Celtics season recap: the worst of times

What happened? When you witness a car crash that’s both a rhetorical question and one to actually ponder the answer to. After the initial shock, sometimes all you can do is sift through the wreckage and hope to find clues that will help you avoid similar accidents in the future.

So lets look back on some not-so-great moments from this past season.

Losing to the Raptors in game 2 of the season

A sign of things to come? At least of the regular season, yes. - Jeff Clark

Losing to the Knicks and falling to 9-9

The Knicks have just 15 wins this season. One of those was over the Celtics. - Jeff Clark

Rondo buzzer beater

Et tu Brute? Losing to the Lakers is always bad. Losing to a lottery bound Lakers squad on a Rondo buzzer beater when the loose ball rebound was inches away from Al Horford’s fingertips (it took a bad bounce off the padding - not that I’m traumatized or anything) is brutal. - Jeff Clark

Mook shoves Jaylen Brown

In terms of cracks emerging on the surface, this was a clear sign to folks outside the team that egos and personalities weren’t meshing as we’d hoped. Morris for all his bravado and tough guy actions definitely over stepped the line on this one. Lapses on the defensive end were commonplace this season and to single out one player out so decisively was not a great look from a veteran player. - Bird Rights

Kyrie Irving’s “Ask me July 1st” rant

For as badly as the Celtics season was going in terms of win and losses, I think I would have still really enjoyed this Celtics season if it weren’t for this moment. Across the country, the Lakers were imploding and journalists with... let’s say “known ties” to LeBron James had put Kyrie Irving’s name in the discussion as a possible Lakers’ target next year. Suddenly, in unison, every national league reporter’s head whipped around in unison, as they realized, “Oh yeah, the Celtics aren’t doing well, huh?”. All the questions for Irving, a man who clearly has a verve for pontifcations about feelings and the mind, were redirected to questions about his future plans.

Even if Irving had decided to leave this team in the winter (I, uh, doubt it) I think it’s pretty clear the snappiness of the “Ask me July 1st” answer is coming from someone who is sick of answering the same question, and really just wants to talk about leadership management. Instead, it was interpreted as a renege of his verbal commitment to returning to the Celtics next year. All the discourse about the Celtics became about Irving’s future, and it turned the middle months of the season into an unbearable practice in enduring takes. - Sam Sheehan

Smart gets ejected, Celtics lose to Sixers

This is a dumb overreaction by Smart, who had up to that point been key in limiting Jimmy Butler. And guess who got to back down Kyrie Irving instead of Smart for a buzzer beater? Sigh. –Simon Pollock

Losing to Bulls

The Bulls have just 22 wins this season. One of those was over the Celtics. - Jeff Clark

Blown lead (Clippers edition)

Ugh. - Jeff

Blown lead (Hornets edition)

Ugh!

I think we should just stop here. - Jeff