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Tim BontempsESPN
After the Boston Celtics suffered their biggest loss of the season on Sunday afternoon – a beating of 104-91 by the Washington Wizards, who set the worst record at the Eastern Conference on Sunday – star Kemba Walker had a simple diagnosis for his team malaise .
[We] You just have to play harder, ”Walker said. That is it. We don’t play hard. We don’t play as hard as we can.
“When you play hard, great things happen. And right now it just hasn’t been consistent, our game. So like I said, we’re going to keep watching movies and learning from our mistakes and getting better.”
The Celtics are now 13-13, the first time they’ve been .500 or worse this late in the season in six years. The defeat was compounded by the fact that it came on the heels of a loss to the Detroit Pistons on Friday, who had been the worst team in the east before they bombarded Washington by beating the Celtics.
An optimist could try to downplay Friday’s result as it’s the second half of a back-to-back against an equipped opponent. There was no excuse on Sunday, as the Wizards improved to just 3-14 this season when Russell Westbrook was in the lineup by controlling play throughout the game, especially in the second half.
While the Celtics made a late run in garbage time to keep the final score looking respectable, the Wizards – who came in on Sunday with the NBA’s 29th-ranked defense – were nearly 20 points ahead for most of the second half when Boston one rang. jumper after another.
Walker and Jaylen Brown each scored 25 points, shooting 21-for-39 from the field and 6-for-12 from the 3-point range, but their teammates couldn’t buy a bucket. The rest of the Celtics were a pathetic 12-for-51 (23.6%) off the field on Sunday, including 3-for-23 from the 3-point range.
Boston ran nearly 21 minutes from the middle of the second quarter to the beginning of the fourth quarter, including 13 consecutive misses.
“It could be,” said Brown, when asked if this weekend could be considered a low point for the Celtics. “It’s up to everyone’s mindset, how we come in every day and prepare for work.
“If you let it be a rock bottom mentality, it will be. [If] you come to play, then it will show. And today we weren’t very good. “
Playing without Marcus Smart, who has missed the past two weeks with a calf load, the Celtics’ lack of depth – especially on the wing – and scoring hit has come to light.
Other than rookie Payton Pritchard, who has impressed and secured a guaranteed spot in coach Brad Stevens’ rotation, no one on the bench has been able to score consistently. Veteran Jeff Teague, who was brought in to support Walker, was terrible, shooting a paltry 28.6% on 2-point shots. He was a healthy scratch in the past two games that Walker has played.
While Pritchard has quickly won Stevens’ trust, Boston’s lottery pick Aaron Nesmith has not. He did play on Sunday, finishing with five points and five rebounds in 29 minutes, but was noticeably absent from the rotation this season despite Boston repeatedly running short of wingers.
To that end, Nesmith’s 29 minutes Sunday makes up 20% of his time on track all season.
After the game, Stevens pointed to mess time, when the Boston bench end made a point to make the final score more respectable, as something to move forward on.
“There’s a lot,” said Stevens, when asked what needs to be improved to get the Celtics back to playing the way they used to. “We just have to be better at controlling the things we can control by playing together the right way at both ends of the field.
“If our team can play more like that in the last five minutes, then we can be the best we can. If not, we’ll be average … We have to play well to win. “Get out and win that game. We have to play well, so if we don’t play well and take care of the little things, we have absolutely no chance.”
After this weekend, the Celtics – who have now lost four of their past five and seven of their past 10 – will aim for a return to average play, but things won’t get any easier with MVP candidate Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets coming Tuesday Visit Boston.
Because Boston will need the next 48 hours to prepare for that game, Stevens – like Walker – said that playing hard will be a prerequisite for anyone wanting to see the floor outside the team’s mainstays.
“I think we should look at everything,” said Stevens. “I know we’ve talked a lot about lineups and consistency and who plays and who doesn’t, guys who really move the ball or guys who really play the spots and perform really hard should probably be the priority, in terms of play, for now around our very best players. And I think we should get there, because that’s clearly a problem. “