NEW YORK – Coach Ime Utoka has repeatedly asked his team to reassure him after the Boston Celtics’ recent lead in a heartbreaking 108-105 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“I think fighting against these adverse times is a lack of mental strength,” Utoka Nix said afterward. RJ BarrettNix completed a 25-point comeback to stun the Celtics with the three-point buzzer on the bench. «In his opinion, it is absolute. It’s a fumble here, a bad shot here, a failed defensive job here, and several lost rebounds tonight.
So this is a lot of different things. And then like I said, you really need a silent presence in that moment to slow down and get what we want. Sometimes we are all caught up in it.
Boston now holds a four-point lead of at least 19 points this season, two more than any other NBA team, and is one of the worst teams in the NBA in the fourth quarter of this season. The Celtics ranked 26th in offensive performance and 25th in fourth-quarter defensive performance and 29th in net worth, topping 8.7 points per 100 possessions.
Plus, after their loss to the Knicks on Thursday, they see themselves tied with Atlanta for eleventh place in the Eastern Conference, not just outside of the playoffs, but outside of the playoffs as well.
Many of the losses that have put the Celtics in that situation have occurred just as they happened Thursday: setbacks in the fourth quarter and late-game breaks. To change that, Utoka said that the attitude of his team in those moments had to change.
“Guys yell when it’s not the end of the world,” Utoga said. “You still have a comfortable 12 point lead and you have to finish that race.
“We need to understand the timing and the score, we need a solid shot, but we must not get caught up in the game. You have to play differently in the first and last quarter. You have to play differently when the team runs out.
This is not an open gym. You cannot play the whole game in the same way. So we have to understand it better and get the quality of the shot that we want to stop getting stuck in a race. And four, five people play bad, begins to form a snowball «.
The situation after Boston (18-21) has been frequent this season, including the loss on Thursday night. After controlling the game for the first half, the Celtics allowed the Knicks to re-enter the game with two separate long runs in the third quarter, eventually returning to New York for fourth place.
“We need to get together,” said the Celtics star. Jason Tottam, Who scored 36 points, including shooting in 1.5 seconds, at least briefly, tied the game for Boston. “Obviously losses, this type of extension is difficult, losing leads and not finishing in the fourth quarter.
“I think we have to look at the big picture and the important things, we have to look back at those years when we went to the final of the conference, and it’s really difficult for you to appreciate those moments because it is difficult. It is not. easy.
“Initially I thought, maybe my new year, I thought it was normal. Winning all those games, winning games in the playoffs, maybe having a little time. But to enjoy those moments, things like this happen. Knowing how difficult it is to win in this league, I think we can appreciate those moments even more.
Boston is definitely learning the hard way and in the long term. After the Celtics reached the Eastern Conference finals three times in four seasons, Boston was exactly .500 in the regular season last year, and is now guaranteed to be below .500 when it reaches the middle of the season. season next week.
Throughout this season, Utoga, his predecessor and now Celtics chief of basketball operations Brad Stevens, completely abstained from working with the media and followed his team to play on the court in subsequent media sessions. to the game. .
But Thursday’s session was his harshest criticism, he noted, adding that his team must be smarter and tougher in intimate and delayed situations.
“It’s the same decision and it’s a bit stressful, something gets a bit worse and we’re all starting to hang our heads,” Utoka said.
The Celtics will now travel to Boston to face the Nix again on Saturday night, where they will try to fix their problems and get their season back.
“We get very distracted, especially when faced with adversity,” said Robert Williams of the Celtics Center. “To unite when nothing happens in our way, we must find it in ourselves, bitterness and struggle.”
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