Jack Jemsek at the CSL blog has a good point about the bench.
True the bench failed to score against Portland, and perhaps must take blame for that loss. However, the Celtics starters gave up 6 points during a Portland run during the last 4:30 of the 2nd quarter, and then only played the Trailblazers to a stalemate during the opening 8:40 of the 3rd quarter.
Against the Warriors, it was the Celtics version of a small ball line-up of Rondo-House-RAllen-Pierce-Garnett that gave up 11 points and the lead in the middle of the 4th quarter. You cannot blame the bench for losing against Golden State – that’s on the starters.And against the Lakers, the 13-2 Lakers run at the end of the game to seal the victory was against the Celtics starters, not the bench. The Celtics bench with Ray Allen actually had an 8-2 run earlier in the 4th quarter that grabbed the lead temporarily for the Celtics.