The Gordon Hayward Injury Takes it’s Toll

The Boston Celtics were set up to fail in the month of December

It’s times like this when you can really see the influence of the New England Patriots on the rest of Boston sports teams. We live in a weirdly Orwellian time, where Boston sports fans can be seen bundled up wearing hoodies that say “DO YOUR JOB” in large, bold text with Bill Belichick’s unenthused face staring into the abyss of your soul.

There is no excuse for losing in the cult of Bill, no matter the circumstances. Everybody is expected to do their job and if one man goes down, the next man stands up and continues the march. Unless, you know, your best player suffers a horrific leg injury during the first game of the season. I guess you have an excuse then, right?

There’s are multiple instances of hypocrisy that I’m getting fed up with here. The first being the one I just eluded to, where there are no excuses for losing games, no questions asked, until there’s a significant injury, in which case we admit that there are excuses for losing. Why even put up with all the mental gymnastics?

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Even if the Boston Celtics were completely healthy, they would still have likely struggled with their December schedule, which includes four back-to-backs among the 17 total games. The Celtics have already played a total of 35 games and lead the eastern conference with a record of 26-9. If you take a peek across the standings, you’ll see Houston leading the west at 25-5. That’s five fewer games played for Houston.

Quick maths. Milwaukee, fifth in the east, has played six fewer games than Boston. The minutes add up, so much so that Jayson Tatum has played the 19th most minutes among all NBA players (1068), despite playing the 72nd most minutes per game (30.5). Tatum is one of three players in the league right now who has played 35 games. The others are Aron Baynes and Terry Rozier.

The Celtics will finish 2017 playing 40 games in 75 days.
They will play their final 42 games in 98 days in 2018.
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) December 21, 2017

The most glaring weakness through the rough patch is roster depth, or the lack thereof. The bench is stocked with individually skilled players that don’t fit as well together all too well. Marcus Smart has taken the next step with his playmaking skills, but the reality of the bench is that offensive options are extremely limited when Smart shares the floor with Rozier, Daniel Theis, and Semi Ojeleye, plus another starter.

Inside the paint and out, those types of lineups have no immediate offensive threats, even if they have the spacing to get any shot they want. The defense they bring is tolerable, although Rozier and Larkin have been exposed as unable to body up on other guards like Smart can. In short, no Irving on the floor = no buckets.

You can ogle at their win-loss record if you want (I still do it every day), but the month of December will serve as a necessary reality check. These Celtics are not experienced nor invincible. If you’ve already convinced yourself that the schedule and injuries don’t matter, then I have nothing else to tell you.

Next: Celtics Depending too much on Kyrie Irving

If you expect to beat teams who are undermanned, then the same logic should apply to the Celtics. Don’t press the panic button yet. The Celtics have historically played better in the second half of the season since Brad Stevens took over as coach, so the best is yet to come.