WALTHAM, Mass. – The Boston Celtics pride themselves on the defensive end, but they’ve been severely lacking in that department over the last month.
Since Jan. 12, Boston has surrendered 107.7 points per game. The only Eastern Conference team that has allowed more during that span is the last-place Philadelphia 76ers, with an average of 109.5 points allowed per game.
Boston’s defensive woes have only worsened lately. During the last six contests, the C’s have surrendered an astronomical 116.8 points per game, including a 124-122 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves Monday night.
The team is concerned about the ongoing trend and acknowledged after Wednesday’s practice that it has to change immediately.
“We’ve put guys on islands and put so much stress on one guy stopping the opposing team and that’s hurt us,” said Isaiah Thomas. “We’ve gotta show five guys, we’ve gotta give everybody help and get back to defending the way we know how.”
Boston was regarded as one of the best defensive teams in the league entering the New Year, and coach Brad Stevens says his goal is to get back to that point. He admitted that it’s realistic to have defensive slippage at times throughout the season, but added, “It’s very concerning when it’s the better part of three or four weeks.”
Stevens turned back the tape before taking on Denver Sunday afternoon and showed film of some of Boston’s better defensive possessions earlier in the season. The team understood what it needed to do to get back to that level of defense, but the study session ultimately did not translate to the court, as evidenced by Minnesota’s 124-point outpour.
The team went back to the basics Wednesday afternoon, further addressing its defensive issues with a very lengthy practice session.
“Today we spent a lot of time talking,” said Stevens. “We spent a lot of time on body position, we spent a lot of time on doing little things to help give us a better chance.”
In order to have a better chance on the defensive end, Marcus Smart explains that the C’s must put less of an emphasis on isolation defense, and more emphasis on team defense.
“Everybody’s gotta be on a string – all five guys,” said the defensive extraordinaire. “When one guy moves, the whole team has to move. We can’t have two or three guys doing their own thing and the rest of the team doing something else.”
Smart and the rest of the C’s know they’ll have to wake up at the defensive end Thursday night when they host a Bucks team that has won four of its last five. That stretch began with a 112-111 win against the C’s on Feb. 9.
“[Milwaukee is] one of the hottest teams in the East,” said Stevens. “(Jabari) Parker is playing at a really high level right now. (Khris) Middleton, (Michael) Carter-Williams, (O.J.) Mayo, Giannis (Antetokounpo) … Those guys have all really burned us in the past, and what (Greg) Monroe did to us last time (29 points, 12 rebounds) was as good of an individual performance as we’ve faced in the last four weeks, and we’ve had some awfully good ones against us.”
In order to avoid being burned again by Milwaukee (it outscored the C’s 40-20 during the third quarter of the last matchup), the C’s must rediscover their elite-level defense that stymied opposing teams for the better part of this season.
As long as they play as a single unit on the defensive end and avoid as many one-on-one situations as possible, that should be achievable Thursday night and beyond.
