The most important tool chefs have in their kitchens are their knives. They take great pains to keep them sharp and in top condition because trying to prepare food with dull blades is tedious work. Life can get frustrating in a hurry, and dishes will not live up to their potential.
The Celtics have seen some dulling in their once-sharp brand of basketball. Whether it’s the loss of Robert Williams, the grind of the turnaround, or a combination of factors, they're not slicing through opponents like they were even at the beginning of this week.
“Since they came back from the game they missed in Toronto, we haven't been on point in the last two games,” Ime Udoka admitted after the Celtics barely beat the Indiana Pacers Friday night. “We're going to have to definitely get that together. Washington's a good team coming up, and obviously big road trip. Four games to tighten up in a lot of areas that we were really good at. We'll check out some film and tighten up in those areas, because obviously, it's going to be crucial going forward in the playoffs."
There are natural ebbs and flows to the season, and things change from one game to the next. Sometimes, after going on a massive run like Boston did, taking an opportunity to slow down could turn into something a little bigger. Once the message got out that it was ok to relax, it’s been tough to get them to snap back into form. Udoka called out the team’s lack of communication on defense, leading to mistakes on switches that allowed the Pacers to get downhill.
“Communication, that’s on us,” Jayson Tatum said “One of those nights. We know we’re a really good defensive team, and there’s a lot of areas tonight where we could have been better. Do we miss (Robert Williams)? Of course. But our mistakes tonight weren’t because we didn’t have Rob. A lot of communication on the perimeter - that was our fault. We’ve got to be better.”
For a lot of the season, especially during Boston’s monster 2022 run, the Celtics were consistent in praising Williams for being a human eraser. They touted his shot-blocking ability for covering up their mistakes and also allowing them to be more aggressive. Sure, as Tatum said, their mistakes against the Pacers weren’t because Williams wasn’t there, but not having him certainly magnified the ramifications.
“We did get a little caught up with the fact that Rob was back there and he cleaned up a lot of mistakes for us,” Marcus Smart said. “With him out, we’ve got to change just a little bit. Everybody else has to give a little bit more from what they were because of that and it’s just part of the game. We still have everybody else defensively that’s been doing great on defense and will continue to do that with or without Rob. But obviously while he’s doing his recovery we’ve got to hold it down for him.”
Some of this could simply be the adjustment period after losing a key player. Williams is obviously supremely important to Boston on both ends, both as a defensive deterrent, fly swatter, and lob-catching vertical spacer giving shooters a couple of extra ticks of open airspace. Losing someone like that isn't just met with a shrug. There are repercussions.
But at the same time, the reaction to the loss of a player like that should be steely resolve. Their focus should tighten, not fade. They should know that the safety net is gone, so keeping both feet on the tight rope is probably a good idea.
None of this has crossed into any sort of area of major concern yet. It’s been three games, one of which they won, and two games that could have gone either way (and one of those without four starters).
But the eyes are getting wider because this isn’t necessarily something new. We’ve seen some of this before.
“It’s something that’s been going on, but it’s also new in the sense that we cleaned it up in the second half of the season,” Smart said. “We’re getting down to the last couple of games. That team we played didn’t have anything to lose nor gain, so they had so much freedom. Things happen. It’s not going to be perfect. It’s going to happen again in the playoffs. Our next game we’ve just got to figure out ways when it happens to combat it and move on and fix it.”
Dull knives can be sharpened, but chefs don’t wait until the dinner rush begins to start doing so. This can simply be dismissed as a minor lull at a point of the season where things like this happen if they clean things up to close the season.
It’s tougher without Robert Williams, but it’s doable. The blueprint is there. Sharpen things up now and we can feel fine about how the playoffs will go. Wait too long, though, and it’s the Celtics who could be on the chopping block.