Something appears to be seriously wrong with the Boston Celtics. At least, they are when you consider the team the Celtics were expected to be entering the season.
They were supposed to compete for the Eastern Conference title. They still could — but after Tuesday’s home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Celtics looked like anything but a contender.
Instead, they looked like a team that’s still lacking cohesion, and maybe even some determination. As it stands, the Celtics (32-30) are in sixth place in the East.
So, what has to change?
“Find that inner flame, man, it needs to be ignited,” Jaylen Brown told reporters. “Passion needs to show on the court, the urgency needs to show. We need that desperately — we need that fire, we need that fight, we need to stop getting hit in the face and try to respond. We have to punch first.”
The Celtics have lost four or five. At this rate, they could be headed for the play-in tournament.
That said, there is still time to get things corrected in time for when the season means the most.
“Absolutely. We definitely want to try to make a push to get higher in the standings. We’ve got 11, 12 games left,” Brown said. “To be honest, looking at the standings right now you don’t know where anybody’s gonna end up.
“One, two, and three are all close. Four, five, and six is right there, and seven, eight, nine, 10 all gotta be play-in games, so we don’t know where things might end up.
“We are just trying to improve in areas that we need to improve and get ready to continue to make a push for the playoffs. We just got to be the best version of ourselves, we’re not too concerned, but yes, to answer your question, we want to stay away from those play-in games.”
