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The Boston Celtics are serene figuring some things out. And so that they would perchance perchance no longer have proper answers anytime soon.
Wednesday’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs used to be their first sport all yr to feature what they hope steadily is the starting five for a deep playoff bustle. Kemba Walker made his season debut earlier in January, whereas Jayson Tatum had been in the league’s COVID-19 protocols. And in this community’s 2nd sport collectively, a 96-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, they lost Marcus Smooth to a left calf stress.
It’s unknown how prolonged Smooth will be out—calves can even be spiteful—nonetheless it undoubtedly used to be lawful the most fashionable in a string of misfortunes for a Celtics crew hoping to lastly originate constructing some continuity.
In some recommendations, a competitive loss to the defending champions is an encouraging mark. Tatum and Jaylen Brown were spectacular, as Brown has been all yr and Tatum has been when he’s been healthy. However it undoubtedly capped off a two-week stretch wherein Boston has gone 2-5, with two straight losses to their fellow Jap Conference hopefuls, the Philadelphia 76ers, as neatly as Saturday’s loss to the Lakers.
Their defense, whereas serene ranking 11th in the league at 108.9 facets allowed per 100 possessions, has slipped at some level of that stretch, and a long absence for Smooth may perchance perchance perchance earn gruesome.
The Celtics are additionally in the approach of reintegrating Walker, who performed his worst sport of the season against the Lakers, taking pictures 1-of-12 from the discipline. A kind of 11 overlooked shots used to be a jumper that would were the sport-winner with seconds final had it gone down.
Michael Dwyer/Linked Press
Walker, who used to be an All-Principal particular person in his first season with the Celtics, has performed in barely six video games after present process a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in his left knee that kept him out of practicing camp and the originate of the season. Since returning, he’s been hit-or-miss, as also can very neatly be expected.
The witness he overlooked at the end of the loss to the Lakers used to be a factual one, one he’s made time and again in his profession.
“I liked the shot that we bought,” Brown mentioned after the sport. “Kemba’s a colossal player. That’s a shot he’s fundamentally gonna carry out. We’re gonna want him. He knows that for us to trip far, we would like him.”
To that end, per chance the essential ask of the Celtics’ season is whether or no longer Walker’s struggles are simply a feature of the adjustment period or a mark of a more permanent decline. Undersized guards construct no longer tend to age neatly, and Walker has been facing knee points for a variety of years.
The return of Tatum and the jump that Brown has taken offensively (which may perchance perchance perchance serene test out him carry out his first profession All-Principal particular person look) also can very neatly be ample to paper over Walker’s struggles, nonetheless Brown is absolutely excellent—in the playoffs, they are going to want him.
On paper, with Smooth, Brown, Tatum, Daniel Theis and Tristan Thompson, the Celtics have the personnel to be an elite defensive crew to trip alongside with their high-scoring perimeter duo. However with this many stops and begins and gamers internal and out of the lineup, head coach Brad Stevens hasn’t been in a plot to compose any roughly proper foundation.
In a season that’s considered practically every crew navigating the uncharted waters of retaining gamers safe, healthy and collectively at some level of an ongoing pandemic, the playoffs will come all of the fashion down to which crew is the most intact in the spring. If that’s the Celtics, they’ve the ability to dwell notable longer than the Sixers, Nets and Bucks. However this recent tough patch is exhibiting how notable work they’ve left to construct forward of then.
