BOSTON — The only sound that could be heard inside the Boston Celtics’ near-silent locker room following Saturday’s embarrassing loss to the Los Angeles Clippers — one in which Kyrie Irving sprained his right knee and the Celtics fumbled away a 28-point lead in his absence — was the persistent thump of a medicine ball being slammed in an adjoining weight room.
Or maybe it was just the slow tick of the time bomb that was Marcus Morris. A half hour after the final buzzer had sounded and fans at TD Garden booed their team off the court, Morris was the final player to step in front of a thinned herd of microphones but he didn’t mince words.
For five minutes, Morris calmly vented about the lack of fun in Boston this season. He admitted Saturday’s loss was “very unacceptable,” but stressed that his team’s issues ran far deeper than two bad losses to subpar L.A. opponents.
“[The season] hasn’t been fun for a long time, man,” said Morris. "Just hasn’t been fun for a long time, man. It’s not a matter of winning or not, the attitude it’s -- it is what it is.”
There is always a propensity for players to overreact in the aftermath of tough defeats and the Celtics absorbed consecutive stomach punches while giving up double-digit leads to the Clippers and Lakers. The latter saw old friend Rajon Rondo hit the first game-winner of his NBA career while sinking Boston at the buzzer on Thursday night. But as Morris tried to detail the root of the Celtics’ issues, it only hammered home what’s been painfully obvious for much of the season.
There is no fun in Celtsville.
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Maybe it’s the new burden of expectations. Maybe it’s the locker room tension lingering from when Kyrie Irving called out the team’s younger players. Maybe it’s the uncertainty of what lies ahead in a summer when the core of this team might very well be overhauled again as Irving can opt out of his current deal and the team can make a long-awaited run at Anthony Davis.
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Whatever the reason, the Celtics have simply lacked many of the characteristics that made them so lovable in past seasons. They’ve been a chore to watch for much of the year, even as they’ve started to play better basketball in recent months.
Irving has been utterly sensational for much of the year and yet the team has lingered in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff pack for most of the season. And there’s been a cloud of drama over the team for much of the year, whether it’s been from Irving’s critical comments about younger players, his revelation that he phoned LeBron James, or the just-passed trade deadline that dragged Irving’s future into the spotlight amid the hype around Davis’ future.
Morris is never short on opinions, but he’s never flat out lit into the Celtics like he did on Saturday night, making his words even more powerful than they might already read.
What was most staggering was Morris’ suggestion that this isn’t a new issue, that it’s something the team has addressed earlier in the year, and yet little has changed.
"For me, it’s not really about [Saturday’s] loss. It’s about the attitudes that we’re playing with,” said Morris. "Guys are hanging their heads. It’s just not fun. It’s not fun. We’re not competing at a high level.
"Even though we’re winning, it’s not fun. I don’t see the joy in the game. I watch all these other teams around the league and guys are up on the bench, they’re jumping on the court, they’re doing all of this other stuff that looks like they’re enjoying their teammates’ success, they’re enjoying everything, and they’re playing together and they’re playing to win.
"And when I look at us, I just see a bunch of individuals.”
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It’s a scathing indictment for a team that’s struggled to get everyone to buy into their roles at the same time this season. Still, it felt like the team had made strides recently, winning 10 of 11 while sandwiching two five-game winning streaks around a competitive loss to the Golden State Warriors.
But two losses on their home turf to underwhelming competition was enough to open old wounds. And Morris was blistering with his critique.
"The goal has to be to win. Bottom line. We’ve gotta play to win,” said Morris. "That’s sacrificing playing hard, that’s sacrificing being a better teammate, that’s sacrificing whatever it is. We have to put it to the side. …
"We’re going to lose games, but we don’t have no attitude, we don’t have no toughness, we ain’t having fun. It’s been a long season.”
Celtics coach Brad Stevens had pinned much of the blame of Saturday’s loss on himself but, asked about potential rotation changes, Morris volunteered himself to shift to a bench role if the team thought it could get a jolt from a swap. That might not be the answer considering that Boston’s five-man starting group — with a healthy Irving — ranked among the NBA’s best this season.
Maybe that’s part of the frustration for Boston. There’s no obvious solution for what ails the team. Morris was part of a group that vocally lobbied to keep this core intact before the deadline because the team seemingly has all the talent it needs. The Celtics had starting to put some wins together and players were seemingly starting to embrace their roles.
But, as has been the case for much of the season, this team struggles to maintain its momentum. Rondo’s buzzer-beater left a sour taste in Boston’s mouths and yet the Celtics came unglued again as an overhauled Clippers roster surged in the second half on Saturday.
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What Morris suggested is that these Celtics need an attitude change. That they simply are not capable of reaching their goals if they continue to simply fight through this malaise.
"I’ve never seen a team that’s not having fun, that’s not bonding well on the court, win a championship,” said Morris. "If the goal is to win a championship, that has to change first.”
That’s a sobering suggestion for a team in Game 56. There’s two months for the Celtics to figure it out before the playoffs arrive, and a daunting schedule ahead. They’ll wake up Sunday morning to find themselves back in the fifth seed in the East, the past two games eroding much of the positive mojo the team built while surging to the No. 3 spot earlier in the week.
Morris was asked if this team had any hope of changing things.
"I think it can, but you have to start somewhere,” said Morris.
Will Morris’ comments change things for Boston? If nothing else it’ll force the team to address some lingering issues. They were never going to find their fun if they simply ignored the underlying concerns. Morris airing out his concerns at least gives them a chance to change and find their fun.
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