When you think of teams with more All-Stars, you think of domination – Jazz, Lakers, Nets. The Celtics have two All-Stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but after losing the Hawks explosion on Wednesday night, Boston is in last place in the Atlantic division.
However, the team’s president, Danny Ainge, is not ready to throw his tandem of stars under the bus.
“I wish I had answers for you. I don’t,” Ainge told 98.5 The Sports Hub on Thursday. “I believe in my players. I like everyone individually. I think they have a good future. I think right now our team is in a major funk.”
Funk may not be a word strong enough to describe Wednesday’s game. Following a heartbreaking loss for the Mavericks, the Celtics fell 13 points after a quarter and 23 halves. They allowed the most triples in the team’s history.
Brown had 17 points for the Celtics and missed all six 3-point attempts. Tatum was held to 13 points when shooting 4 out of 20 and was only 1 out of 8 from a great distance.
The Celtics now lost three in a row to fall by two games below .500. They lost eight of the 11 games overall and are out watching the playoffs.
“That’s the biggest thing about Jaylen and Jayson,” Ainge said. “They were protected before because they had other very good players, veterans around them as they developed – and they participated in three out of four Eastern Conferences. [finals].
“Now it’s on them. Now they’re the stars. And they have big contracts. And they got the All-Star in their head. So the microscope is on them.”
Kemba Walker is one of those veteran All-Stars. At a one-year career in Charlotte, Boston signed him to a four-year contract, $ 141 million before last season. He picked up solid numbers and took some of the heat from Brown and Tatum.
This year, a knee injury limited him to 16 games. His average score is the worst in five years and he shoots just 37.5% off the floor. The Celtics kept him out of the game on Wednesday to avoid a back-to-back, and Boston tightened.
As he did last week, Ainge says the problems with the Celtics are more on him than his young stars or coach Brad Stevens.
“This is a problem with me,” Ainge said. “I say I love my two young people, they are not perfect and they are learning, and this adversity is part of their growth and development – unintentionally, it’s just the nature of the beast.”
But Ainge said he was not trying to apologize.
“We play awfully,” he said. “We don’t have a good enough team – in my opinion.”
He added that he is not trying to make a change for the sake of change, “but I want to do something that makes a difference for our team.”
The Celtics’ first chance to get back on track comes home on Friday against a struggling Pacers team. Then there’s the rebirth wizard in town on Sunday before the games against the Clippers, Raptors and Nets.
Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, Kyrie Irving – The Celtics will face a lot of All-Stars and will quickly find out if their duo rises.
“I think they’re both responsible,” Ainge said of Brown and Tatum. “You’re talking about two working kids trying to get better. And this is a very frustrating time for them.”