The Boston Celtics are the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. They have the third-best winning percentage in the NBA at .689, are the defending NBA champions, and have already secured wins over the likes of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, and New York Knicks.
With this in mind, any criticism levied against the Celtics is contextualized by the fact that their problems would be blessings for most.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, however, and Boston is fighting to defend their title. As such, even the slightest of hiccups are destined to appear under the spotlight, especially after a 2023-24 season during which the Celtics effectively dominated from wire to wire.
Having acknowledged all of the prerequisites to criticizing a world-beating team with nearly a decade of Eastern Conference dominance, it must be said: Boston is in underwhelming form.
The Celtics got off to a 19-4 start to the 2024-25 regular season. Perhaps it was unreasonable to expect that 67.7-win pace to be sustained across the entire campaign, especially when one considers how hard it is to win as the target of the entire NBA.
Boston has gone 12-10 over the past 22 games, however, meaning they've been mediocre for just about as long as they've been dominant in 2024-25.
Strange as it is to say, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum shoulder a significant portion of the responsibility.
Celtics need Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to step up down the stretch
31-14 is a wonderful place to be, especially for a team looking for a way out of its current predicament. Coming off of an embarrassing 117-96 loss to the rival Los Angeles Lakers, however, the spotlight is on Boston's surprising woes.
The question is: With the fifth-highest net rating in the NBA over their past 22 games, how exactly did they get here?
The unfortunate truth facing Boston is that it's losing games in the fourth quarter. The Celtics are outscoring opponents by 7.6 points per 100 possessions overall since the 22-game spell began on Dec. 7, but have somehow simultaneously failed to close out wins.
Since Dec. 7, Boston is being outscored by 3.2 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter—a mark that puts them at 21st in the NBA during that time.
Perhaps it's an oversimplification, but a team that's failing to close out games needs their franchise players to step up and right the ship. It's the unenviable burden carried by superstars, which both Brown and Tatum have thoroughly established themselves as.
Both deserve credit for taking a significant step forward as playmakers, but when the lights are shining bright, they've surprisingly come up short—particularly Brown.
During this 22-game window, Brown is shooting just 37.6 percent from the field and 20.0 percent from beyond the arc during the fourth quarter. He's converting just 31.6 percent of his threes overall since the cold stretch began, and Tatum hasn't been much better at 33.0 percent—on 9.9 attempts per game.
The Celtics have been playing at an elite level on both ends of the floor, but until their superstars can close out games, the string of underwhelming results will continue.