Boston Celtics: 3 ways to break out of current slump
The Boston Celtics finally seemed to have figured things out when they reeled off a nice little six game win streak at the beginning of April.
And yet as quickly as they reeled off those wins, they have just as quickly lost four of their last five games, following the same pattern of wild inconsistency that has plagued this team all season.
With only 10 games left in the regular season, time is running out for the Celtics to address their struggles before the postseason begins. They currently are tied with the Miami Heat for the 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, with the tiebreaker they hold over them the only thing currently keeping this team out of the play-in tournament.
With the team in the middle of an ill timed three game losing streak, here are three things they can do to break out of their current slump.
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No. 3: Boston Celtics need to get healthy
Obviously there’s not a ton the team can do about this, but they have continued to struggle with injuries for the majority of the season. There has rarely been a time when this team has been at full health, and there hasn’t been a single game since the trade deadline where they have had their entire squad healthy.
The more you look at it, the more you begin to understand the Celtics struggles. Kemba Walker continues to sit out on the second night of back-to-backs, and just picked up an oblique strain in their loss against the Charlotte Hornets. Robert Williams has missed pretty much the entire month of April with a left knee issue.
Evan Fournier has been in COVID protocols more often than he’s been on the court.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have their fair share of bumps and bruises as well, which has to be expected with the amount of minutes they have been playing this season. And when one of them misses a game, a huge burden falls on the other one to carry the load, as we saw last night in their stunning loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It forces huge minutes onto their star players, which ultimately end up going to waste when they end up losing.
Aside from the obvious issue of not having these guys on the court, the Celtics just don’t have the depth in place to win games when they are missing 3 or 4 of their key rotation players.
Marcus Smart, Evan Fournier, and Payton Pritchard are really the only consistent options off the bench, and consistent should certainly be used lightly when it comes to these guys. Players like Semi Ojeleye, Grant Williams, and Romeo Langford are really situational pieces at this point, not guys who can give you 20 solid minutes a game.
If the Celtics want any shot of finding their way back into the win column, they absolutely have to get their team back to full health. Tatum and Walker shouldn’t miss too much more time with their injuries, and Rob Williams will hopefully make his return before the season’s end. If they can’t find a way to get healthy soon, the C’s will continue to rack up the losses.