Despite winning five of their last six games, the Boston Celtics might be doing some tinkering with their lineups soon.
After several games of head coach Brad Stevens being critical of the team’s defensive intensity even though the club has been racking up wins for the most part might have seemed puzzling to some.
At least before Saturday’s home blowout by the Toronto Raptors, getting their revenge on an unengaged Celtics team they made pay for their mistakes.
Handing the Celtics one of their worst collective shooting efforts of the season, it was abundantly clear what Stevens was concerned about had indeed come back to bite them.
“We’ve got to get back to being a better defensive team,” Stevens said (via NBC Sports Boston’s A. Sherrod Blakeley).
Coach Stevens says the focus today was on defense, and that there are some things we need to tighten up at that end of the court if we want to be successful the rest of the season.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 30, 2019
“And we’ve got to find … the right mix of guys that will defend well together and that complement our best players to defend well. And just get back to that,” he added.
“We haven’t been very good at [transition defense] recently,” pointed out the former Butler coach, noting a major factor in the loss to Toronto over the weekend.
“[W]e’ve been winning, so we’re not talking about [our defensive lapses] a lot. The bottom line is, is that we have to … we have to be better on that end of the floor generally.”
At least some of the dropoff has been due to defensive specialist Marcus Smart’s extended absence over eye infection.
But, even with the Oklahoma State product back in the lineup against the Raptors, it still wasn’t enough, perhaps in part due to reintegrating the Texan back into the flow of the game after an eight-game absence.
Kemba Walker: "Transition defense — it doesn't take any skill. It's nothing but pride and wanting to do it. (Against the Raptors), we didn't do it." https://t.co/YBNPveFKsZ
— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) December 29, 2019
For All-NBA floor general Kemba Walker, the answer lies with Occam’s Razor — Boston simply needs to try harder, and didn’t against the Raptors.
“It doesn’t take any skill,” offered the UConn product via MassLive’s Tom Westerholm.
“It’s nothing but pride and wanting to do it. Tonight, we didn’t do it. We have to be better with that even though all season we’ve been pretty good transition-wise, but as of late we kind of got away from it. Like I said, we just have to get back to the drawing board.”
“It’ll be nice to have a chance to get together and practice a little bit and go over the simple things we know can help us win games,” he added.
“We just have to get back to ourselves.”
The sentiment that the game was a teaching moment seemed a shared one, with fourth-year shooting guard Jaylen Brown already making plans to put the loss to work in such a regard.
“This is definitely a game I will watch on film and learn from,” said Brown.
“On this level of intensity game, we have to be poised and make the right decisions and make the right plays. We missed a lot of easy ones just because of the intensity of the game. We were a little excited but we have to learn from it.”
“We are a young team and we will bounce back,” he offered.
That last point may be especially important, as it takes the presence of mind of a seasoned veteran to keep the focus on the defensive side of the ball sharp and trained on one’s opponent over the course of an 82-game season.
Brad Stevens on the #Celtics' defense this year:
"We haven't been really good at it. But we've been winning so we haven't really been talking about it.
We have to be better at that end in general… we have to get back to being a better defensive team"
— Josue Pavón (@Joe_Sway) December 29, 2019
Throw in the absence of one of the team’s most seasoned veterans (even if he’s still only 25 years old) and most capable defenders in Smart, and the slippage was probably more a matter of when than if.
But if the Celtics truly want to remain in the contention conversation’s fringes (never mind center), they’ll need to develop that veteran approach to defense in a hurry.
Boston does not have the luxury — at least not yet — of a consistent defensive presence in the paint, particularly with budding shot-blocking expert Robert Williams likely out for several weeks while he recuperates from a bone edema in his hip.
Ultimately, the Cal-Berkeley product might also have hit the nail on the head with his observation on the team’s youth being a positive factor this season-
They have already demonstrated the resiliency not to sulk about a stinging loss too much, and are likely going to be getting back to good defense in short order.