Kevin Garnett: ‘This is where all the plastic people melt’

This is rock bottom for the Celtics.

They hope. But that loss to the Sacramento Kings on the road looked nothing like the Boston Celtics we expected to see this season — the Celtics defense was terrible, their rotations slow to nonexistent, their offense continues to struggle and there was just no passion.

And if you expect one thing from a team led by Kevin Garnett, it is passion. He told A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com after the game that now they are about to find out who they really are and who the players that can really deliver are.

“These are dog days,” Garnett said. “This is really where you really see who’s with you. Ain’t nobody cheering, ain’t no lights on us and I love this right now. Because this is where all the plastic people melt right here…

“We gotta play better,” Garnett said. “We gotta have some self pride in ourselves. Gave up 100 and something points three games in a row, and it ain’t been close. We gotta at some point take it personal, you know?”

What is going on?

Doc Rivers says the problem is the offensive woes are impacting the defense, and that is why they are 3-7 in their last 10.

Boston’s offense has been its issue this season. Overall they are scoring 100.3 points per 100 possessions, which is 21st in the league (via NBA.com’s stats). But in the last 10 games that has fallen to 97.4 points per 100, and in the Celtics last five games it’s down to 93.5.

Rivers told Blakely that the problem is those offensive woes are bleeding over to the defense.

“That’s the one thing I do know about this team,” Rivers said. “In the past, we could play bad and still win because we didn’t get frustrated if the offense (struggled). This is not that group so far. When we miss shots, we are a bad defensive team. Right now, our offense absolutely dictates how hard, how well, how disciplined we stay on defense. That’s something I’ve seen and continues.”

Rivers added, “that’s our identity. That’s who we are right now. You got the whole year to change it, but you have to change it quickly.”

In years past Boston was a great defensive team that found enough offense to get it done. This season, for whatever reason, the woes of one side are bleeding over to the other side of the court and that is getting the Celtics in trouble.

As of now, Boston is the eighth seed in the East, half a game ahead Philadelphia. The Celtics would make the playoffs, but if a Boston team playing like this faced the Heat in the first round it would be over quickly.

Boston has 52 games left to figure it out.