This time last week Boston sports fans lined the streets of their beloved city for yet another joyous championship parade.
Now a week later, many of those same fans will turn on their TVs Tuesday night and possibly witness their beloved Celtics hit rock bottom in a huge game against the rival Sixers, who only got stronger at last week’s trade deadline.
Because it’s just been that type of week in what has been a wildly perplexing season thus far for a team that was expected by many to roll into the NBA Finals this June. Instead, they’re currently fifth in the Eastern Conference and going through a rough stretch of days both on, and off the court.
It started with all the trade deadline rumors about Anthony Davis and how the Celtics would like to try to work out a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans in the offseason. That made guys like Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown – two key cogs in last year’s playoff run – start wondering about their futures with the franchise.
Then a few hours after the trade deadline, the Celtics coughed up an 18-point lead to the Lakers – a team that was coming off a 42-point loss to the Indiana Pacers – and lost on a Rajon Rondo buzzer-beater.
They backed up that dreadful performance with an even worse one on Saturday night when they blew a 28-point lead to the Clippers and were booed off their home court:
Marcus Morris then went off on his team after the game:
“For me it’s not really about the loss. It’s about the attitudes that we’re playing with,” Morris said. “Guys are hanging their heads. It’s just not fun. It’s not fun. We’re not competing at a high level. Even though we’re winning, it’s not fun. I don’t see the joy in the game. I watch all these other teams around the league and guys are up on the bench, they’re jumping on the court, they’re doing all of this other stuff that looks like they’re enjoying their teammates’ success, they’re enjoying everything, and they’re playing together and they’re playing to win. And when I look at us I just see a bunch of individuals.”
He of course walked that back a little Monday, but it’s sure hard to just forget about all that.
And it’s sure hard to not notice all the issues the Celtics are dealing with that has them not where they want to be with 26 games left in the regular season.
Nobody knows if Kyrie Irving is certain to come back next year, even though Danny Ainge said last week that the Celtics are “engaged” with the star guard and they will re-up on July 1.
The young players who led the team in a phenomenal playoff run last year have all struggled to find their roles with Irving and Gordon Hayward returning this year.
Oh, and Kyrie sprained his knee against the Clippers and won’t be in the lineup Tuesday night.
Speaking of Tuesday night – Boston travels to Philly to face a stacked Sixers team that would love to send the Celtics – and the rest of the league – a message with a huge win before the All-Star Break.
Yup, the Celtics are in the midst of some tough times.
And yup, it could definitely get even worse tonight.
Which makes that parade and all those positive sports vibes in Boston seem so darn long ago.
Which probably makes a lot of people not from Boston very happy.
