Coming into the season, the Boston Celtics were widely assumed to be the Eastern Conference favorites, especially because LeBron James had left the Cavs for LA. However, about a fifth of the way into the year, the Celtics have been nothing but the team they were expected to be. Much of these struggles can be pointed towards settling for shots and chemistry.
Coming off a loss to the Jazz, where the Celtics just could not keep up with Utah, it seemed as if the Celtics took bad shot after bad shot. Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving, especially, settled for rushed threes or long twos where they could have drove in and taken a much better shot. For example, there have been numerous instances where Tatum would come off a screen have an open lane to the hole, but take a three or dribble once and take a two. Had he drove in, he would have had many more options to do, whether it be take a layup, feed a big, or kick it out to the corner. Kyrie Irving has also been guilty of this. he repeatedly takes off balance threes when there are many more opportunities for a better shot. These bad shots might seem insignificant, but they do show. The Celtics rank a horrid 27th in the league in total offense. For a team that features stars like Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, and Gordon Hayward, that should not be happening.
Another component that has contributed to the Celtics struggle is the chemistry. This was expected at the beginning of the year as the Celtics were getting back Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving back from injury. However, it was not expected to last for this long. Hayward is a good player, but cannot create shots as well as some of his teammates. As a result, Hayward takes a good amount of shots. This takes away from Tatum, Irving, and Jaylen Brown's shots, and therefore, causes some bad chemistry. A good fix to this might be to put Hayward on the bench unit. He would mesh very well with Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier, and be able to showcase his abilities as a leader more. Furthermore, it would create more shots for the other Celtics stars.
The Celtics are in a down slump this year, and need to break out of it soon before everything goes spiraling downwards.
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