Celtics may be broken

[gouki88]

Lol, bit of an overreaction. I think a few posters got too used to the constant winning.

When you look at the circumstances, this team has massively overachieved.

• Second best player injured on opening night (in a grotesque fashion).
• Important rotation player missing considerable amounts of games, and not being able to gel with his new team as a result.
• 4 players retained from last seasons roster.
• Almost half of our players are rookies or sophomores

Hard to win games when stuff like this happens

[GratefulCs]

they ain't broke

but brother, they're badly bent

[Rondo9]

So now they're overachivers? 

[liam]

Lol, bit of an overreaction. I think a few posters got too used to the constant winning.

When you look at the circumstances, this team has massively overachieved.

• Second best player injured on opening night (in a grotesque fashion).
• Important rotation player missing considerable amounts of games, and not being able to gel with his new team as a result.
• 4 players retained from last seasons roster.
• Almost half of our players are rookies or sophomores

Hard to win games when stuff like this happens

With all that said they are still first in the East. This was always going to be a rough stretch with all these back to backs and no practice time for months....

[Chris22]

We lost Hayward, Morris, and Theis.
Utah was pumped up because we signed Hayward.
But my biggest concern is that we aren't even trying to rebound any more.
What happened to the first 15 games of the season when we were blocking out and trying to rebound?

[Celtics4ever]

But my biggest concern is that we aren't even trying to rebound any more.

We are 11th in the NBA in rebounding pverall, 19th in offensive and 6th in defensive.   So it is clear rebounding is not the main problem.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/traditional/?sort=REB&dir=-1

Our lack of scoring of the bench is a bigger problem.

A typical "sky is falling" thread that follows a loss here. We are going to lose some games, and we are going to win some games we should not and lose some games we should win.   That is sports, folks, it is a long season.

Quote
Irving is controlling the ball way too much - as advertised.  This is destroying Stevens' ball movement offense

I call BS on this assertion.   You do realize that a lot of the games we have won are due to his scoring.   I would rather have him taking a shot in the clutch than anyone not named Tatum.  Take a look here, its Clutch time stats and guess who is second in the NBA:

http://www.nbaminer.com/clutch-time-stats/

Yep, it's Irving.  It is Irving who has carried us for stretches when guys can't score.

[iadera]

It's not losses that bothers us. It's the play we (don't)produce at the moment. Smart realy sucks and that's not the news as well. Kyrie is not a problem also. Problem is that we can't find the rim. Rozier can't find where opponents basket is at all, Smart and Brown have a similar problem. Kyrie is taking the ball and the shots more and more exactly because of this problem. He sees that no one can score and someone has to if we want to win.
The team is showing it's weaknesses at highest level I believe and the biggest one would be INCONSISTENCY. We have a young team, too young I'd say and we'll fight against this problem as long as we don't add some veteran help. Horford is actually alone in the payment. Baynes is way too limited, Theis is young, Yabu is young, Tatum as a stretch-four as well. We just have to add some help in the paint and from the outside.

[Big333223]

This thread does not read like it's about a team that is 24-7 and first in its conference.

[Neurotic Guy]

C's are hitting a bit of a wall, but can definitely recover.  KI looks great, Horford seems tired, and Tatum/Brown are slowing down.  They need to gut out this stretch, get Morris (and now Theis) back healthy, and use that DPE to add a shooter.  They probably are more what most thought pre-season, out in 2nd round or ECF. But still a young, exciting team with an all-star returning next year and assets to trade.

[mctyson]

So a couple of losses and they're broken? Sigh.

First, I said "may be."

Second - you cannot ignore the fact that this team gets down by huge deficits quite frequently.  That is because their offense is not good.

They missed 18 straight yesterday and didn't make a field goal in the 2nd Q until there was 5 min left.  There have been a lot of scoring droughts recently.  That is a very scary sign because it reminds of their team from last season, particularly in the playoffs.

[mctyson]

Lol, bit of an overreaction. I think a few posters got too used to the constant winning.

When you look at the circumstances, this team has massively overachieved.

• Second best player injured on opening night (in a grotesque fashion).
• Important rotation player missing considerable amounts of games, and not being able to gel with his new team as a result.
• 4 players retained from last seasons roster.
• Almost half of our players are rookies or sophomores

Hard to win games when stuff like this happens

Not an overreaction at all.  Three of last 4 games have been putrid on offense, and they were already a mediocre offensive team.

Right now they have no answer for it.

[mctyson]

A typical "sky is falling" thread that follows a loss here. We are going to lose some games, and we are going to win some games we should not and lose some games we should win.   That is sports, folks, it is a long season.

This has nothing to do with a single loss, or even multiple losses.  I think this team is showing dangerous signs of being broken on the offensive end.  They have very few answers, especially when Tatum is not scoring.

The double-down on this is Stevens then goes to small lineups thinking this provides more pace and offense, but it makes them way worse in every other way.

Like I said, I am willing to chalk this up to the schedule/injuries but I have sneaking suspicion that this could get a lot worse.

[Celtics4ever]

This has nothing to do with a single loss, or even multiple losses.  I think this team is showing dangerous signs of being broken on the offensive end.  They have very few answers, especially when Tatum is not scoring

Welcome to having a top heavy roster and a weak with dependency on a youth movement.   Your going to have ups and downs.   I have always thought losing Hayward made us very fragile in terms of depth.

, I am willing to chalk this up to the schedule/injuries but I have sneaking suspicion that this could get a lot worse.

This we agree on.   One more injury (knock on wood) and we could be toast, especially if Horford or Irving went down.   I think losing Hayward will make us a lot tougher next year.   Tatum is learning on the job and has demonstrated proficiency in shooting.   I just wish he was more aggressive.

[GreenWarrior]

the only thing different from this team now and this team from the streak is guys aren't making shots and the defense isn't getting the stops. "getting stops" means we're not getting the defensive rebounds.

also.

i'm a huge Smart fan and I've defended everything he does on the court but Stevens needs to not make him the focal point on offense when he's on the floor. it really seems like they're running plays for him and that's it when he's on the floor. tatum needs to be part of that 2nd unit and be the focal point of the offense for that group.

I also feel Smart is kind of the one that is "broken". I think this comes from his option not being picked up and him feeling slighted, just my opinion and I have no proof. but seeing him in pre-season he looked like a completely different player and then came the day for the option to be picked up and then the very next game he looked like last season Marcus. even his defense hasn't been consistent imo.   
   
ideally rozier needs be flipped for someone, anyone better and consistent, either a big or a guard... just anyone. he gives me those AB feelings of "he might make this shot... and he might not".

[timpiker]

With the win streak, I think I misjudged this team's ability.  The rebounding has nearly died.  We're just not that good of a team.