Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics Still Contenders Despite Recent Skid

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:58 p.m. ET

Fansided, Tom Mulherin/FanSided via Hardwood Houdini

The Celtics are in a skid, but a big part of that is because Avery Bradley has missed time due to injury. Boston is still a dangerous team when healthy.

After the Boston Celtics lost 123-108 to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was asked about the recently sparked rivalry between these two teams in a segment on SportsCenter. On-court and off-court actions have, after all, raised tension between the franchises, and it now seems that they will be trading wins with each other to make for an interesting matchup going forward.

Yet, Smith quickly brushed away the significance of it by saying the rivalry doesn’t matter because neither team is good enough in the grand scheme of the league to warrant the attention.

“It’s irrelevant to me in terms of a rivalry because neither (of the teams) are championship contenders,” he said. “When I think about rivalries, first thing’s first; you have to matter enough. You have to be significant enough. And as far as I’m concerned, neither of them are at this particular juncture.”

Since the Celtics have now lost three-straight games to sub-par opponents, Smith may have a point about Boston. It does still sit in third place of the Eastern Conference behind the Raptors and Cavaliers, but the team’s lack of consistent rebounding and 0-10 record against teams considered as contenders have increased speculation that Boston isn’t as close to winning a title as originally thought. This recent skid has only added oxygen to the flame.

But let’s not jump to conclusions, shall we?

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Before this three-game losing streak, the Celtics had won 13 of its last 16 games. A chunk of that even came with Avery Bradley sidelined due to an achilles injury.

Speaking of Bradley, the he’s missed seven of the Celtics’ last eight games deserves some merit when considering their recent woes. He is Boston’s best defender, and the team is still 3-4 without him.

And in those four losses, rebounding – which seems to be the difference in most losses – wasn’t the cause. Instead, one or two opposing guards seem to have the best scoring games of their respective seasons, leading to mostly close losses.

Against Toronto, Boston lost because it couldn’t stop a season-best, 41-point effort from DeRozan. Then in a loss to an injury-plagued Knicks team, point guard Rose matched a season-high 30 points en route to an 11-point win. Trailblazers guard McCollum had 35 points in his team’s overtime win against the Celtics, setting the stage for Wall and Beal to combine for 58 points in Boston’s loss to the Wizards.

Had each of those guards scored their season averages, the Celtics win each game en route to 30-14 record and an 11-game winning streak heading into Wednesday’s game against the Rockets. Everyone reading this knows just as well as I do that those guards wouldn’t have done what they did if Bradley was guarding them.

But he wasn’t, and the Celtics are now 26-18 instead. Bradley is expected to miss all of Boston’s games this week, meaning that Harden will probably have an amazing game for the Rockets with no one to stop him. Here’s a not-so-bold prediction; the Celtics will probably lose that game too.

Of course, Boston’s struggles when facing adversity is a problem. It needs to be able to depend on its depth to win games. But does that make them a non-contender?

Not at all.

The Cavaliers have struggled with adversity, as Smith is out with a broken finger and Love has been having issues with illnesses and back soreness. As a result, Cleveland has lost five of its last seven games. But are people crying that the Cavaliers aren’t contenders anymore?

Nope. And let me tell you, Bradley is much more of an important guard than the likes of Smith. I don’t care how many threes he makes.

You might say the two situations are different because when healthy, the Cavaliers have James, Irving, Love and Smith, which is much better than the Celtics’ group when they’re healthy.

But is it though? I see two records separated by just 4 ½ games.

And beyond that, does the position that Boston is in to make a couple of note-worthy trades mean nothing? It does have a tremendous amount of cap space, a very talented roster and a hoard of draft picks ready to be shipped for difference makers. Since when does that not count?

No, I’m not saying that the Celtics will win the NBA Finals with a healthy group and maybe one or two additions. All I’m saying is that it’s a bit naïve to say that Boston isn’t a contender when looking at all of the facts. And the fact is, this team is one to look out for when all of its pieces are healthy and vibing.