So … is it time to start worrying about Boston?
Thursday’s nationally televised whooping inside Crypto.com Arena was ugly. The Celtics trailed by 11 at the end of the first quarter, by 19 at the half and by 15 entering the fourth quarter before Joe Mazzulla waved the white flag. L.A. shredded Boston’s top-10 defense, connecting on 47.2% of its shots, including 42.9% of its threes.
Bad games happen. But the Celtics are immersed in a few bad , with losses to the Bulls, Raptors and Hawks and near-losses to the Pelicans and banged-up Clippers. After starting the season 21–5, Boston is 10–9 in its last 19 games. Statistically the Celtics have been solid, remaining top-10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency during this stretch, but the effort at times has noticeably waned.
“It’s been a tough month in January for us,” said Jaylen Brown. “We’ve just got to continue to stay the course. We can’t really make excuses about why we’ve dropped games. We’ve probably dropped some games we should have won but at this point of the year we’ve just got to put our best foot forward.”
Midseason malaises happen. The championship hangover is real. Denver had some ugly stretches last season. The Warriors were a .500 team in the middle of the 2022–23 season (Draymond Green’s issues had a lot to do with that). It’s not unreasonable to expect Boston, which battled for the better part of six years to reach the mountaintop last season, to sleepwalk through some stretches.
Still … there are some red flags. Brown’s shot has been off the last two months. Derrick White’s, too. Jrue Holiday’s efficiency numbers are among the lowest they have been in years. Meanwhile, Boston’s once-vaunted defense isn’t as airtight as it was most of last season.
Time to panic? Probably not, though Celtics president Brad Stevens should strongly consider forking over more draft capital for another big to absorb some of these Luke Kornet minutes. But this is still the same team that went 16–3 in the playoffs last season. Boston remains No. 2 in the Eastern Conference with the third best point differential in the NBA. Any real concern will probably come after the All-Star break.
“It’s a part of just navigating the year,” Brown said. “Anything can happen. We just need to finish through the All-Star break strong and then get ready to gear up going in toward the playoffs and just continue to stay with it, stay the course, because I feel like we’re still the best team out there. We’ve just got to put it all together.”
