Boston Celtics: Clippers Game Won’t Change Anything

The Clippers game will not change the state of the Boston Celtics heading into the All Star Break

The Boston Celtics are currently at one of their lowest points of the season. They have recently been crushed by both the Cavaliers and Raptors, and have yet to see the gap between these teams appear to be bigger than it is right now. The Celtics are stuck trying to figure things out, and are facing 20+ point deficits on a nightly basis. Meanwhile, the Raptors and Cavaliers are playing their best basketball of the season.

Obviously, this is just one small sample for these teams, and all of them are going to go through some changes before playoff time comes around, preventing us from having a real idea of who they are going to be when it matters most. For now, we know how we are going to feel about these teams going into the all star break, and that is the most important thing for the Celtics.

The Celtics still have their final game before the break against the Los Angeles Clippers, but that is going to change absolutely nothing about how this team is evaluated during the All Star break, and what they are going to work on to improve for the playoffs.

If the Celtics lose to the Clippers, well its just a continuation of this awful streak. Even if the Celtics get blown out again, that is exactly what has been happening to them, and will do nothing to change any kind of perception going into this break.

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If the Celtics manage to win, even in a blowout, it will be a nice refresher going into the break, but nothing they do against the Clippers will be enough to erase this recent stretch. The Clippers are depleted and just sold their star player. The Celtics are expected to be able to handle them, and one good game here is barely even a step in the right direction, when you consider how bad it has been over these last four games.

Nobody like to go into the All Star break struggling like this, but it could be exactly what the Celtics need. It is easy to overlook terrible struggles, when you are winning a lot of the games. The Celtics have been the best team in the league at winning games they struggle with. When things are not working, and they are not mounting the 20 point comebacks, it forces the Celtics to confront these problems.

With Stevens at the helm, there is a good chance they would have confronted the problems anyways. He has repeatedly said that they are not as good as their record suggests, and does not look at the Celtics as a complete and good team right now.

The Celtics need to be better in a lot of ways come playoff time, and there is absolutely no potential results that could change the mindset of the team and the coach going into the All Star break. The Celtics have done a great job of staying level all season long, but the more time they have to think about this bad stretch, the more likely they will be to never repeat it again.

With such a young team that has overachieved by many standards to this point, it is hard to know what we should expect following the All Star break. These struggles have emphasized some of the major things they need to work on, and we have already seen this season what a difference it makes when Stevens has more time to work on things.

Next: Can Stevens Continue to Improve the Celtics?

The Celtics also got their first chance to practice with Greg Monroe prior to the Clippers game, and that could make a big difference in how they look on the court. That being said, they could come out with their best performance of the season, and Stevens will still go into this All Star break trying just as hard to fix the problems that have killed them over these last few games, which happen to be the same problems that have hurt them all season long.