During the first seven games, the Celtics defense (and rebounding) was so bad that Coach Brad Stevens basically called his team soft. The team touted to have a top 3 defense heading into the season was ranked last in defensive rating by November 9th after getting blown out back-to-back by the Nuggets and the Wizards.
“I hope I’ve been consistent in saying defense isn’t something you talk about, it’s something you do. And we haven’t done it very well.” -- Brad Stevens, on the Celtics' defensive problems.
Then the players-only meeting happened. Whatever they talked about there seemed to have knocked some sense into the players because the defensive turnaround is just hard to deny.
About the message delivered at the meeting, Bradley said, "Just that we need to hold each other accountable. We weren't playing to our ability. Some guys, two or three guys were playing harder on the defensive end, but the other three guys weren't. We needed everyone playing hard consistently as a team."
See the disparity in numbers here. From being the worst defensive team in the first couple of weeks, the Celtics own the best defensive rating in the last 7 games. They have been rebounding better, fouling less, and held opponents to an NBA-best 46.0% effective FG% during that stretch.
And before the wet blanket party comments that it helped that we played the dregs of the NBA recently, remember that Denver and Washington blew us out plus Brooklyn almost made it all the way back against us.
Side-note: The Celtics haven't lost a game (6-0) where they held the opponent to less than 100 points. Five of those games came in the last two weeks. They were 33-3 when holding opponents below 100 points last season.
If this turnaround is real, huge credit should be given to the bench -- defensive rating 1st 7 games: 115.8; defensive rating last 7 games: 89.1.
Defense has always been the calling card of Stevens-led teams. It's about damn time our guys lived up to it.
Submitted November 22, 2016 at 05:24AM by jbrownie7