Celtics search for answers in team meeting after 'selfish play' against Bucks

The Celtics locker room generally opens up to the media mere moments after a game ends. In the wake of an ugly 120-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the door remained closed for 36 minutes. Inside, a team meeting was being held with players and coaches as a third straight defeat dropped Boston to the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference standings 31 games into the season.

One week after looking like they had righted the ship with an eight-game winning streak, the C’s looked like they were back at square one at the 20-game mark: A .500 team that thinks it's better than it is.

Effort issues and injuries have undoubtedly been a concern throughout the season and that was certainly a case during Boston’s 111-103 loss against the Suns on Wednesday night. The Celtics let their guard down in portions of that game and got burned for it. Still, effort shouldn’t be an issue in a nationally televised contest with another East contender against the Bucks. However, that and another issue crept to the surface once again, which enabled the Bucks to dominate much of the first half with a 57-22 run at one point and ultimately led to a lengthy postgame discussion in the Celtics locker room.

Kyrie Irving, like the rest of his teammates, wasn’t willing to share the subject matter of the meeting upon the media’s request.

“It’s none of y’all business, honestly,” Irving said.

"We had a talk, and today was the time we chose to talk,” Jaylen Brown added. “I’ll keep it confined to what we talked about to between us, but we’ve got to do better."

However, Irving let slip what surely was a hot topic after another disappointing offensive night.

“At this point it comes down to cohesion, being able to trust the pass, trust what we have going on out there,” Irving explained. “Obviously some selfish play out there where we have some really talented guys, but we’re better as a team sharing the basketball, and if it’s late in the shot clock that’s when we start shooting our iso plays, as opposed to if we have nothing in transition shooting with 16 or 17 on the clock, or shooting a fadeaway, something like that.”

Who exactly was Irving referring to by doing too much iso play? A look across the roster on a night where the Celtics shot a paltry 38 percent from the floor show plenty of potential targets. Let’s roll through a few.

Jayson Tatum: The second-year forward snapped into some bad habits in the midst of a 5-of-15 night that plagued him throughout the first 20 games of the year. He turned down open 3s for long 2s on multiple occasions and settled for midrange jump shots over tough defenders on many occasions. Tatum shot worse from inside the arc (2-of-8) then he did from 3-point range.

Tatum admitted after the game that he thinks the team has been buying into its hype a little too much.

“We’ve got a very talented, talented group,” he said. “Human nature can cause you to listen to all the hype that was surrounding us and things like that, but especially during the regular season the team that plays the hardest usually wins on any given night. And just being consistent. So we have to be consistent and play hard, and the rest will take care of itself.”

Terry Rozier: The fourth-year guard has been on a shorter leash than most of his teammates all year long due to the depth in the backcourt, which causes him to go searching for his own shot far too much at times. He has been miserable from inside the arc (35 percent) all year long, yet he still settles for that type of midrange attempt all day long, much to the dismay of his teammates. That happened again on Friday night (1-of-7 from the field, team-worst minus 19).

Jaylen Brown: The shooting guard was actually a positive source of energy for much of the night, but he’s obviously been a net negative for most of the year. The rollercoaster ride continued on Friday night as his defensive miscues (failing to contest Khris Middleton properly) and foolish decisions (attacking the rim despite being outnumbered by defenders on a fast break) led to points for the Bucks going the other way in transition instead of crucial offense for Boston.

Kyrie Irving: The All-Star has carried this team for most of the year on the offensive end but he was as guilty of selfish play as anyone, something he openly admitted after the game.

“I’m playing the game I love every day,” Irving said. “Sometimes being in the journey there can be some dark spots going on, you’re challenged, you don’t know what to do and that’s fine. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve dealt with my own challenges to be more consistent in the defensive end, do things for myself that would be more beneficial for our team. To be honest, I’m not playing the minutes I would want, the role I would want, that I selfishly would want for myself. That all goes on the back burner to being patient with what I have to do to grow as a leader of this team and help these other young guys.”

Irving’s large ego rose even further to the surface as he closed out his comments for the night.

“I literally can do anything I want out there,” he said on a night he shot just 7-of-20 from the field. “But at the same time, it’s what can I do for my teammates to be more successful. I have to be very conscious of that.”

While Irving clearly has the offensive track record that a lot of his teammates don’t have to stand on, it’s easy to see how frustrations would build among the players within this locker room as some guys do the exact same things they are speaking out against. How seriously can someone take Irving for his defensive critiques and selfish tendencies when he can be the team’s biggest problem at that end of the floor at times?

All in all, this is a lot of turmoil for a team that had a lot of continuity after last year. There are obviously other contributing factors (Gordon Hayward’s inconsistency, injuries to the front line) that compound issues on a night like Friday and build up frustrations more. One team meeting isn’t going to necessarily solve everything either.

“We need a few more,” Brown admitted. “We gotta keep going forward though, just keep building. We’re trying to do something as a unit. We’re trying to be together, we’re trying to make sure we’re on the right page, and we’re going to do that.”

Still, with the schedule starting to toughen up in the coming weeks, this was an attempt to stop the bleeding and clear the air it feels like. Selfish teams do not generally turn into contending ones and that’s what this group has been for the majority of the year thus far. Instead of reverting back to bad habits, they tried to address them on Friday night. We’ll find out Sunday whether it’s a first step towards righting the ship for this group.