How Worried Should the Boston Celtics Be During Rough Patch?

The Boston Celtics are still figuring out some things. And they might not have real answers anytime soon.

Wednesday's loss to the San Antonio Spurs was their first game all year to feature what they hope will be the starting five for a deep playoff run. Kemba Walker made his season debut earlier in January, while Jayson Tatum had been in the league's COVID-19 protocols. And in this group's second game together, a 96-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, they lost Marcus Smart to a left calf strain.

It's unknown how long Smart will be out—calves can be temperamental—but it was just the latest in a string of misfortunes for a Celtics team hoping to finally start building some continuity.

In some ways, a competitive loss to the defending champions is an encouraging sign. Tatum and Jaylen Brown were spectacular, as Brown has been all year and Tatum has been when he's been healthy. But it capped off a two-week stretch in which Boston has gone 2-5, with two straight losses to their fellow Eastern Conference hopefuls, the Philadelphia 76ers, as well as Saturday's loss to the Lakers.

Their defense, while still ranking 11th in the league at 108.9 points allowed per 100 possessions, has slipped during that stretch, and an extended absence for Smart could get ugly.

The Celtics are also in the process of reintegrating Walker, who played his worst game of the season against the Lakers, shooting 1-of-12 from the field. One of those 11 missed shots was a jumper that would have been the game-winner with seconds remaining had it gone down.

Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

Walker, who was an All-Star in his first season with the Celtics, has played in just six games after undergoing a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in his left knee that kept him out of training camp and the start of the season. Since returning, he's been hit-or-miss, as could be expected.

The look he missed at the end of the loss to the Lakers was a good one, one he's made many times in his career.

"I liked the shot that we got," Brown said after the game. "Kemba's a great player. That's a shot he's usually gonna make. We're gonna need him. He knows that for us to go far, we need him."

To that end, perhaps the most crucial question of the Celtics' season is whether Walker's struggles are simply a function of the adjustment period or a sign of a more permanent decline. Undersized guards don't tend to age well, and Walker has been dealing with knee issues for several years.

The return of Tatum and the leap that Brown has taken offensively (which should see him make his first career All-Star appearance) may be enough to paper over Walker's struggles, but Brown is absolutely right—in the playoffs, they'll need him.

On paper, with Smart, Brown, Tatum, Daniel Theis and Tristan Thompson, the Celtics have the personnel to be an elite defensive team to go along with their high-scoring perimeter duo. But with this many stops and starts and players in and out of the lineup, head coach Brad Stevens hasn't been able to build any kind of real foundation.

In a season that's seen practically every team navigating the uncharted waters of keeping players safe, healthy and together during an ongoing pandemic, the playoffs will come down to which team is the most intact in the spring. If that's the Celtics, they have the talent to outlast the Sixers, Nets and Bucks. But this recent rough patch is showing how much work they have left to do before then.