Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think a lot of us thought that after the season the Celtics had last year, they’d be in clear contention for a return to the conference championship and perhaps even a trip to the NBA Finals. A few offseason additions and draft picks later, and the C’s are sitting at 18-17 on the season thus far, which is good enough for fourth place in the eastern conference. With a few obvious issues, the Boston Celtics have seemingly not been able to hold these large leads late in games, and cannot seem to find the answer away from home, with an away record of 7-12. Granted, that’s what home court advantage generally means for the team playing at home, but those aren’t exactly the numbers of a championship team.

Brad Stevens may slowly but surely be losing the attention and respect of his locker room, as the chemistry between the core players appears to be slowly dwindling. That’s not to say that the players that have been expected to perform well aren’t doing so, as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been named All-Stars, Jayson Tatum being named a starter for the East. Just when they thought they were done with Kyrie, they’ll be sharing the floor and a locker room with him once again, as Kyrie Irving has also been named an Eastern Conference All-Star starter. Keep an eye out for that storyline.

With the season being just about at the midway point, and the All-Star break approaching, now is the time for the Celtics to regroup, re-find their identity, and for Brad Stevens to find a way to bring his squad to play a complete four quarters of basketball. The game of basketball is a game of runs, both in-game and in-season, and there’s still plenty of time for Boston to get on one. But that better start sooner rather than later, or big changes could be coming to the TD Garden, and I’m not talking about the fans coming back.

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