Celtics are a rudderless ship

The Celtics just don’t like doing anything easy. They are easily the most talented team in the NBA. I won't listen to any debate on this. They have two of the top ten players in the league. Think about that for a second - out of about 450 players in the NBA, the Celtics have two of the top ten. There are over 8 billion humans on this planet, the Celtics have two of the top ten basketball players on Earth (just ask Jayson Tatum - he will tell you that at least he is). They have the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year. They have this year's Sixth Man of the Year.

So, let's put all this together. Among this Celtics’ team's core eight rotational players, it has two of the best overall players on the planet, the best defender in the league a year ago and another guy who, if he could ever stay healthy for an entire season, would be in the running for the honor, and the best bench player in the NBA. Offense, defense, bench. Check, check, and check.

So why is this "team" struggling and always falling behind in these playoffs?

It comes down to issues off the court - drive, determination, physicality, and, yes, coaching. This team has all the physical tools. It is the mental part where they are lacking, and they are lacking significantly. They don’t seem to want to put in the necessary work that is required to dominate game in and game out.

After their Game 1 loss at home (where the Celtics are now a dismal 4-4), players were outwardly questioning their mental preparation for this series. How is that possible? Sorry, Jaylen Brown, this was not the home crowd's fault.

This team barely got by a one-man team in the Hawks in the opening round. This team needed a historic Game 7 effort by Jayson Tatum to squeak by a vastly inferior Philadelphia 76ers team. Can they count on that again, if necessary? Wouldn’t it be easier to just put forth your best effort every night - 48 minutes of hard-nosed basketball - and steamroll through these series, like they should be doing? But this team chooses not to. This team falls into the trap of thinking that the O’Brien trophy will just be handed to them in June for having the best team on paper.

It does not work that way and this team just doesn’t get it. Last year’s Finals should have taught them that. They said all the right things coming into the season. They said they will finish the job this season. They now know what it takes. Well, somewhere over the course of the last 100 games, they’ve forgotten.

Here we are 100 games in, and you have Al Horford halting a practice prior to the beginning of a series in which the winner will go to the NBA Finals. Malcolm Brogdon said that “practice was light and guys were too loose.”

Jaylen Brown said his team was a little “too comfortable” after getting ahead by 10 points in the first half. “We came out too cool. It was almost like we were playing a regular season game. It’s the Eastern Conference Finals. I mean, come on. We got to play with more intensity than we did today, and we just got to be better, including me.” Saying it doesn't make it happen, though.

The Celtics' head coach was defensive (probably the only defense any Celtic played) when asked about his team not being prepared coming into the series. “We won three of the four quarters,” was Joe Mazzulla’s reply. Is that how we track winners and losers now?

Mazzulla went on to say the players “let go of the rope.” The Celtics dominated the entire first half, and only lost that one darn third quarter (by 21 points!). He mentioned winning three out of four quarters at least three times in his seven-minute postgame press conference.

This is the one series where the difference in head coaches could finally catch up to the Celtics. Miami Heat’s coach, Erik Spoelstra, has now taken an underwhelming Miami Heat team to the Eastern Conference Finals three of the last four years. Despite being only 52 years old, Spoelstra has now coached the Heat for 15 seasons, winning two NBA championships. He has a playoff winning percentage of over 60% (105-68). His record speaks for itself. He need not defend himself.

Mazzulla is 34 years old. He is in his first year coaching the Celtics. He has been rightfully criticized for not using his timeouts when warranted. He has been criticized for his substitution patterns. Sometimes Grant Williams plays a lot of minutes, sometimes he doesn’t play at all. Why did it take so long to get Robert Williams III into the starting lineup? Why has Payton Pritchard started playing significant minutes all of a sudden after not playing at all in the Hawks’ series and only three games in the Philadelphia series? Sometimes Derek White plays 30+ minutes, sometimes he plays around 20.

The team has taken it upon themselves to coach themselves. Oftentimes it appears that veterans Al Horford and Marcus Smart have assumed the role of head coach. Horford is stopping practices. Smart is making substitutions.

There is a fine line between players being team leaders and players not knowing their boundaries. This team has no voice. This team has no leader. The team has lost its control. This Celtics' ship has lost its rudder.