The Boston Celtics are in the midst of a six game losing streak, a 20-23 record and suffered a humiliating 123-111 double overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks last night after leading by as many as 27 points. All of this is highly unusual for the normally dominant Celtics. So what’s the problem? Read more after the jump.
It seems, Rivers said, that the bravado and arrogance generated by the 2008 championship and 2010 NBA Finals appearance has been adopted by players who weren’t on either of those teams.
“One of the things I told them was, ‘Who do we think we are?’ ” he said. “We’re under .500. We get a lead, guys, we start acting like we’re the 2008 team. We’re not. We haven’t earned that right. So, disappointing.”
“It’s why we are what we are, it really is,” Rivers said. “I see it in the locker room. I see our talent. I see us play a quarter and a half of almost perfect basketball and then you can’t leave good enough alone, and then we start playing different.”
“Listen, it’s me. I keep saying I gotta figure out a way to figure out the buttons with each individual. I’m just going to keep searching. I tell my coaches and I tell myself we got the right group. But we gotta act right all the time.”
I along with others predicted the Celtics to do fairly well this year possibly testing Miami, but so far they’ve been rather disappointing. Coach Doc Rivers is never one to shy away from speaking the truth. It seems he’s addressed the issue now we’ll have to wait and see if he can execute a solution.
