Kemba Walker hates losing.
On the first night of back-to-back losses — just the second losing streak of the season — the UConn product was visibly dejected despite scoring a season-high 44 points against the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night.
Staring at the floor, not even glancing at the camera, the three-time All-Star in no way resembled someone who just dropped 44 points on an opponent.
Without the win, it was meaningless to the 29-year-old.
Asked about how the offensive feat made him feel, Walker continued to stare at the floor, saying “I felt pretty good, I guess,” he said (via MassLive’s John Karalis). “It really don’t matter. We lost.”
Kemba Walker on his season-high night vs. Pacers: "It really don't matter." pic.twitter.com/WToXYK5IEG
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) December 12, 2019
After eight seasons of moral victories and personal excellence, the Bronx native wants more. The world knows he’s one of the best point guards on the planet.
He wants to have the best team on the planet.
He could have thrown the refs, his teammates, his coach under the bus after the load that he carried turned out to be for nothing.
“I just wasn’t able to connect. I just missed,” Kemba offered, instead putting the loss on his own shoulders. “Took some good ones. Maybe a few ones that weren’t so good.”
“But yeah, just missed,” he added.
When another tight contest didn’t pan out against the Philadelphia 76ers, his response was largely the same, though it pointed to something important.
As much as Walker hates to lose, and much as he can lead by example in ways that connect with his teammates, as much as the chemistry is driving the team’s success, one thing can’t be rushed.
The kind of chemistry that comes from really knowing your teammates.
Speaking on what things he thought went wrong against the 76ers, Walker answered (via Karalis) “I’m not sure,”
“They’re just small things – back-cuts, miscommunications, turnovers. I guess it’s a little bit of both – focus, a lot of mistakes … we just have to be conscious of that to be better.”
“We just have to learn how to win. We have a lot of lapses during these games. We have stretches where we’re playing super well. And then we have lapses. And we just have times where we’re just, like, it’s bad.” https://t.co/2BDn4WhvIw
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) December 13, 2019
Similar comments from Gordon Hayward confirm the team needs time to truly gel, to be able to weather key players being out, like Marcus Smart, battling a seemingly endless array of maladies.
Able to defeat the league’s best teams when younger players make a mistake out of inexperience at a crucial moment.
Able to pull something more from deep within in unison, to will a win into existence.
Those things only come with time, and the trust and growth that comes with it. Despite tumbling a bit in the hyper-competitive top of the Eastern Conference, the Celtics still possesses one of the best records in the league when considering the strength of their opponents.
Many of the games they lose have been close losses to teams on or above their level in terms of talent, and even those who have not been have also been close losses.
In other words, there’s a lot to work with here, and no one should be hitting the panic button any time soon.
With five days off ahead of a tough challenge in the form of a rising Dallas Mavericks squad and early MVP leader Luka Doncic, Boston has a chance to rest and continue building the chemistry fueling Boston’s wins.
“We just have to learn how to win,” Walker explained.
“We have stretches where we’re playing super well. And then we have lapses. And we just have times where we’re just, like, it’s bad. It just looks really bad. So we just have to tone that down a little bit, just try our best to put 48-minute games together.”
This team is closer to that than many of us probably think.