Celtics Insider: Despite recent struggles, no need to panic

With losses in three of their last four, the Boston Celtics are running into their first bit of adversity of the season. And if you believed anything from the Loony Land that is Celtics Twitter, you may find yourself thinking that the sky is falling.

But don’t worry, Boston. It isn’t. Even though they’ve had a few bad games, they still have the best record in the league. If that isn’t enough to convince you, let’s take a look at why the ugliness we’ve seen recently is nothing to worry about.

Boston Celtics are in a major shooting slump

After how the season started, some of us thought the day would never come, but the Boston Celtics have officially found themselves in a shooting slump. And because of that, just like any other team in the same situation, the results have not been pretty.

Just how bad is it? Using stats provided by Boston Sports Info on Twitter, the C’s as a team shot 40.8 percent from three over the team’s first 22 games. In the last eight, they’re at 32.6 percent. That is a huge dropoff.

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If you prefer names over statistics, here you go. For the first month and a half of the season, the entire Celtics roster averaged out to shoot at a higher clip from three than both Ray Allen (career 40 percent) and Reggie Miller (39.5 percent). Pretty good, right?

Well since then, the team as a whole has shot at Marcus Smart’s career three point percentage. Now, we all love Smart, but that is an enormous gap in shooting ability.

And luckily, it’s not likely to continue for much longer. This team is full of very, very good shooters. Malcolm Brogdon, Al Horford, and Grant Williams have taken turns leading the league, and Sam Hauser is a sniper. In the long run, this group will end up much closer to that 40 percent number than the 32 percent.

Boston Celtics are finally at home

It’s no coincidence that these struggles reared their head on the C’s west coast trip. It is difficult to win on the road in the NBA, no matter how good you are. Add to that being on the road for two weeks and it just gets harder, especially being out west.

But now, the Boston Celtics are back at home, where they have one of the best records in the league. They won’t be back on the road again until January, and between now and then their schedule is full of games they should win. That’s a lot of time to get right back on track.

The Boston Celtics are going to be just fine

Seriously, folks. There’s nothing to worry about with the Boston Celtics. Don’t we all remember where they were at this point last year? This is a team that has one of the MVP favorites in Jayson Tatum and is finally whole with the return of Robert Williams III.

Basically, don’t let a few rough shooting games undo the prior two months in our minds. Just give it time, and they’ll be right back to the same level of dominance we saw when they spent a month on a 70-win pace.