The Eastern Conference is real tight at the moment, the whole league is tight in the middle. Everybody has similar records so the importance of winning your games is strengthening, even if we’re nowhere near the halfway point of the season the fact that there is not many clear cut elite teams as there usually is gives teams at the level below incentive to make moves.
The Boston Celtics, are currently not doing that. They’re floundering when they should be blossoming. They haven’t got time to lose games to the Atlanta Hawks when Celtics players like Isaiah Thomas label it a ‘must win’ game. Jae Crowder thinks he knows why progress has halted.
“I don’t think we’re playing with the same type of swagger,” Crowder said. “[The Hawks] started building that swagger within themselves; you started hearing them yell and talk and be excited. We don’t show any passion, any excitement any more. We have to get back to that.”
And why have the Celtics lost that swagger?
“I don’t know. We’ve got to figure that out,” Crowder said. “We don’t know. Playing for one another is a big part of it. We’ve got to learn how to do that and get off all of ourselves, get our swagger back, get our excitement.“
I think it’s always good to know what the problem is. If they were losing and didn’t know why that would be a major problem. I think they need to just string together some wins, do it in an emphatic fashion. Win a game that makes a statement.
