A familiar story has played out across multiple disappointing Celtics losses this season: uncharacteristic career shooting nights from opponents and uncharacteristic dismal shooting nights from Boston.
Monday’s 114-112 loss to the Houston Rockets was no different. League villain Dillon Brooks shot a career-high 10 threes, and second-year forward Amen Thompson had a career-high 33 points.
Sure, performances like this could just be chalked up to the fact that the defending champion will get the best game of every team they face. But part of a title defense means that the Celtics, who are now 4-6 in their last 10, should win some of those games occasionally, right?
With over a week left until this year’s trade deadline, should the Celtics be looking for the panic button? The Greg Hill Show debated Tuesday morning on WEEI.
“It just concerns me that I expected that they were going to, at this point in the season, have under 10 losses,” Greg Hill said.
Were expectations too high this offseason? Producer Chris Curtis took Jermaine Wiggins to task for his bold win total predictions for Boston.
“I would say that you, at the beginning of the season, said nobody's stopping this team, and they've been stopped 15 times,” Curtis said.
Nine of those 15 losses have come in the last 20 games, with the Celtics hovering just over .500 during that stretch.
“That’s a fourth of the season [that] they’ve been playing .500, as the most talented roster in the sport,” he continued.
Despite their somewhat disappointing first half, Wiggy remains steadfast in his belief in the Celtics.
“I’m not concerned one bit,” he said.
The Celtics are currently on pace to win 55 games this season. While that’s still an admirable win total for any team, it’s a shade lower than what the fans and media wanted.
“They’re going to end the season with a better record than Ime Udoka had when Ime took them to the NBA Finals,” Wiggy continued.
Monday night’s loss was also notable for the poor shooting start for the Celtics’ best player, Jayson Tatum, who went scoreless in the first half and finished the night shooting 1-of-7 from three.
Hill questioned whether Tatum and players from today’s modern era “get up” for big games like they used to.
“I would expect that that team against the Los Angeles Lakers, your all-time rival, is going to be up for and in that game to win it, and they weren't. But it's the regular season, right? So these guys don't care. They just don't,” Hill said.
Wiggy acknowledged that the players’ intensity level has changed.
“It sounds like old man, Larry Bird diving on the floor, Tommy points, taking charges, taking elbows. That's not what the new NBA is,” Wiggy said.
Ultimately, Wiggy said it’s unfair to compare the eras.
“Tatum was off, and they’re like, ‘Ehh, Tatum can't get up for this one.’ The guy's been playing lights out basketball all season long,” he said.
“You cannot compare eras. I mean, listen, I love ‘80s basketball more than anybody. You just can't compare eras. And the game has changed, the players have changed. And, yeah, you might be a little disappointed in it, but stop trying to compare Larry Bird to the guys that play today, Tatum and Brown. It was just a different type of game.”