Without even staying up until the first hours of the morning to watch these West Coast games, any Celtics fan can quickly surmise why the Celtics have dropped two straight with a quick look at a box score - a complete lack of defense (with horrible officiating in the Denver game not helping either) has led the Celtics to give up an average of 121.5 points per game since the All-Star break.
However the team is saying all the right things about their lack of production on the defensive end. Hopefully, they can get back to the stingy defense that has led the Celtics to the best record in the league, but that's a tough task tonight against the Suns (I can't wait for this game by the way).
From Marc Spears' column in the Globe today
So what is wrong with the Celtics' defense?
"Our rotations aren't down," Rondo said. "We are not making the right rotations. We just have to trust our defense and make the right rotations."
Said Allen: "As fast as the ball [was moving] and the tempo of the game . . . we have to be back every single time if we want to build our defense out and force the referees to not blow the whistle."
Said Garnett: "If we can stop some of these easy points, it not only gives us a chance to build the lead but also open the game up a little bit. If you look at how we've won games, we've stopped the easy buckets, we've stopped all the nonsense on the backdoor cuts. There was none of that [the past two games]. Now, we're in situations where teams are not only getting a lot of fast-break points but a lot of free throws. We have to continue to be aggressive and minimize those things."