We arent taking defensive possessions off

Lots of people were convinced the Celtics had lost their way.But you know who wasnt panicking The Celtics. You know who knew the Celtics werent lost The Celtics.In the last five games, the Celtics have been playing pretty well. The Celtics didnt go into extreme panic when dropping a few games in a short week and a half span; they went into detective mode.There were comments from Danny There were comments from Doc. Both gentlemen made it publicly clear that the players needed to clean up their act. They were the only ones that could fix the inconsistencies in their play.The players figured out what they were missing: they returned to playing within their means and rediscovered their identity.The current Celtics team is built on team defense We win by playing defense. We have weak-side helpers that force opponents into tough shots. We have weak-side helpers to help the helpers force opponents into difficult situations We rotate.We share the defensive load.

Our perimeter defenders are just as important as the interior ones. Two years ago, the team talked about the no lay-up philosophy.If a team kills us, it is because they are making tough, long-range, low-percentage shots, then so be it. The Celts werent going to give up any bunnies.But this year, in games that we have lost and in close games that we have won, our defensive rotations were egregiously slow.Recently, though, we have been rotating. From my couch and section 322, we are playing with a fiery intensity We arent giving up when players get by.

Instead, we are fouling them, sending them a message, and forcing them to earn their points. We arent taking defensive possessions off.We are playing hard on defense to get the ball back to the other side of court We are sliding We are talking We are rotating We look alive. Thank goodness, we look alive.When we played Phoenix (and lost), Indiana (and lost), and Orlando (and lost), we played to their game We accommodated and adapted to their style We are not a flat-out uptempo team. We are a team that can have up-tempo possessions, but all fast pace / max out on shot attempts doesnt play into our strength.Quality, not quantity Our strength is in our half-court sets. It's not always the traditional half-court set: we can push and set up quickly because our PG is the damn near fastest thing on earth besides U-Bolt.We have bigs who can run.