The Boston Celtics have had a slow start to the season, sitting at 2-5 after blowing a 19-point lead to the Bulls in the second half of a game that featured a genuinely dreadful fourth quarter.
The good news is that they were traveling to Orlando to face a Magic club that was among the league’s weakest — although one that had just beaten Minnesota in a thrilling game. Still, after that loss to the Bulls, there were clearly some things to work out in the long run, especially after Marcus Smart expressed his displeasure with the Celtics’ two stars not passing in the fourth quarter, saying that Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum need to improve their ability to get the rest of the team involved late in games.
Neither Tatum nor Brown spoke after the Bulls loss, and apparently things came to a head in an “emotional” players only meeting in Orlando that, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, wasn’t particularly helpful.
It’s unusual for a team’s sole meeting to work miracles and solve all of their problems, but the fact that the Celtics are only seven games into the season and need to express their grievances already seems like a poor sign for this squad. Maybe they can turn things around and get on the same page, but Ime Udoka’s assignment in his first season as a Celtics coach isn’t easy, as it appears that talking it out amongst themselves wasn’t enough to alleviate the locker room tension.
