BOSTON — Brad Stevens took a rare step up to the podium on Thursday and provided a different perspective on the state of the team than we’ve heard since the new year began. While remaining confident through what’s admittedly been an up-and-down start to 2025, he was asked about the team’s continued strong performance in the analytics department in January.
“Yeah, they were buoyed by some blowouts,” he said, smiling. “I’m kidding.”
“I don’t get too caught up in the numbers of that stretch, because we lost some close games that maybe we felt like we could’ve won but made mistakes at the end and lost. Then, our numbers were probably buoyed by a couple of those 30-40 point wins, and so we probably weren’t playing as good as our numbers at that time, but we’re capable. We’re capable on both ends of the court. Listen, it’s a long year. We have played late and we hope to play late. We know that nothing’s given, but the reality is we also know there are going to be ups-and-downs and we can’t ride those.”
The Celtics found some stability entering this week’s trade deadline, and while a veteran need emerged at the wing that they addressed through the buyout market with Torrey Craig, Stevens didn’t feel the need to shake-up the roster that won the championship last season.
However, a blowout loss to the Mavericks became the latest inexplicable no-show at nearly full health. Dallas built a double-digit lead early and never relented. The Celtics sat their starters down by 24 points with more than nine minutes left.
Two days prior, they limited the Cavs’ offense to 15 first quarter points and held off their rallies throughout to win their fourth straight game for the first time since November, and second in three meetings with the East’s top seed. It looked like momentum stemming from Boston’s 26-point comeback at Philadelphia on Sunday, another team missing most of their regular contributors who nearly knocked off the Celtics.
Joe Mazzulla, normally expressing optimism and enjoyment through the low moments, asked Boston’s starters if they wanted him to bench them at halftime in Philadelphia. That inspired one of their best halves recently. Jaylen Brown said they could’ve given in and made some excuses to the media, but didn’t.
After Thursday’s debacle, the post-game reaction shifted back toward trying to find answers. Payton Pritchard pointed toward returning from a long road trip. Brown stressed just getting to the All-Star break intact, resetting mentally and reassessing. However, there are still three difficult games to go before then: at Madison Square Garden tonight then down to South Beach and finally wrapping up at home hosting the Spurs. Mazzulla called the process of this season a great journey, and that he’s having a blast.
“I think you make an interesting point there, because I didn’t think we played a complete game in Cleveland, but the win can disguise some of those things,” he said. “So at the end of the day, it’s more about the process … we had stretches of really bad basketball at the end of the first half of Cleveland, but we were able to work through that … to me, the result doesn’t matter as much as the process … it was just longer stretches of the process and the details that we didn’t do a good job of … we’re second in the league in turnover percentage, and we’re top in two-point percentage, so the process is what we’ve done over the course of 45 games. That’s the process.”
There’s no panic yet from players or the front office, but the inconsistency, crunch time and defensive lapses have added up over 19 games where they’re tied for eight in net rating (12-7, +4.7) rather than the world-beaters they emerged as last year. Bumps and bruises like Jrue Holiday’s shoulder ailment, which landed him back on the bench again on Thursday and will hold him out again tonight against the Knicks, have contributed as did Kristaps Porzingis’ re-integration to the lineup. Sam Hauser, fighting hard to dig out of his shooting slump influenced by a lingering back injury, wore a massive bag of ice on it after a strong showing in Cleveland.
There’s some malaise involved and worse shooting seasons in many spots on the roster have influenced defensive effort. even Other issues have been more strange: the Jayson Tatum and Brown rotation dynamic, several crunch time meltdowns against Atlanta, the Clippers and New Orleans, along with a continued propensity to let down when an opposing team’s best players sit out — newly acquired Anthony Davis didn’t play on Thursday among numerous other Mavericks regulars.
Kyrie Irving did play, and in a drastic difference from his recent performances here, guarded Brown and Tatum well, forced turnovers and performed despite the boos. The Celtics lapsed defensively and faded quickly. They’re focused on peaking when the time’s right, which raises the long-running flip the switch debate. Stevens noticed their struggles, and while limited flexibility might’ve been the biggest factor, he stood pat, confident they can figure it out by April.
“In our situation, with our team this year, today was boring as hell,” Stevens said of a very active trade deadline. “There wasn’t gonna be anything going. The phones didn’t ring. We had already had any discussions that we were probably gonna have, and we just weren’t gonna do anything major because at the end of the day, even through our ups-and-downs over the last six weeks, what gives us our best chance of having a chance to win? That’s this group playing a little bit more like itself more of the time, and I’m encouraged by where we’re headed with that and never really wavered with our belief in that.”
“But (we) ride the ups-and-downs like the rest of the fans and everybody else sometimes.”
