The Boston Celtics are slipping. The battle for 3rd in the Eastern Conference has suddenly gotten tougher. It’s not just the Miami Heat on their tail now, the Charlotte Hornets and the Atlanta Hawks have come into the frame.
And now, after taking an L to the Toronto Raptors, all teams that were chasing the Celtics have now leapfrogged them. The Boston Celtics have gone from 3rd in the East, to 6th in the East in seemingly one fail swoop. The Celtics are clearly aware of this and know that they need to get back into the groove. And fast.
“Hey, we’re four games away from ninth [place],” Stevens said, downplaying any thoughts of a surge. Reporters laughed because, as it turned out, Boston actually owned a six-game buffer over the first spot outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture and, given that Boston projected with a 99.9 percent chance at making the playoffs, the idea that Stevens would worry about a slide seemed a bit preposterous.
“We have to change something up,” Celtics All-Star Isaiah Thomas told reporters in Toronto. “We got ourselves back into [Friday’s] game, so we showed signs of playing like we know how, but a good team like the Raptors you can’t just play one good quarter.“
It’s seems as soon as their home game win streak was snapped, the Boston Celtics just plain slipped. They don’t have chemistry issues or anything, they’re just slipping, the ball isn’t going in for them, they’re cold as a collective unit.
They’re now half a game behind Miami and Charlotte, with Atlanta half a game up on those two. There’s a game between 3rd and 6th. And who knows. Maybe Indiana might come into it, they’re just above the fight for 8th between Chicago, Detroit and Washington. I don’t think Indy want to be dragged into that one.
