Are The Boston Celtics Falling Apart ?

Instead of thinking about the title and the big Finals, the Boston Celtics, now have to deal with certain issues in their own team.

Nobody expected such a bad start of the season, and at a point when everything seemed to settle down, they started experiencing losses and bad chemistry once again.

Last night’s defeat at home against the Milwaukee Bucks was the last straw. The players felt that there is a need to do something.

“At this point it comes down to cohesion, being able to trust the pass, trust what we have going on out there,” Kyrie Irving said to the media after he and his teammates had a 36-minute long locker-room meeting behind the closed doors.

The subjects were bad plays, bad results, bad chemistry.

“Obviously some selfish play out there where … we have some really talented guys, but we’re better as a team sharing the basketball. ” Irving added.

STRAIGHT SHOOTER: Kyrie Irving calls out #Celtics for “some selfish play… I can basically do anything I want out there.” Says there’s a real lack of cohesion now pic.twitter.com/JXdYTPQ9hs

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 22, 2018

The Boston Celtics are nowhere near their level of play. A team which has Irving, Hayward, Horford, Tatum, Brown etc, should be at least among top 3 teams in their conference. Currently, the Celts are fifth, with 18 wins and 13 losses.

Without several players, they had in total 27 losses during the entire previous campaign, and after 30 games this year they already reached half of that number.

But that is not the biggest problem. Losses come and go, and the playoffs can erase all those negativities from the regular part of the season.

However, to do that, chemistry is the first condition for all that to take place.

At the moment, the Celtics aren’t having one.

Kyrie Irving tried to explain that the growth of his team isn’t going to be easy, but that all the players have to be patient and find their place in the system.

“Sometimes being in the journey there can be some dark spots going on, you’re challenged, you don’t know what to do, and that’s fine. ”

But there was part of the interview which immediately alarmed all the basketball fans around the world.

“We have some really talented guys, but we’re better as a team sharing the basketball. And, if it’s late in the shot clock, that’s when we start shooting our iso plays, as opposed to if we have nothing in transition shooting with 16 or 17 on the clock, or shooting a fadeaway, something like that.”

The only guy who did that on the court was Jayson Tatum, who did have bad judgments when it comes to shooting selection. The fantastic youngster who amazed the whole league last season, didn’t have his night, and the made several mistakes, but it is far from the truth that he is the one to blame for spoiling the chemistry among the Celts.

He wasn’t that willing to speak with the reporters after the match, and the meeting, and the only thing he told them is that he doesn’t have the answer why Boston plays inconsistently.

“I wish I had an answer.”But we are going to be all right.” Tatum told.

Jayson Tatum: “We are gonna be alright.” pic.twitter.com/x54Nt4eBaA

— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) December 22, 2018

It is obvious though, that the Celtics have two groups of players, the experienced ones led by Irving, Horford, and Heyward, and the youngsters, Tatum, Rozier, Brown, and that these two assemblies tend to clash from time to time on the court.

It is all understandable, because the latter one made excellent results last season, without the help of the superstars. The future of Irving is not very clear, since he has the contract until the end of the next season, and he expressed his desire to re-sign. The Celtics, however, are not making a move yet.

On the other hand, they have young Tatum who is a future of the league, and who probably wants to be that guy who stays here long-term. There isn’t much room for both, as Gordon Hayward already signed a massive contract which will be a problem in the future.

All this could be an indication that Celtics might crash this season. For now, it doesn’t look good.