It’s always dangerous to judge an NBA team before Thanksgiving, let alone less than a week after Halloween. But no doubt, the Celtics have underwhelmed so far this season.
The C’s are 6-3 to start the NBA season, staring up at teams like the Raptors, Bucks and Pacers in the Eastern Conference standings. For a team that many predicted would finish with the best record in the entire NBA, three losses in three weeks is less than ideal.
The Celtics haven’t really landed a signature win to start the season as you can poke holes in all of their victories. They beat the Sixers soundly on opening night at home. But they should beat the Sixers soundly on opening night at home.
A two point win over the Knicks a few nights later?
Their win at Oklahoma City was solid, but the Thunder are just 4-4 to start the season and may not be as good as originally thought.
The W over the Bucks last Thursday was decent as well as they handed Milwaukee its first loss of the season. But this is a game the Celtics should win as well. It should be expected. They’re at home, first and foremost. And after Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks don’t have a player that would crack the Celtics’ starting lineup. The Celtics also had to set a franchise record in 3-pointers made that night to beat the Bucks. Shots aren’t going to fall like that each night (see Saturday night’s 102-101 loss to the Pacers in Indiana in which they shot 19-of-46 from the deep stripe).
The loss to the Pacers was troublesome in that the Celtics totally botched the last minute of the contest.
Kyrie Irving drilled a 3 with just 37.2 seconds left, giving the Celtics a four-point lead. But a bad foul by Jaylen Brown, porous defense by Irving on Victor Oladipo and an ugly inbound pass by Gordon Hayward wound up losing the game for the C’s down the stretch.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens has been preaching for weeks that the Celtics “aren’t as good as everyone thinks” they are, and Danny Ainge was particularly hard on the team he assembled last week on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast during the Milwaukee game.
The Celtics are nearly last in the NBA in team scoring so far this season, averaging just 103.9 points per game (28th).
“We only have one basketball,” Ainge told 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich. “And we have a lot of guys who are capable of scoring. They’re just not going to be able to do it every night. Not everybody. And we’re going to see two or three different guys [score big] each night. I’m not worried about that. When guys score six points in a game that doesn’t mean they played bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It just means that they didn’t get the opportunity that night. Now there’s going to be times when guys go 2-for-15 from the field and score six points and that’s different. But the opportunities are going to be coming to different guys each night and we have to accept that.”
The Celtics are loaded for sure, but they still don’t have that Alpha Dog on the offensive end that will lead them in scoring nine out of 10 nights. They still don’t have a top 15 player in the NBA.
When Irving is at the peak of his powers he creeps into that conversation. And Jayson Tatum looks like he will be in that convo very soon.
But right now, the Celtics’ Top 2 are not on the same level as a Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, or a Chris Paul and James Harden.
There are seventh months ahead where these narratives could change with the Celtics. But in the early, early going it’s not looking great.
