What's wrong with the Celtics?

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Has a team ever been as good defensively at the start of the season as this year's Cs, and then fallen off a cliff so quickly?

[bopna]

Time for Christmas break

Bad news....this team aint have one.
Just one dayrest in between games till the new yr...the League really F!#ck us up with this scheduling.

[Chris22]

for the moment, the problem is
1. missing Morris, and
2. being tired (related to youth and Morris missing time)

Has Bird struggled to show more than shooting?  Wondering why he's not getting a few minutes with such a nice shot.  I guess he's not ready...just curious why (what's he missing)

Every time Bird has played, he looked good...athletic, nice three point shot, defense, etc...

[CFAN38]

bottom line

Cs are a very young team playing a tough stretch of schedule while dealing with injuries to key players. With out Hayward this isn't a 60 win team like it started out looking like. It also isnt a 40 win team like it currently looks like. The Cs will get healthy, win around 50 games this year, and make some noise in the playoffs.

Next season with a healthy Hayward and a year of development behind Tatum (and a lesser extent Semi) this team will be a legit finals team who can take it to 6 or 7 vs GS.   

[Celtics4ever]

We are a young team, crippled by injuries,  an anaemic bench, at times and prone to playing to the level of our opponents.    I think Next Year will be our year, when Hayward comes back and Brown and Tatum have more experience.   I think this team is very fragile.

It is inexcusable how we have regressed to just being a team that trades buckets.   I think some of the guys have believed their own hype.

[jambr380]

for the moment, the problem is
1. missing Morris, and
2. being tired (related to youth and Morris missing time)

Has Bird struggled to show more than shooting?  Wondering why he's not getting a few minutes with such a nice shot.  I guess he's not ready...just curious why (what's he missing)

Every time Bird has played, he looked good...athletic, nice three point shot, defense, etc...

I'm sure Bird isn't ready to make the splash that Tatum or even Theis has, but he is already on our roster. I can't imagine why he is not even getting a look when we have so many injuries (and Rozier has become a total negative, offensively).

[Ed Hollison]

Tired, injured, and running into motivated teams that are playing well (Knicks are 15-5 at home).

The schedule is going to be tough for a few more weeks. They probably lose their #1 seed during this stretch. But you could kind of see this coming given the type of schedule they're dealing with.

[Moranis]

Tired, injured, and running into motivated teams that are playing well (Knicks are 15-5 at home).

The schedule is going to be tough for a few more weeks. They probably lose their #1 seed during this stretch. But you could kind of see this coming given the type of schedule they're dealing with.

Raptors now have the fewest losses in the East (though Boston still has a slightly higher win percentage).  Cavs and C's are tied in the loss column though Cleveland has that very tough Christmas day game next. 

[KGBirdBias]

bottom line

Cs are a very young team playing a tough stretch of schedule while dealing with injuries to key players. With out Hayward this isn't a 60 win team like it started out looking like. It also isnt a 40 win team like it currently looks like. The Cs will get healthy, win around 50 games this year, and make some noise in the playoffs.

Next season with a healthy Hayward and a year of development behind Tatum (and a lesser extent Semi) this team will be a legit finals team who can take it to 6 or 7 vs GS.   

^^THIS^^

Let's settle in because this looks like the team we expected to see this year. Next year is the year.

[jambr380]

Tired, injured, and running into motivated teams that are playing well (Knicks are 15-5 at home).

The schedule is going to be tough for a few more weeks. They probably lose their #1 seed during this stretch. But you could kind of see this coming given the type of schedule they're dealing with.

Raptors now have the fewest losses in the East (though Boston still has a slightly higher win percentage).  Cavs and C's are tied in the loss column though Cleveland has that very tough Christmas day game next.

And to make matters worse, George Hill has now hit 14 of his last 19 3pt attempts and has overtaken Tatum for the league lead in that category. Now we don't even have that. 

Unfortunately for the Cs, I don't see things getting better anytime soon. Does anybody really think they stand a chance against Houston next week on the 2nd night of that back-to-back? We should settle down after the new year and it's great that we essentially get TWO All-Star breaks (because of London), but (always needs to be mentioned) this year's success hinges on Hayward's successful return.

[cman88]

we are young, our bench is abysmal, we have had several injuries and I think the schedule is getting to us.

guys like Hayward/Morris were supposed to be a big part of this team this year because you cant always rely on young players to carry the team every night. Granted Brown/Tatum have done a great job (although I think Tatum needs to assert himself more).

Also, our bench is abysmal. Smart/Rozier have tunnel vision when they want to shoot and they cant hit the side of a barn. Now imagine you have Hayward/Morris out with that 2nd unit...much different. its why Brad has started to take Tatum out early and put him in with the 2nd unit. But too many times I see Rozier/Smart looking for their own shot and not even getting the ball to tatum who clearly is the best scorer at this point in that unit.

I think the schedule has also destroyed our effort on the defensive end. we dont seem to be playing with as much energy as we did early in the season.

As the poster above mentioned, I always viewed this year as a growing year and next year to be our competitive year. Hayward returning and another year for Jaylen/Tatum to develop

[Big333223]

Tired, injured, and running into motivated teams that are playing well (Knicks are 15-5 at home).

The schedule is going to be tough for a few more weeks. They probably lose their #1 seed during this stretch. But you could kind of see this coming given the type of schedule they're dealing with.

Raptors now have the fewest losses in the East (though Boston still has a slightly higher win percentage).  Cavs and C's are tied in the loss column though Cleveland has that very tough Christmas day game next.

And to make matters worse, George Hill has now hit 14 of his last 19 3pt attempts and has overtaken Tatum for the league lead in that category. Now we don't even have that. 

Unfortunately for the Cs, I don't see things getting better anytime soon. Does anybody really think they stand a chance against Houston next week on the 2nd night of that back-to-back? We should settle down after the new year and it's great that we essentially get TWO All-Star breaks (because of London), but (always needs to be mentioned) this year's success hinges on Hayward's successful return.

I think this team's success hinges on recommitting to defense. Yes, the offense has had problems, but there are a lot of really dangerous transition scorers on the team that can't be unleashed when they're starting every position from out of bounds after a made shot.

I think the Knicks made something like 10 of their last 12 shots last night. Take away 4 of those shots and say the Celtics get even just one easy bucket in transition out of those and that's a 10 point swing and the game.

[jambr380]

Tired, injured, and running into motivated teams that are playing well (Knicks are 15-5 at home).

The schedule is going to be tough for a few more weeks. They probably lose their #1 seed during this stretch. But you could kind of see this coming given the type of schedule they're dealing with.

Hey, at least it's looking more and more like we are going to keep our top 55 protected pick this year that is owed to OKC if we don't finish in the top 5.

GSW, HOU, CLE, TOR, and SAS have a very good chance to beat out Boston. I am fine if we are top 3 (and CLE is #1), I just don't want to play them in the 2nd round.

[Rosco917]

Injuries, including the HUGE loss of Hayward, are exposing the shortcomings of this team, scheduling, along with youth are also playing a large part.

The rest of the league is adjusting to and taking advantage of the weakness' of Celtics. The Celtics have a bunch of players playing significant minutes that can be best described as very streaky shooters/scorers.

Still...with that said, we're much better off long-term with this years squad than last years. 

[Birdman]

No Gordon Hayward..no Marcus Morris..no Center