The Celtics are not inspiring confidence, and they know it.
Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers yells to the referees during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012 in Chicago. The Bulls won 100-89.
The Boston Celtics will return home bloodied and beaten, with bruises from the smacks they took dropping all three games on a mini road trip, including a 100-89 defeat to the Chicago Bulls Tuesday.
The Celtics are not inspiring confidence, and they know it.
“This team is not a good team right now,” head coach Doc Rivers said, according to the Boston Herald. “It’s who we are right now. I’ve been saying that. This is who we are right now. We’re a .500 team.”
What went wrong? The Celtics surrendered more than 100 points for the first time in nine tries against Chicago; and for the third consecutive outing on the road trip. Forty-six of Chicago's points came in the paint -- the Bulls were so wide open underneath the basket that even New York Jets quarterbacks would have had a difficult time missing them. The night before, against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Bulls had scored just 71 points.
Joakim Noah (11 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) finished with the second triple-double of his career, with many of his assists coming to teammates cutting all alone on the baseline. Nate Robinson outscored the entire Boston bench by himself, 18-16; one play after being fouled hard (and then glared at) by a menacing Jason Collins, Robinson scored a layup and then flexed his muscles underneath the hoop. Rajon Rondo had his highest scoring output of the season with 26 points, but the Celtics wasted every bit of his aggression by being passive everywhere else.
“We’re not sustaining defensive effort for four quarters, getting outworked,” Pierce said. “It’s pretty much every night. Right now we have no identity. I mean, that’s just simple and plain. We’re supposed to be a defensive team, (but) we give up a hundred points every night. We’re still searching trying to find out who we want to be for this season.”
It's still early, one might say, but we've passed the season's quarter mark. The Celtics have played 29 percent of their regular season games. They're missing Avery Bradley, sure, and he'll certainly help. But right now his teammates are crawling through the desert with sunburns on their necks looking for an oasis, all while their opponents, chugging happily from water jugs, run straight to the rim for another layup.
“We may not shoot the ball, we may not execute the offense, but to say we got outworked, I’m embarrassed to even say it, truthfully, but that’s just the facts," Pierce said.
The truth hurts.