How worried are you on a panic scale of 1 to 10 and what is the Celtics biggest issue?
Bill Sy: I’m at a 5. Watching everybody’s body language and listening to the postgame pressers, it seems largely mental at this point — missed shots leads to frustration leads to lapses and low effort on defense. If head coach Joe Mazzulla is unfazed by Boston’s shot selection, I’ll try to be, too.
Gregory Maneikis: I’m at a 3. It’s hard to sustain elite success over an entire 82-game season, and there aren’t quite as many cupcakes on the schedule as previous years. I know some might differ, but the Magic, when healthy are a real NBA team with some dogs. Losing back-to-back is inexcusable, but it shows the importance of execution, boxing out, etc. if you want to win the average NBA basketball game.
To me, their biggest issue is just that. Things were so easy early in the season, they didn’t need to worry about all of the little things. Now the book is out on how to slow down the offense, so the C’s will need to recommit to playing mistake-free basketball because when the offense isn’t there, the real game begins.
Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
William Weir: It’s a 3 for me. Gotta tighten things up for sure but a lot of it comes down to a poor shooting stretch. They are 29th & 30th respectively shooting the 3 and from the field the last 5 games, but 4th and 6th in the NBA on the season for those categories. A lot of the role players are going through shooting funks at the same time, but water will find its level. They are still getting good looks, just not good results. Rob is back. Defense is improving They’ll be fine.
Mike Dynon: Level 5. I’d like to believe the offensive slump is just the flip side of the way-above-average first 20-25 games. That would be normal. But the problem is, when the shots stop falling, the Celtics tend to revert to bad habits. The ball movement disappears, hero ball creeps in, and as we saw in Sunday’s game, they still have difficulty executing winning plays in the final minute of a close contest.
Joe Mazzulla is facing adversity for the first time as a head coach. How will he respond? What will it take to get back on track? They need to restore some confidence before the Christmas showdown with Milwaukee, or the panic level will rise for sure.
