The Celtics have dropped six of their last nine games and blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead against Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Hornets on Monday. The defeat led to a change of plans for Brad Stevens, who called for a practice on a planned off day on Tuesday at the Auerbach Center, despite a busy schedule that includes three games in the next four days starting Wednesday.
While there is no doubt about the sense of urgency right now across the Celtics organization to turn the corner after the team's 9-8 start, Stevens did not call the practice to send a message to his players on that front. Instead, he was encouraged by a hard-fought loss against a red-hot Walker that had plenty of positives to build off of and wanted to get in some work on the details.
"I just think there's little things that we can clean up," Stevens acknowledged. "As I thought when I watched it again last night, it was a step in the right direction, which is encouraging, but obviously still not where we want to be."
What exactly was good about a night though that involved giving up 72 percent shooting in the fourth quarter in an ugly finish?
"I thought we were good in transition, bigs getting down the floor," Stevens said. "They got some easy baskets that way. We played together. You know, we had 31 assists. And we still haven’t had a game where we've just made shots, made shots, you know. The good news is, in my belief, those times are coming at some point, right, because we're due.
"And then I think the other thing is we did some really good things defensively at times, and there were just little things we can clean up to be significantly better at others. So it's not a matter of want-to as much as it is just a matter of simple execution and honing habits. I was way more encouraged by that game. In fact, I thought we probably played better that game than in the Toronto game."
The Hornets may only be 8-8 on the season but Stevens' comments do carry some validity here. They are a top-11 team on both offense and defensive rating and that kind of production gives them an expected win-loss record of 12-4 on the year. They have fallen short of that mark due to some close losses but they have looked like a playoff team in the East.
"Kemba significantly increased their margin for error by his play," Stevens said. "He was incredible. I thought our guys, again, if we had a little bit better technique, I think we would have been a lot better. That's not one guy, that is all five guys on the court are responsible when a guy like that is going. I think we'll get better."
Terry Rozier agreed with that assessment, despite his frustration with recent results.
“We still have so many more games left to figure it out," he said. "I feel like we’re still connected and getting better, playing with each other. We lost last night but there were still a lot of positives we took away from it. A lot of things were flowing and we just came up short to a guy that’s very hot, had been playing great this season. So I think we’ll get it together. Like coach said, we’re due for a lot of makes. That’s coming up. It’s going to happen.”
Rozier clears the air about tweets
After firing off a cryptic tweet on Tuesday morning, speculation was brewing yet again about the reserve's guard unhappiness.
Let’s do us ALL a favor
— Terry Rozier (@T_Rozzay3) November 20, 2018
I forgot y’all get happy feet..I wasn’t talking about me ??♂️ chill with the bad talk ?
— Terry Rozier (@T_Rozzay3) November 20, 2018