Brad Stevens is running out of time to fix the defenseless Celtics

At least there was no finger-pointing afterward.

That was the extent of positives one could come up with after the Celtics’ 115-96 drubbing at the hands of the Spurs on Sunday night. Amid a lengthy postgame team meeting, after the C’s tied their season-high with a fourth straight loss, the tenor from the locker room was surprisingly optimistic. Kyrie Irving didn’t reference the young guys or question strategy in his postgame remarks. Marcus Smart didn’t go off on anyone. Instead, both stayed upbeat and focused on the future in the wake the worst home loss of the year for Boston.

“We’re all trying to, you know, we got a lot of guys back and we’re all trying to figure out exactly what everybody’s favorite things to do and what spots that everybody excels at and make sure we get everybody in the right position,” Smart explained. “We’re still fooling with it, but I see great progress, and I’m excited, I’m ecstatic, and I’m happy with what we’re doing. Yeah we’ve been losing, and it’s been frustrating, but that’s the beauty of this game. We get to go play another one and we get another chance to go out there and work on things we need to work on.”

If this type of optimism sound familiar, it’s because we have heard it before. The Celtics carried a similar tone after losing four straight last month. Moving forward with positive vibes is certainly better than the finger pointing but it wasn’t the answer for the team’s woes back then and it still isn’t likely to be so now. This group was obviously down bodies on Sunday night in Al Horford and Jayson Tatum, but they have been a mediocre team for the past two months now, along with a bottom-10 defense in the NBA.

“Ultimately, we don’t need to ride the emotional roller coaster; we need to get a lot better,” Brad Stevens declared. “We’ve given up 115 or more in a lot of games here recently, and our defense has to improve dramatically if we’re going to make a push to ultimately get what we want out of the next couple of months.”

The dropoff has been noticeable for anyone watching this group all year long. The starting five that carried the team through the middle of the season has fallen off a cliff in terms of production in recent weeks. Lapses have been prevalent in all sections of the roster on defense and it’s produced a steady decline in performance.

“We have to be better,” Stevens said. “You know, we were a better defensive team in the first two months of the season than we’ve played at any time in the last month. So, to me, it’s not about what we’re doing, it’s about how well we do it every single night, and that’s where we have to get back to. And so, we’re getting exposed by good teams; tonight, again, Aldridge was incredible, but at the end of the day we have to be a lot better for 48 minutes defensively.”

The problem has reached a bad enough level with eight games remaining in the regular season that a lineup change, something that has been on the table for weeks now, is still a hot topic. Stevens has maintained faith in this current group prior to Sunday night, hoping that they would be able to figure things out. However, with no signs of progress sustaining itself, Stevens is even doubting that combo at this point, as well as any potential solutions.

“I think about (lineup changes) every day. But I don’t know if it’s the original starting lineup (that is the answer),” Stevens said. “I don’t know if it’s better rotations. I think you’re always thinking about that. And inevitably you can make a case for everything. And you could go through every game this year and make a case and look at it because of, we have a lot of guys that are fairly alike. The one thing as we move forward, we are going to need, based on our matchup, to settle on the best things for each series. But I don’t know that that will be our starting lineup that we’ve been starting. But I’m more worried about the last 42 minutes than the first six, so I do think that’s another factor in that.”

The problem now is the current predicament has been partially self-inflicted by Stevens as well. The team has underachieved throughout the year, losing games they should have won, to put themselves in a tough seeding spot. With a two-game gap in the standings behind the Pacers for home-court advantage in the first round, the pressure is on to win every game down the stretch to make up that deficit and give the C’s a chance at the No. 4 seed. That quest, along with a desire to see certain lineups for longer stretches, will be impeded the next two weeks by the team's desire to rest veterans and deal with injuries. It’s going to be hard for a new or less-used grouping to get comfortable with each other for extended minutes when Kyrie Irving or Horford will need sit out multiple games in the coming weeks.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot all year from that standpoint,” Stevens acknowledged. “I think ultimately you do need some rest, Kyrie will need some time off, but at the end of the day, there’s a reason why every game matters and every game counts and it’s one by one and you add them up. One of my issues with the lineups, too, is some of the lineups that I’m most interested in haven’t been available.”

Injuries have been an issue in recent weeks with Baynes, Horford and Hayward all missing time, but the fact remains that Stevens has probably shown a little too much patience with a lot of his talent and groupings for the past couple of months, which has put the Celtics in this predicament. Marcus Morris has been a net negative for weeks on defense. Terry Rozier has had a rough year on the whole. The Celtics' defense constantly struggles when they go small. These are all things that have been true for a while, yet no major shifts to the rotation or lineups have come due to them. Baynes and Horford have seen limited minutes together and those numbers have been great. The same goes for Horford any time he shares the floor with another big. Yet, those combinations have barely seen the floor all year long and now may be unavailable with Robert Williams injured. The same goes for a potential starting five that includes Gordon Hayward and/or Jaylen Brown.

At this stage of the season, most teams know who they are and what they want to do on a nightly basis. This Celtics team is neither of those things. Stevens has a final exam coming up and he’s left himself a lot of cramming to do at the last minute to ensure he’s adequately prepared. It’s still quite possible he can pull off an A, but he’s going to face some tough circumstances to try to pull it off.

“We’re going to keep working to do the best we can and that will be ultimately our challenge and I think we’re to the point now where, rightfully so, we’ll be doubted.,” Stevens said. “Rightfully so, we’ve earned that. So it’s time to buckle up and respond to this tough run.”