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Tim BontempsESPN
Celtics’ Marcus Smart said the Celtics held a team meeting following the team’s loss to the visiting Sacramento Kings – Boston’s fourth defeat in five games to open the second half of the regular season. themselves and turn around a disappointing campaign before it’s too late.
“We just sat in the locker room and we just really reflected on each other,” Smart said after the Celtics responded 112-96 over the Orlando Magic in Boston’s TD Garden on Sunday. “We asked each other, as I said, ‘How do we want to end the season? How do we want to be remembered for this season?’ Everyone agreed, it was a bad feeling and an ugly feeling that we feel and we do not want to feel that way.
“We do not want to look back on this season and like ‘Damn, we could have done it’. We still have time. It’s not much, the margin for it is closing, but we still have time to fix it, and that’s what we’re trying to do. ‘
After losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kings in the previous two games, Boston looked much more like the team it should have been on Sunday, controlling the game during the second half. Boston shot 23-for-54 from three-point series – including Jaylen Brown’s 10-for-18 behind the arc en route to a game-high 34 points – while the Magic held 38% overall.
In the top season of Boston, the New York Knicks drew sixth place in the compressed Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics are just a game behind fourth-place Atlanta Hawks and are 3.5 games ahead of the Toronto Raptors in 11th place – which shows how many things can change for the better or for the worse in a few games, depending on how a team is playing.
As the Celtics are now in the middle of their first five healthy games and playing together for a long time for the first time this season, they hope now is the time to start thinking things out after being around the whole season 500 – far below the standard they have set for themselves in recent years, as they have made the Eastern Conference final three over the past four years.
“We’ve focused on what we want for ourselves this season, what we want to leave behind this season,” Smart said. “We have enough time to stop it, and that’s all that awaits us. We sat down and we understood that we did not meet the criteria we expected, and others we expected. We are a young team and we learn The biggest and biggest thing of growth is to understand and accept the mistakes you are wrong about – yourself, individually and as a team.
“The conversations we had, that’s what we did. We just tried to sit down and try to figure it out and listen to each other to help – not ourselves, but the team, individually and everyone. Try to get everyone right. to set position to succeed, and we came out and it showed tonight, and that’s what we need to keep going. ‘
Boston will get the chance to see if there is a transfer on Monday in Memphis, where the Celtics begin a four-game outing that includes Wednesday and Friday in Milwaukee against the Bucks.
It will help their case if the Celtics can continue to shoot like they did on Sunday – especially Brown, who finished one of Smart’s franchise record 11 three-pointers in one game.
More than the shots he hit, however, Brown said it was only important for the Celtics to get the bad taste of the last few games out of their mouths before heading out again and trying to carry their momentum forward.
“It’s a big step for us,” Brown said. “We had a bit of a funk. Getting in here – early game, a little different from our routine – getting in and getting a nice, comfortable win is just good for our spirit. We know we have underperformed, and we have had just that extra pressure on us, just from everyone, from all the forces from outside.
“So I just told our guys to just focus on us, man. Forget what the media is saying, forget what the fans are saying and just come out to play good basketball, and let’s see where the chips are falling, and hopefully we can do more – much more – for the rest of the season. ‘