Things get sloppy in the NBA around this time of year. Teams are more than halfway through their schedules, they’ve been pulled in a million different directions, and there's a big vacation staring them in the face in a few weeks.
Staying focused right now is tough.
“This is my fifth year now and part of that is human nature,” Jayson Tatum said. “I remember we lost three or four games in a row my first year going into the All-Star Break. I vividly remember guys talking about All-Star break and taking time with their family, which guys deserve, but being aware of that and knowing that we're not the only team kind of tired, everyone is dealing with it.”
That makes this part of the Celtics schedule especially important. The Celtics are dealing with some of this just like everyone else, but at the same time, they just happen to finally be whole and healthy right now. This is their first real chance to get some extended run together.
“This is invaluable time for us to get guys together, have everybody healthy over the last 5-6 games, last nine leading into the All-Star break,” Ime Udoka said. “We need this time together. We were lacking consistency as far as lineups early in the year. … For us, it's a game-by-game basis and not looking at All-Star break. But we need all the practice time we can get and consistency on the court."
It’s imperative that Boston not get caught up in the same doldrums hitting the rest of the league right now. They have a lot of issues that are correctable, but they require time, focus, and patience. Anyone with an eye towards some tropical destination will only feed into the same problems this team has been dealing with all season.
“My biggest thing is trying to make sure we don’t become that team,” Marcus Smart said. “We don’t have the luxury of being that team.”
That self awareness is a good start for a team that somehow finds itself in the East mix. They have significant issues with the ball movement disappearing, especially against zone defenses. They have issues playing down to competition and relaxing. If they're going to live up to any promise of what could be this season, now is the time figure out those issues.
“We really focused in on ball movement tonight and looked at what we didn't do well last night,” Udoka said. “I'm happy with that, having 31 assists and the pace was night and day. The ball movement, the unselfishness. We felt we obviously could've had a different outcome if we played that last night. To do that on the back-to-back is obviously -- it was good in the first half.”
The second half was not so great. They coasted a bit and let an upstart team with half a roster of names most people don't know outplay them in the third quarter. They did just enough to get a fairly comfortable win, but just enough isn’t good enough.
When games seem to be in their control, the Celtics need to work on polishing their skills, not putting them to bed.
They have nine more games to go before the break, starting with a Miami Heat team that just lost in triple overtime against Toronto. They're probably looking forward to a little bit of a break after that, providing Boston with an opening against one of the conference’s best.
“What better way to go on a nice little stretch before the All-Star break against teams that are already checked out and kind of get ourselves going?” Smart said after beating New Orleans. “When everybody else is checked out and getting ready for the break, we’re going to try to make up where we’ve been slacking and try to cut some down for us.
“We can’t be that team that checks out early. And that’s going to be big, I know for me for a fact that I’m trying to incorporate into the team to make sure that we don’t do it and we can catch some people sleeping.”
It’s one thing to say and another thing to do, which is the story of the season (maybe two seasons) for the Celtics. They’ve lost quite a few games they should have won so far this season. The lessons of what works and doesn't continue to pile up for this team. Maybe focusing when other teams are a little cross-eyed can help even that out.
“I'm certain we aren't the only ones thinking about it,” Tatum said. “We have to capitalize on other people looking past some games and start to get ready for the break. This is when we need every win we can get.”
