It’s remarkable how far Celtic Nation has come in exactly one week. On Wednesday, March 23rd, it seemed even many grounded fans had visions of grandeur for the Green and White. Seven days later, suddenly everyone is wondering if the C’s will slide into the 7th or 8th spot in the Eastern Conference or even [gasp] out of the playoffs altogether. All you hear anymore about this team is that they stand around too much on offense, can’t play any defense, and that Antoine Walker shoots too much and from too far away. After spending almost a month of predicting that the Celtics were poised to make a run at the Eastern Conference finals and beyond, fans now appear poised to give up with barely even a whimper.
So please listen to me when I tell you not to jump ship just yet. This team is better than the current four game losing streak would suggest and, while they’re not championship material, if you’ve watched them since the 25th of February, you know that they’re capable of doing something special in the postseason.
Had the Celtics had a similar losing streak without Walker around, then we might have something to worry about. But with Employee #8 back in the fold, Boston has enough talent to fight through this tough stretch.
The team certainly doesn’t feel like all is lost. Coach Doc Rivers denied at practice on Thursday that this has been the most frustrated he’s been in his inaugural season in Boston.
“I think earlier in the year [I was more frustrated], honestly, because we didn’t have a winning streak to look back on,” the coach stated. “Right now, I kind of keep things in perspective.”
This is an important lesson for us all. Keeping things in perspective was important when the Celtics had won seven in a row and 11 of 12 overall and it is also necessary after dropping the last four. According to Rivers, “in the streak there were two wins we should have had, but we don’t have them and there’s nothing you can do about it.” No argument here. The C’s should have taken it to the Knicks and they could have had the Bulls on Friday night as well. But what about the other two games? The Celtics took the champion Pistons, a team playing at home and with revenge on their minds to overtime on Saturday, nearly coming out with a win despite not having any answer to Rasheed Wallace. And as Doc pointed out so eloquently following the loss to the Mavs, “I thought we lost to a better team tonight, to be honest.” A very true statement, indeed. Dallas matches up well with the Celtics and do all the things Boston is skilled at, like spreading the floor with big men shooting from the outside, better than Boston. There’s really no shame in losing to a Western Conference team 25 games over .500.
This is the first bump in the road since Walker’s return, but that’s not always such a bad thing. “Adversity’s good. This is where we have to show if we’re a team. Can you stick together? Can you go through tough times?” asked Walker. “I think it’s my job, Gary [Payton]’s job, Paul [Pierce]’s job, because we have so many young guys, to let them know that this ain’t the end of the world, we’re still on top of the Atlantic Division. We’re right where we want to be and we’ve just got to finish up these 11 games strong and, obviously, start winning some games.”
As Walker said, the Celtics are where they want to be. While seven of their last eleven games are on the road, they’ll be playing Atlanta, Toronto, a Milwaukee team that folds like a deck of cards on the road and a Cavs team that’s been playing so poorly that Paul Silas was recently showed the door in Cleveland. In addition, they play a Washington club that probably won’t have Antawn Jamison and the two games against the Sixers, with Chris Webber guaranteed to miss at least one of the contests. Save for Miami, all of the remaining games are very winnable and Friday night against the Hawks could be the game that gets these boys back on track.
To turn your back on the Celtics is simply unconscionable. Poorly as they’ve played recently, the Celtics are still averaging over 101 points per game, good for fifth in the NBA. They are shooting 46.5% from the field, third best in the league and better than they’ve shot since Bill Clinton was serving his first term in office. They have three potential All Stars in Pierce, Walker and Ricky Davis, not to mention a future Hall of Fame point guard in Gary Payton. This all goes without even talking about the best group of young players in the entire league and a second unit that brings more fire than many teams’ starters.
So give the Guys in Green a little more time. It’s too early to check in on the Sox. They don’t even start playing until Sunday and we already know this year won’t be the year (even if they repeat this season I think we can all agree that last year was the year). The NFL draft is more than three weeks away and the first preseason game isn’t until August 6th.
The Celtics are fun to watch and as talented as they’ve been since #33 was roaming the Gahden. Yes, they have their flaws, especially on defense, and no, they’re not good enough to go all the way, but this is a team that can compete with almost any team in the league and isn’t finished yet. Not by a long shot.