While the Celtics sit second in the Eastern Conference, they’ve hit a bit of a slump. Boston fell 110-97 to the lowly Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night in what was an ugly performance from the team.
The defense has struggled mightily of late, and Eddie House gave a blunt assessment of how he sees his former team.
“I’m just trying to figure out this team right now. ... The defense over this last month has stunk," House said on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “We put together a quarter here, a quarter there, maybe a half here and a half there. But a complete game of playing championship-caliber defense, I just haven’t seen it.
“I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s fatigue, I don’t know if it’s just the dog days of January and the end of December, whatever the case is. But we’re gonna get every team’s best shot,” the 2008 Celtics champion continued. “So this is not something that we have to be like, ‘Oh man, we’re surprised that we’re getting everybody’s best shot.’ You know that. You’re the champs. You know what I mean? You’re coming off of winning a world championship. You’re gonna get every team’s best shot, so you better come prepared.”
The Raptors made 50.6% of their shots in the win while the defense looked lost and their offense shot 39.6% from the floor. Despite the struggles, House still isn’t panicking.
“There’s no panic button to hit,” he said. “But there has to be some self-reflection from this team to look and say, ‘Hey man, it’s just not good enough.’ Especially what you’re trying to do because you’re building habits right now, and the habits that are being built and that are happening aren’t great habits.
After Wednesday’s loss, the Celtics fell to 6½ games back of the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers. They can begin to right the ship on Friday when Boston hosts the Orlando Magic.
