Karalis: Boston Celtics are out of answers, and out of time

If you watch enough nature shows, you inevitably get to one of those survival of the fittest scenes. The pack needs to find something to eat or drink and fast, or else predators are going to get a free meal.

In some shows, they find an oasis, and a seemingly miraculous chance to stave off the hungry lions for another day. In others, well, they aren't quite as lucky.

This is where this year's aimless, staggering Boston Celtics team finds itself; desperate for a break but on the verge of never finding it.

"We got a different level of response than we've had in the past," Jaylen Brown said after another loss, this time to the Dallas Mavericks.  "Celtics basketball is about scrapping, getting after guys defensively, 1 through 5, we haven't had that in the starting unit or off the bench. As a team, we haven't had it. In years past, we have. ... It doesn't mean that tomorrow can't spark something different. It hasn't been there as much as we would like this year."

That much is clear. The Celtics' strategy at this point is to win games like Homer Simpson wins boxing matches; take a brutal pounding and come back when the other team gets tired of dishing out punishment. The Celtics' will to fire counter punches is sorely lacking.

"The most frustrating part is we let adversity take us out of what we’re doing for too long," Brad Stevens said.  "It’s just the same old story. It’s like 12-minute droughts because we don’t respond. ... We’ve got to respond better in the middle of the game. We just haven’t. That’s the bottom line."

Yes, but how? 

"I don't know what you guys want me to say, to be honest," Brown said, frustrated by being asked multiple versions of that same question. "I think everything has a factor that's involved. I don't know, I don't know what you guys want me to say."

And that's the issue here. What can you say at this point?

"We’re trying to learn. We want to do the right thing. We want to play the right way. We want to change the outcomes of these games. We’re trying, it’s just, we don’t know," Marcus Smart said. "We’ve just got to keep playing, play ourselves out of this slump."

The players aren't playing themselves out of this, so maybe the coach has to find a way to coach them out of this. Stevens is at as much of a loss as the rest of the team.

"Maybe I have to use every timeout," Stevens said. "Maybe I have to shuffle sub. I don’t know. I don’t know. But it’s a team I’m coaching, so it should all fall on me."

One of the problems for Stevens is that circumstances have taken away some of his coaching options. Robert Williams was a late scratch because of a non-COVID illness, leaving Stevens in the unenviable spot of having to play newly acquired castoff centers Moe Wagner and Luke Kornet.

"This is the sixth different lineup we’ve started in the last six games just because of availability," Stevens said. "I don’t know how to try personnel until we have our personnel. That said we have to figure some things out. We’ve got to find some resolve quicker. And we’re capable of that. ... They played a hell of a game. They took us out of it. They forced us - because that’s probably our reputation to not respond for 10-12 minutes. That changed the game."

The Celtics are now 4-8 since the All-Star break. They are eighth in the Eastern Conference and almost as close to missing the playoffs entirely (three games) than they are to the fourth seed (two games). There are 24 games left to play.

These Celtics are too cool for too long, which isn't any new revelation. Their lack of a chip on their shoulder has been evident for a long time. When they get punched in the mouth, they'd rather turn and cry to the officials than punch back. They let everything under their skin. Their heads have big "for rent" signs hanging on them, and anyone who wants to live in there can hop on in.

"When adversity hits, we nose dive," Stevens said. "So it's not to me as much about the start, the end; it's about how are we going to play when it gets tough. Because it's always going to get tough, the players are too good. ... We have to be able to do that better than we have. And I do believe that we can.

"But I'm not gonna sit up here and talk about what we can do and what we hope to do and all that crap. I mean, I've been around good teams, and I've been around bad teams and we're very average right now. Because we don't do it every day. And so we'll see how good we can get if we start to do it every night."

Maybe these soft Celtics can wake up. Maybe they can be like Ralphie when he finally had enough of Scott Farkus' bullying in A Christmas Story and finally throw some punches of their own.

They're out of time to just start playing better. They're don't have the luxury of refining the process. They need results. Now.