Defensive Atrocity
The Boston Celtics are a terrible defensive basketball team right now. They’re a bad team in general but boy do they suck on defense. Here’s some of the point totals allowed by the Celtics over the last 10 games: 125, 119, 140, 129, 121, 130, 129. It’s embarrassing. Can we play some fucking defense?!
Their playoff lives are on the line the last two nights against Miami and they give up 129 and 130. It pisses me off and it should piss you off too. Problem is, it doesn’t seem to piss them off.
Playing defense is a mentality, a mindset. It takes toughness and heart to commit to the defensive side of the floor. This team just doesn’t have any of that and a lot of the blame has to go to Brad Stevens. He’s a soft coach, has no defensive prowess, he isn’t demanding of his players, doesn’t hold them accountable. He’s a problem. At the end of the day though it’s still the NBA, it’s a players league and these players just don’t get it.
Jaylen Brown is good and they miss him but come on, he’s not irreplaceable. Can no one else play defense on this team? Since Brown has been out the defense has gotten worse but honestly they’ve had issues on defense all year and while Brown was one of the few players who could hold his own on the defensive end, it wasn’t enough.
If Jayson Tatum ever wants to be considered in the same category as Lebron James or Kawhi Leonard, he needs to get a lot better on defense. If he wants to be that true elite superstar, he needs to focus on improving his defense because right now, he is a liability.
Why is Marcus Smart even on this team? He sucks offensively, his value is supposed to be on the defensive end. Clearly his defense isn’t helping this team. I’d rather another scorer out there who plays no defense than Marcus Smart playing like dog shit on both ends of the floor. I thought he was supposed to be one of the best defensive players in the league? If the name of the game is out score your opponent why is Smart here?
Has the NBA changed over the last 10-15 years? Yes, absolutely. But not that much. It’s letting the Celtics off the hook by chalking it up to the league has changed and scoring is up. I can’t help but think back to those Celtics vs. Pistons playoff games from 2008 when they had 88-79 and 89-81 final scores. There were lots of high scoring games in the NBA in the 2000’s but the Celtics and Pistons were great defensive teams and there’s a reason one of them was in all but two Eastern Conference Finals from 2002-2012. I remember in 2002 when the two of them played a playoff game that had a final score of 66-64. I miss those days, when the Celtics actually played some defense. This current Celtics team just gave up 79 points in one half.
There is a lot to hate about this Celtics team but if you couldn’t tell, their defense is the thing that frustrates me the most. There is just no resistance for their opponents, the effort is just not there. This team is lazy, soft and the blame pie is split between the coach and the players.
The Celtics are lackluster, undisciplined, poorly coached, the roster isn’t as good as you think and it shows every time you watch them. This season has gone down the toilet fast and I can’t say I’m disappointed. I can’t wait for this shit show to be over.