shape?

[ejk3489]

It is interesting that some believe the players are "making stuff up" and just saying these things for the sake of saying them. They clearly have no identity right now. They clearly do not know who they are. Just watch them play. And, to depend on Shaq coming back, being healthy, and contributing at a high level -- that's a bet that I wouldn't take.

Danny blew up the team 2/3 of the way through the season and my guess is that the team and the fans will pay for this in the end.

He blew up the team by trading Perk? You mean the Celtics haven't been better since, and that's it. Calling the trade "blowing up the team" is an exaggeration, plain and simple.

He traded 5 guys, not just Perk. And again, for the millionth time and what I have been saying from the beginning, it is not the specific players who were traded, but the fact that they changed almost 50 percent of the roster with fewer than 30 games left to play. And, I will add that the new guys really have not had a huge, positive impact on this team.

Right but out of the 5 guys that he traded, 4 of them were injured or not contributing.  And I know your big problem is that he brought in too many new guys so late, but where would we be if we were left with one healthy body instead of the guys we got back.  Wouldnt we be in even worse shape?

Exactly.

And regardless of whether or not we traded Perkins, there's a pretty good chance that we would've traded those other guys and would have to incorporate 3-4 new players.