One week ago, the Celtics were fresh …

One week ago, the Celtics were fresh off a dominant win over the Portland Trailblazers the night after losing a game to the Utah Jazz in which the opponents put up a historically prolific shooting night to only win by single-digits. They were on their way to face a Lakers team they had recently blown out and showed no material improvement since. “Literally three games ago we were playing a totally different style with the effort and the heart and intensity,” Ime Udoka said after losing to the Suns, their third-straight loss. “So it’s been inconsistent for sure, but it was just here and it’s been here for most of the year the way we played.”