What the Celtics are missing...an identity!!

The season is 11 games old, the Celtics have won 8 and lost 3 and I'm really not sure what this team is all about. Are they a defensive team? Are they an offensive team? Are they a rebounding team? Are they an old team? Are they a running team or a half court team? Are they a long distance shooting team? Are they a hardened bunch or are they soft? Who and what are they because so far this young season the Boston Celtics have kind of been all over the place. This Celtics bunch seems to be missing...an identity.

I'm pretty sure what this team wants to hang their hat on is the fact that they are a defensive juggernaut and will win Banner #18 with defense. I can't say that I can argue with that too much. It should be their identity and with the league's best defensive efficiency rating of 94.7, the league's best point differential of +10.2 and holding their opponent's to the second lowest amount of points per game, 88.3, they should be considered among the best or the best defensive team in the league.

But are they?

Over the last 5 games, almost half the total games they have played, the Celtics are giving up the following:

95.2 points per game

48.5% FG%

41.8% 3PT FG%

52.8 eFG%

40 rebounds(as compared to their own 37)

These are defensive numbers that would put Boston squarely in the bottom half of the league in defensive statistics, if not for their hot defensive start to the season. A defensive start that might be able to be explained away by letting everyone know exactly where the offenses of those teams they played in the first 6 games rank in offensive efficiency, points per game and eFG% in the league:

                                Off Eff            PPG         eFG%

Cleveland                    11th            18th            7th

Charlotte                     30th            30th          30th

Chicago                      28th            28th          28th

New Orleans               18th            19th          15th

Philadelphia                  7th            20th          11th

Minnesota                   27th            27th          27th

Not exactly the 1980's Lakers, huh? As a matter of fact 4 of the Celtics 8 wins have come against the 4 worst offensive teams in the league as New Jersey is the 29th worse team in all three of these categories and they played them just a few games ago.

So are we, the fans of the Boston Celtics being fooled into some sense of a false reality here? Is the Celtics defense as good as their overall yearly stats are or are they a result of playing some of the worse offensive teams in the league? Is the defensive effort and team that we have seen over the last five games more than likely the team we are going to see the rest of this year? Have the Celtics transitioned from a hard nosed defensive oriented, offensively efficient and diverse group to an old, somewhat soft, outside shooting, mediocre defensive team in just a couple of weeks time?

The Celtics have always, in their best years, had an identity of being tough, efficient, and one of the best defensively. That has been their identity since the days of Red, Cous and Russell. It is what the 2007-08 Championship team was all about. It is an identity that this team has lost over the course of the past 10-14 days and one they need to regain.

It's time to play that tough, smothering man to man and team defense. It's time to be pushing those big guys out of the paint on the defensive end. It's time to start sticking a behind on your man and rebounding the ball and to stop giving up rebounds. It's time to produce the effort we have all seen before. And it's time to start doing it every single night, game in and game out for the rest of the season. The Celtics, as a team are missing their identity and it's time to get it back.