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Tim BontempsESPN
Celtics guard Marcus Smart said that after the team’s loss to visiting Sacramento Kings on Friday night, Boston’s fourth loss in five games to open the second half of the regular season, the Celtics went hold a team meeting to try to get them right and turn around what has been a disappointing campaign before it’s too late.
“We sat in the locker room and reflected on each other,” Smart said after the Celtics responded Sunday with a 112-96 win over the Orlando Magic at Boston’s TD Garden. “We asked each other, like I said,‘ How do we want to end the season? How do we want them to remind us of this season? “Everyone agreed, it was a bad feeling and an ugly feeling that we feel and we don’t want to feel that way.
“We don’t want to look back this season and say, ‘Damn, we could have done this.’ We still have time. It’s not much, the margin is closing, but we still have time to fix it, and that’s what we’re trying to do. do “.
After low losses against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kings in their previous two games, Boston looked a lot more like the team they were supposed to be on Sunday, controlling the game during the second half. Boston shot 23 for 54 from its 3-point range, including that of Jaylen Brown, who goes 10 for 18 from behind the arc en route to a maximum of 34 points, while keeping the Magic at 38% of the total shot.
Boston’s turbulent season has left him tied with the New York Knicks for sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics are just one game behind the fourth-ranked Atlanta Hawks and have 3.5 games ahead of the Toronto Raptors in the 11th, which shows how much they can change things for better or worse in the period of a few how many matches, depending on how a team is. playing.
With the Celtics now in full five years of healthy living and playing together for an extended period for the first time this season, they hope it’s time they can start resolving things after flying .500 all season – a lot for below the standard set in recent years, as they have reached the Eastern Conference final three of the last four years.
“We focused on what we want this season to be for us, on what we want to leave behind this season,” Smart said. “We have enough time to turn it around, and that’s all for us. We sat down and understood that we weren’t following the criteria we expected and that others expect us to do. We’re a young team and we’re learning The most important thing and the most important thing about growth is understanding and accepting the mistakes you make wrong: yourself, individually and as a team.
“The conversations we had, we did. We tried to sit down and try to figure it out and listen to each other to help each other, not ourselves, but the team, individually and everyone. Try to put in everyone well positioned to succeed, and we went out and it was shown tonight, and that’s what we have to keep going to continue. “
Boston will have a chance to see if there is a transfer Monday in Memphis, where the Celtics will begin a four-game road trip that includes games in Milwaukee against the Bucks on Wednesday and Friday.
It would help his cause if the Celtics could continue to shoot like they did on Sunday, including Brown, in particular, who finished a short of the Smart franchise’s 11 triples in a single game.
But more than the shots he hit, Brown said it was important for the Celtics to take the bad taste out of the last few games out of their mouths before they hit the road again and try to push their momentum forward.
“It’s a big step for us,” Brown said. “We had a little fun. Getting in here (starting game, a little different from our routine) coming in and getting a nice, comfortable win is good for our spirit. We know we’ve had a poor performance and we’ve had extra pressure on us by everyone, by all outside forces.So I just told our guys to focus on us, man.Forget what the media says, forget what the fans say and go out to to play a good basketball, to see where the chips fall, and I hope we can do more (much more) for the rest of the season. “