In a chat with the media following the Celtics' loss to the 76ers this week, NBA star Jayson Tatum opened up on what kind of response he wants to see from his team. As the defending NBA champions, Tatum has full confidence in the Celtics and their ability to turn this season around.
"We gotta take some ownership. We have got to be better, we [have to] acknowledge the things that we've done not so great," said Tatum. "We gotta look in the mirror and man up, and we just have to be better. We fully believe in ourselves and the things that we can do when we're fully locked in and we've done it time and time again. We've just had some lapses recently and we have to get back on track."
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown run the show in Boston but their roster is full of players who can take over the game at any moment. Last season, after going 64-18, they went on to win the title with quality basketball on both ends of the floor. This season, at full strength, their main rotation includes Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White.
Now that they've gone all the way, the Celtics have been major targets this season and teams are always eager to give them their best. But even for a team as stacked as the Cs, difficult times will come and this current losing streak is certainly a low point this season.
Without Jayson Tatum, the Celtics lost to the Orlando Magic on Monday, who are currently fourth in the standings. On Christmas, they lost to Joel Embiid and the 76ers who were able to carve up Boston's defense to score 118 points.
Now, ahead of a brutal matchup against the Indiana Pacers, Tatum is calling on his team to re-focus their efforts and take accountability for their mistakes. The problem is that they aren't doing anything differently than what worked a year ago.
At 22-8, the Celtics are still one of the top teams in the East but they are far from a perfect squad given their recent play. Arguably the most concerning aspect of this slump has been the play of Kristaps Porzingis. He didn't shoot the ball well on Wednesday after going 3-8 and his average for the season is down to 32.8%
The Celtics have also seen slippage on defense over the past two games. They let the 76ers go 17-40 from three (42.5%) and 41-88 overall (46.6%). Even for a team mostly known for shooting, defense is important and if the Celtics want to avoid stacking up more early losses, they'll need to re-discover their defensive identity.
Fortunately, thanks to a two-game cushion between the Celtics and the 3rd seeded Knicks, the Celtics aren't in any real danger of moving down the standings but that could change if they keep their current trajectory.
Over the next few days, the Celtics must identify their mistakes and adjust accordingly so that they can stay on the top of the standings, right under the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The next game for the Celtics is on Friday night, against the Indiana Pacers, at TD Garden at 7:30 PM EST. It's part of a two-game mini-series between the teams, which ends on the 29th in Boston at 6:00 PM EST. Finally, the Cs will play the Toronto Raptors on December 31st at 3:00 PM EST.
