Tuesday night, the Celtics got destroyed by the Toronto Raptors. They played like garbage and the Raptors did not. That essentially sums up the game, there is not much else to really say. As a Celtic fan, the lackluster effort more than frustrated me; as did the comments Marcus Smart and Kyrie Irving made post game. To paraphrase Smart said that the Celtics aren’t playing together right now, prompting Kyrie to respond when he heard about it by saying “that’s Smart’s opinion, but I respect it.”
First of all, Kyrie should respect it because it’s absolutely true. More games than not, the effort is there from Boston, the talent is very much there, but there is always something missing; you can call it chemistry or a sense of togetherness, whatever you want, but it just is not there this season. I think there are a number of personal agendas on this team this season. You have Rozier, in a contract year, who helped lead this team to the Eastern Conference Finals last season without Kyrie and you have Brown who has to sacrifice minutes for the $30 million Gordon Hayward who just flat out does not deserve those minutes most games this season.
Also, let’s assess proper blame for this to Kyrie Irving. First, Kyrie says he doesn’t want to negotiate before the season or during the season for a contract extension. That’s fine, no big deal. Then, he steps up at a season ticket holder event and says he wants to sign an extension this summer. After all that, he does all these things to suggest that maybe he doesn’t want to come back. From patching things up with Lebron to telling people he doesn’t owe them anything, the only thing we do know about Kyrie is that he shouldn’t have a microphone in front of him. From someone who claims he does not want to be a distraction, he is being one and it is affecting this team negatively.
We digressed a little, so let’s bring it all back together. Have the Celtics not learned that making these statements in the media made things worse? How dumb can you be?! Kyrie comes out and says the young guys aren’t living up to expectations; bad things happen. Marcus Morris says the team isn’t having fun; nothing good comes from that. Now, Marcus Smart says they aren’t playing together; I wonder what will happen.
Like I said, I don’t think Boston’s problems are effort related; so I’m unsure if they can just flip the proverbial switch and be fine. You can’t walk around the TD Garden without seeing shirts with the phrase “C Us Rise” on them; well I’m waiting to see it and the team is running out of time.
