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Inconsistency Strikes Again as C’s Fall in Orlando

Marc D'Amico
Team Reporter and Analyst

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ORLANDO – This season has felt like an elongated episode of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the Boston Celtics.

One night, the Celtics look like the good guys – the ones many expected to contend for a top-four seed in the East this season.

The next night, evil takes over, turning them into an uncompetitive group that looks much more like a cast of individuals than a team.

Sunday night in Orlando, evil took over, and it wasn’t pretty.

The Magic dominated the C’s in nearly every statistical category en route to a 110-91 win. It marked Boston’s second defeat of at least 19 points in the past six days.

Ironically, this performance came just two nights after Boston trounced the Wizards by 33 points at home, and two nights after Avery Bradley delivered a postgame message to his teammates.

“After last game, one thing that I kept saying is that we need to continue to take steps forward,” he solemnly stated. “Tonight, we definitely took steps back.”

The question is bouncing off the walls in the Celtics locker room: How can they be so great one night, and so underwhelming the next? No one has been able to find an answer to solve the riddle.

“That’s the most frustrating part about this loss,” said Jae Crowder, who was visibly upset while speaking to reporters. “We played so good at home Friday night and come in here and try to gain momentum for a tough road trip. We didn’t do that.”

Instead, the team regressed into old habits. Boston allowed its poor offense to turn into poor defense and poor effort. Orlando shot better than 48 percent from the field, grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, and won nearly every 50-50 ball on the night.

This isn’t a nightly occurrence for Boston. Oftentimes, including Friday night, it’s the Celtics who are beating the opposition to every 50-50 ball and rattling opponents with offensive rebounds.

This is a case of consistently being inconsistent, as evidenced by Boston’s 17-game body of work.

Realistically, no one can expect the Celtics to play perfect basketball each and every night. However, as Avery Bradley notes, they can be consistent in aspects of the game that are very controllable.

“You’re not always going to make shots and you’re not always going to get stops,” he said, “but if you go out there and you give 100 percent and play as hard as you can, good things are going to happen.”

He also stated, “’It’s a mindset. You can’t teach that.”

David Lee, who is now playing for his third NBA team, knows all about that mindset. He arrived in Boston fresh off of winning a title last season with the league’s most consistent team, the Golden State Warriors. Lee reminded reporters that Boston isn’t the only team in the league that’s still searching for the same level of play night-in and night-out.

“It’s early in the season and that’s what a lot of teams are asking, is, ‘We’ve seen signs of it. How can we make it more consistent on a team level?’” Lee said. “We didn’t do a good job of that tonight, so we pack our bags and we go and try to make it better tomorrow and try to find that answer.”

The Celtics now head to Miami to take on the 10-5 Heat, who have won seven of their last nine games, Monday night. The contest will mark their latest attempt to lay a foundation for consistent performances.

The good news is that the C’s got another one of their Mr. Hyde games out of the way Sunday night. If trends hold true, they’re bound to bounce back with a Dr. Jekyll-type performance in Miami.

And hopefully that will mark the end of this never-ending episode.