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Tim good morningESPN
After the Boston Celtics suffered their worst loss of the season on Sunday afternoon – a 104-91 that fell to the Washington Wizards, who came in on Sunday with the worst record in the Eastern Conference – star Kemba Walker had a simple diagnosis of team discomfort.
“[We] you just have to play harder, “Walker said.” Done. We are not playing hard. We’re not playing as hard as we know we can.
“When you play hard, big things happen. And right now, our work hasn’t been consistent. So, like I said, we’re going to keep watching movies and learn from our mistakes and get better.”
The Celtics are now 13-13, the first time they are .500 or worse at the end of the season in six years. The loss was made worse by the fact that it came after the Detroit Pistons lost at home on Friday, which had been the worst team in the East before jumping Washington defeating the Celtics.
An optimist could try to minimize Friday’s result because it was the second half of a backhand against an opponent. There was no such excuse on Sunday as the Wizards improved to just 3-14 this season when Russell Westbrook is in training controlling the game throughout the game, especially in the second half.
While the Celtics advanced late in the garbage time to make the final result look respectable, the Wizards, who came in Sunday with the NBA’s No. 29 defense, led nearly 20 points for most of the game. the second half, while Boston faced one. jumper after another.
Walker and Jaylen Brown scored 25 points each and fired a combined 21-for-39 from the field and a 6-for-12 from 3-pointers, but their teammates were unable to buy a bucket. The rest of the Celtics were a pathetic 12 against 51 (23.6%) of the field on Sunday, including 3 against 23 from the 3-point range.
Boston had a lapse of nearly 21 minutes from the middle of the second quarter to the beginning of the quarter, which included 13 consecutive fouls.
“It could be,” Brown said, when asked if this weekend could be considered the Celtics ’bottom line. “It depends on everyone’s mindset, on how we get in every day and get ready to work.
“If you let it be a background mentality, that will be what it will be. [If] come play, then it will show. And we weren’t very good today. “
Playing without Marcus Smart, who has missed the last two weeks with a calf strain, the Celtics ’lack of depth (especially on the wing) and aim shot have been exposed.
Outside of rookie Payton Pritchard, who has impressed and sculpted a guaranteed place in coach Brad Stevens ’rotation, no one on the bench has been able to deliver consistent scores. Veteran Jeff Teague, who was brought in to support Walker, has been terrible, shooting a disproportionate 28.6% on 2-point shots. In the last two games Walker has played he has been a good risk.
While Pritchard has quickly gained Stevens ’trust, Aaron Nesmith, the Boston lottery coach, has not. He played on Sunday, finishing with five points and five rebounds in 29 minutes, but has been remarkably absent from the rotation this season despite Boston having been repeatedly short on wing players.
To that end, Nesmith’s 29 minutes on Sunday account for 20% of his time on the court throughout the season.
After the game, Stevens signaled garbage time, when the end of the Boston bench made a run to make the final score more respectable, as something to build on as he advanced.
“There are a lot of things,” Stevens said, when asked what needs to be improved for the Celtics to play again the way they are used to. “We just have to better control the things we can control, playing together in the right way at both ends of the field.
“If our team can play more like this for the last five minutes, we can be as good as we can. If not, we will be average … We have to play well to win. It’s not like we’re going to shoot we have to play well, so that when we don’t play well and don’t take care of the little things, we definitely don’t stand a chance. “
After this weekend, the Celtics – who have now lost four of their last five and seven of their last ten – will aspire to return to the middle game, but things will not be easier with MVP candidate Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets visiting Boston on Tuesday.
While Boston takes the next 48 hours to prepare for that game, Stevens, like Walker, said playing hard will be a prerequisite for anyone who wants to see the ground outside the basic pillars of the team.
“I think we have to look at it all,” Stevens said. “I know we’ve talked a lot about lineups and consistency, who plays and who doesn’t play, the guys who really move the ball or the ones who really run the places and who run really hard should probably be the priority at the moment. around our best players. And I think that’s where we’re going to have to get to, because it’s clearly a problem. “