The Boston Celtics are human.
For a long time, this statement felt false. As Boston marched to Banner 18 last season, wins piling up in bunches, their robotic operation on both ends of the floor seemed impenetrable. Three after three, defensive rotation after defensive rotation, the Celtics were a well-oiled machine. They were a group of five on-court individuals—they were one cohesive basketball robot.
Losses came and went, but in a manner of days (or even hours), they were shot into the void at the expense of another victory. They built a Herculean husk that kept them barren of all genuine concern. Even the worst of times, like their loss to the LeBron James, Anthony Davis-less Los Angeles Lakers, were quickly cast aside as more wins rolled in.
But not now. The green basketball robots who roamed the parquet last year are gone. In their place are the humans who inhabit the machinery. There are cracks in the armor.
The days of robot Celtics basketball are gone
Boston’s once unstoppable three-point shooting has wilted. What first seemed like a minor slump has turned into a trend. But even more notably, the rock-solid defense that has anchored the organization for years is no more. It still exists, but in the Celtics’ current state, it’s buried under a mountain of inconsistency.
“When you're not playing well defensively, that's on everybody,” Joe Mazzulla said after Boston’s loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. “It's on the staff, it's on the coaches, [and] it's on the players. So, just got to continue to work at it.”
The Celtics fell 123-114 to the Pacers on Sunday, with a Drew Peterson bucket at the end of garbage time saving them from their first double-digit loss of the year.
It was the second time in 72 hours that the two sides squared off. Boston molly-whopped the Pacers on Friday, earning their largest win over the season (a 37-point victory). That’s where Sunday’s danger began.
“We knew we were going to respond,” said Tyrese Haliburton, who poured in 31 points on Sunday.
From the very beginning of the game, the Pacers had a fire lit under them. They were focused, determined, and eager for revenge after Friday night’s beatdown. And on the other side of the ball, the Celtics were lost.
Defensive issues plagued them early and often, leaving Indiana to take full advantage. With minutes, the Pacers had jumped out to an early lead. A miscommunication between Jayson Tatum and Sam Hauser led to a wide-open Myles Turner dunk, giving Mazzulla a reason to call his first timeout (but certainly not his last).
“I think we gotta communicate better,” Tatum said of the Celtics’ defense.\ “All five guys gotta be on the same page. Too many breakdowns. And I think if we just communicate and talk a little bit better, that'll help with a lot of things.”
Friday night saw the Celtics completely shut down the Pacers’ mojo. A hyper-focused wall of green put up a blockade against one of last year’s best offenses. But the performance was sandwiched between two of Boston’s worst defensive showings of the season.
First, it was Tyrese Maxey on Christmas. Then, it was Haliburton on Sunday night. Caleb Martin’s three-point shooting. Indiana’s paint scoring. At every turn, a defensive lapse cost the Celtics points, each time cutting through whatever semblance of momentum they had previously gained.
Inconsistencies have seemingly destroyed Boston’s ability to defend at the highest level. “Sometimes it's focus, sometimes it's effort,” said Mazzulla. “And so, again, when you're in those moments, you just have to take a step back and get better at it.”
The Pacers scored 66 points in the paint on Sunday night. Boston rolled out a red carpet from the three-point line to the basket, and Indiana ran down it as if they were at the Met Gala.
“We got to pay attention to the tendencies, number one, and we just have to know where we can help from, number two, and force more kick-outs,” Mazzulla said of Boston’s struggles guarding drives. “More multiple efforts there. But it starts at the point of attack with our individual defense and then moves to our team defense off the ball. Knowing where we can help.”
Boston has lost four of their last six games. Three of their last four. For the first time in over a year, the Celtics look beatable. Not in a game-to-game context, as that’s always the case in the NBA, but in the grand scheme of the season.
It’s unusual territory.
“I think this might be the toughest stretch that I've been on since I've been here [with] the Celtics,” said Derrick White. “So, it's just gonna just bring us closer together.
“Just gotta know that everybody's got their best interest in mind, and just have each other's back. And so I just think it's gonna bring us closer. There's ups and downs through every season, so we're just in one of those downs, and we just got to figure it out together.”
Boston currently sits 4.5 games back of the Cleveland Cavaliers and only one game up on the third-place New York Knicks. A near-wire-to-wire Eastern Conference lead last year now seems like a fairy tale.
Last season, the Celtics were on top of the basketball world. No, they were in a different atmosphere. A 64-win regular season was followed by a 16-3 postseason run, and nobody came close to matching their level of play.
Now, not only are the Celtics breathing the same as their NBA co-inhabitants again, but they’re about ready to grab an oxygen tank.
But as Boston navigates the unfamiliar waters of losing, they are still keeping frustration an arm’s length away.
“I think being honest with yourself. Understand it's a long season,” Tatum said of avoiding frustration. “We got a lot of basketball left. We're so far from our ultimate goal. It's so far down the road. And we've had some good moments this year and some not-so-good ones.
“It's my eighth year, and every year, there [are] good moments and not-so-good moments. It's all [about] how you navigate the roller coaster of a season. Some stretches are better than others. You feel better during certain stretches than you do [during] others. It's just part of being in the NBA.”
Just because the Celtics are no longer basketball robots doesn’t mean they can’t reach that status once again. They’ve been brought back to a human level, but there’s still time to repair the machinery and find their top gear once again.
And even if they fail to do so, being human is normal. The standard the Celtics set for themselves last year was the exception, not the rule.
“Winning in the NBA is hard. We got to understand that,” said Tatum. “We know that everybody is confident in our abilities and what we can be at as a team. We just got to do it. And it hasn't been the best stretch for us. That's okay. Nobody's panicking or anything like that. But we just gotta be better.”
So, as the Celtics search for answers to their defensive woes, perhaps basketball perfection should no longer be the goal, as it’s an impossible one. Boston got close to scratching its surface last year, but before the robots can reboot, they need to solve their human issues.
“You just create habits for the whole year,” said White. “And obviously, you want to win every game, and you want to be first place, and you want to do all these things, but we just got to have that mindset [of] it's whatever it takes.
“And just understand that it is still December, but these habits will carry over, so we got to correct them quickly.”