Coming
into the 2018-19 NBA season, the Boston Celtics on paper were
head-and-shoulders the favorites to win the Eastern Conference, even with the
likes of their division rivals the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers
having solid squads themselves. While they got off to a very rough start, the
Celtics managed to pull themselves together recently. That said they have
learned that it is one thing to be great on paper. It is another to put it all
together on the hardwood and no one has had to learn that then their All-Star
lead guard.
While
the Celtics (30-18) have gone 20-8 after a 10-10 start to the season, they have
had to deal with strife within their ranks in terms of defined roles.
We
kind of forget that a season ago, the Celtics lost their two prized additions
from the previous summer in All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, who were
signed in free agency and acquired respectably.
The
Celtics 2018 postseason march that had them one game away from the NBA Finals,
falling to four-time Kia MVP LeBron James and the then three-time reigning Eastern
Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers was led by then rookie Jayson Tatum;
second-year swingman Jaylen Brown and Irving’s understudy Terry Rozier.
Hayward
was lost minutes into the 2017-18 season due to a gruesome ankle injury and
Irving was lost a month before the postseason due to knee surgery.
While
Irving has found his sea legs this season, Hayward has had his struggles playing
to the kind of level he did in 2016-17 for the Utah Jazz.
To
change things up and to get them back on track, head coach Brad Stevens moved Hayward
to the bench and inserted Marcus Smart into the starting five and the Celtics
have played better.
They
Celtics though have hit a little speed bump in recent games though that has
brought some of those internal issues to the forefront again.
After
a 120-107 loss versus the Conference leading Milwaukee Bucks (34-12) on Dec.
21, 2018 on ESPN, their third loss in a row, the C’s held a very lengthy
postgame closed-door meeting in their locker room for close to 40 minutes to
air out their differences.
While
the specifics about the meeting were kept between the players and the media, it
was very clear that their up-and-down play following eight wins in a row was a
topic of discussion.
“It’s
something that we will keep in the locker room,” Tatum, who scored 20 on the
night said. “It’s not something for everybody to know what we talked about. We
just have to be better as a team.”
Brown
echoed that same sentiment said of the meeting, “It was well needed.” “It was
definitely well needed and we’re trying to move forward in the right direction.”
Things
seemed to be back on track for the Celtics as they followed up that loss versus
the Bucks on national television winning seven of their next nine games, which
included victories versus the No. 4 Seeded Philadelphia 76ers (32-17) in
overtime 121-114 on Christmas Day 2018 on ABC; versus the surging No. 6 Seeded
Brooklyn Nets (26-23) 116-95 on Jan. 7; and a blowout victory 135-108 versus
the No. 3 Seeded Indiana Pacers (32-15) two nights later.
That
hot streak was followed by another three-game skid, which began with a 115-99
loss two weeks ago at the No. 8 Seeded Miami Heat (22-24) 115-99 on Jan. 10 on
TNT.
The
low-light of that loss for the Celtics was heated exchange between Marcus
Morris, Sr., and Brown during a time out where the two had to be separated by
their teammates.
It
did not get any better two nights later as the Celtics were outscored 64-52 in
the second half of a 105-103 loss two nights later at the Orlando Magic, who
got big games from Aaron Gordon with 28 points and 12 rebounds, on 13 for 13
from the free throw line; Terrence Ross, who had 18 of his 25 points off the
bench in the second half, hitting five three-pointers; starting shooting guard
Evan Fournier had 18 points and center Nikola Vucevic had also had a
double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds.
The
Celtics, who lost the first two meetings against the Magic this season had a
chance to send the game into overtime in the final seconds but Tatum’s fallaway
jumper on the right baseline off an inbounds pass from All-Star Gordon Hayward
was short.
All-Star
Kyrie Irving, who had 10 of his 25 points from the free throw line in the final
period was visibly frustrated after the final buzzer with Hayward for not
getting a change to take that last shot and further expounded on that
frustration during his postgame presser about the inexperience of his younger
teammates.
“We’re
lacking it and because of that we have a lot of learning to do,” he said. “It
doesn’t matter the type of preparation you have What you’re going out and
trying to accomplish. What’s the big picture? What are we going here?”
“These
are a lot of things I don’t think some of my teammates have faced of just every
single. It’s not easy to be great so the things that you’re doing—that you’ve
done your entire career of being able to kind of coast by in certain situations
and you’ve gotten away with your youth and stuff like that. Being on a
championship ball club you can’t get away with that.”
The
Celtics certainly did not get away with it in their next game, a 109-102 loss
at the Nets on Jan. 14, which snapped a 10-game losing against their division
rivals, which was the C’s third loss in a row.
It
was clear after this loss that Irving calling out his teammates did not have
any positive effects, especially to start the second half as the Nets outscored
the Celtics 44-21 in the third quarter turning a one-point lead (46-45) at
intermission into a 24-point lead after three quarters at 90-66.
It
became clear after this loss that something had to give for the Celtics if they
were going to get back on track again following their third straight defeat.
“We
just have to have each other’s back at the end of the day,” Brown, who had 22
points in the loss said. “We can’t make comments. We can’t point fingers. We
just got to continue to empower each other and have each other’s back.”
“If
we don’t, we start pointing fingers everybody’s going to go into their own
little shell. We got to continue to play basketball and it starts from the top
to the bottom, not from the bottom to the top, but from the bottom to the top.
So, we got to continue to empower each other and make the best of this.”
The
Celtics as a whole came together in front of a national audience when they took
down the Raptors 117-108 on Jan. 16 on ESPN behind a 17-4 run to close out the
game.
Irving
led the way scoring 10 of his team-high 27 points in the fourth period, going
11 for 19 from the field, while authoring 6 of his career-high 18 assists as
well in the fourth. All-Star center Al Horford had 24 points with seven
rebounds and two block shots. Hayward had 18 off the bench while Tatum also had
a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds.
In
his first game back after missing 13 games due to a broken bone in his left
hand nine points and five rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench.
After
a great performance Irving talked about how he reached out to a former teammate
about how to be the leader of a team competing for a championship but took
responsibility of how he needed to do a better job of not calling his teammates
out in the press.
Irving
said that how he called his teammates out after the loss at the Magic was an
eye-opening moment in that his words have a major impact on the likes of Tatum,
Brown, and his understudy Terry Rozier.
That
teammate he reached out for leadership advice was four-time Kia MVP LeBron
James, his teammate for four years with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who reached
the NBA Finals four straight seasons from 2015-2018.
“I
had to call ‘Bron and tell him like, “I apologize for being that young player
that wanted everything at his fingertips, and I wanted everything to be at my threshold,’”
Irving said after the win versus the Raptors.
Irving
also said that he wanted to be the leader who led the Cavaliers to a
championship, which he kind of did when he hit the game-winning three-pointer
in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals at the Warriors.
Getting
to that moment though Irving said took a lot of hard work and checking the ego
at the door that required a lot of patience from James, which Irving is going
through right now.
“The
responsibility of being the best player in the world and leading a team is
something that’s not meant for many people and ‘Bron was one of those guys that
came to Cleveland and tried to really show us what it’s like to win a championship
and it was hard for him,” Irving said.
“Sometimes
getting the most out of the group is not the easiest thing in the world. Like I
said only a fewer are meant for it or chosen for it…. And I felt like the best
person to call was him because he’s been in this situation. He’s been there
with me, where I’ve been the young guy, been the 22-year-old, and wanting
everything, wanting everything right now.”
To
bring into further context of how this call Irving made to James really brought
things full circle, James was having dinner with Cavaliers All-Star forward
Kevin Love at a pizza place in L.A., according to “The Athletics’” Joe Vardon.
Love
said on Irving’s phone call, “LeBron looked down at his phone and he showed us.
He was like, ‘I wonder what he wants.’”
Regardless
of why Irving called, by him reaching out revealed not only that he gained
perspective from what he and some of his teammates and James went through that
he is experiencing now.
That
the only way to really grow as a leader is to know how to communicate sometimes
with your teammates. Not everyone can be screamed on or called out in the
media, in practice or in games. Sometimes they need a pat on the back or they
need to be engaged in private.
As
Rozier said recently to Yahoo! Sports about the issues with the C’s roster, “I
don’t think we’ve all been on a team like this. Young guys who can play, guys
who did things in their career, the group that was together last year, then you
bring Kyrie and Hayward back, it’s a lot with it… Too much talent, yeah. Too
talented.”
Tatum
echoed those same thoughts to former Celtics champion, future Hall of Famer and
now ESPN NBA studio analyst Paul Pierce when he said in an interview in New
York, NY for Nike’s self-debut of their new Lasik shoes saying, “All of us are
really just trying to find our niche and grove as well as trying to work
together each and every night.”
What
has especially helped the Celtics get out of this rut is the face of the
franchise goes out and has stellar performance like Irving did against the team
in the Raptors and their superstar player Kawhi Leonard, who had a game-high 33
points on 10 for 19 from the field, and 11 for 11 from the free throw line that
is standing in your way of reaching your ultimate goal in the Raptors last week.
It
took Irving five games to total 18 assists in his first five games with James,
as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst pointed out on Jan. 17 edition of “NBA: The Jump” on
ESPN. He had that number in one game while still being able to score the
basketball like he did against the Raptors and in the playoffs the prior four
seasons he was in “The Land.”
“Kyrie’s
value in a playoff setting, it just increases because of what he can do under
pressure in the playoffs,” Windhorst said.
“He’s
had dozens of phenomenal playoff games under pressure He’s not afraid to take
the big shot. He’s not shown he can be shaken by expectations or anything.”
“Kyrie
in May and June is one of the most idol players to have in the league. You got
to go through a lot to get to May and June with him. But if you can bring him
to the opportunity, he will be able to win you games.”
Coming
into this season as mentioned, the Boston Celtics on paper were the clear-cut
favorites to represent the East in the 2018 NBA Finals and be a serious threat
of denying the back-to-back champion Warriors from their third straight title.
The
ride has not been smooth to say the least but the C’s have found their footing
winning eight games in a row overall and 10 straight at home.
They
have the best closer in the game in Irving, a deep roster that consist of a mix
of youth in Tatum, Brown and Rozier and steady veteran in Horford and they are
a very deep team that plays on both ends of the court.
The
Celtics understand that they can still represent the East in The Finals this
spring as long as they continue to improve their play both individually and
collectively on both ends.
The
will get a major test this weekend when the Warriors pay them a visit in “Beantown”
this Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.
“I
mean honestly, you know, we’re not where we want to be right now. Everybody can
see that,” Tatum said to Pierce. “You want to peak at the right time.”
“We
really want to get to the playoffs and that’s when basketball really matters.
But you know we got to figure some things out and just be more consistent, and
I think that’s our biggest flaw right now.”
Information,
statistics, and quotations are courtesy of www.nba.com/games/20190112/BOSORL#/boxscore/recap;
1/13/19 7 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia with Chris
Miles, David Griffin, and Brendan Haywood; www.nba.com/games/20190114/BOSBKN#/boxscore/recap;
1/15/19 7:30 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia with Casey
Stern and Isiah Thomas; www.nba.com/games/20190116/TORBOS#/recap/boxscore;
1/17/19 2 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Matt Winer, Grant Hill, and
Brendan Haywood; 1/17/19 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump,” on ESPN with Rachel
Nichols, Nick Friedell, Tracy McGrady, and Brian Windhorst; 1/21/19 3 p.m.
edition of “NBA: The Jump,” on ESPN with
Rachel Nichols, Zach Lowe, and Paul Pierce; www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/bos;
and www.espn.com/nba/standings.
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