(Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)
The Boston Celtics remain the top seed in the Eastern Conference and most certainly will be when the NBA playoffs begin in a few weeks.
But just because they reign supreme in the East doesn’t mean they don’t have problems.
Those problems were all too present on Thursday night, according to NBA analyst Rachel Nichols.
On the latest episode of “Undisputed,” Nichols said that Thursday night’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks showed that the Celtics have a lack of focus.
“If you can’t focus in games like this, that is a problem,” Nichols said.
.@Rachel__Nichols says the Celtics crunch time woes are a “serious red flag”:
“If you can’t focus like this and you let these teams back in, that’s a huge problem.” pic.twitter.com/msIfndW8bz
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) March 29, 2024
Like many others, Nichols still believes the Celtics have the best chance of winning in the East and going to the Finals.
However, they will need to take a good, long look at themselves and why they have trouble closing games like the ones against the Hawks.
Atlanta is an inferior team, the tenth seed in the East with a 34-39 record, and yet they outplayed the Celtics for two games in a row.
Boston will face multiple teams they are better than in the playoffs.
They simply cannot make a habit of giving up victories to squads they should be able to defeat.
Nichols listed troubling numbers about the Celtics and made it clear that they have a hard time closing out tight games.
This is another red flag for the Celtics, especially because the playoffs get very competitive and many games remain close until the final seconds.
As great as they are, the Celtics don’t have a lot of room for errors.
They don’t have many problems but they need to quickly address and correct the ones they do have if they wish to meet the sky-high expectations fans have for them.
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