The Problem with the Boston Celtics—And How To Fix It

On Christmas Day, the defending champs were supposed to kick off their holiday road trip at Los Angeles with a resounding win over the Lakers, extend their streak to 20 games, and serve notice to the rest of the league that they were here to taking on all comers.

Instead, they lost handily to a motivated and well-rested LA squad that was gunning for payback.

The following night, they trudged on to the Bay where they got sideswiped by the run-and-gun Warriors who took full advantage of a team still reeling on the second night of a back-to-back.

And even as they seemed to get their bearings back against the rebuilding Kings, the four-game swing ended on a sour note with another loss against the Brandon Roy-less Blazers.

This trip affirmed a couple of things.

First, that the rough patch was to be expected. Extended win streaks tend to take a lot of steam out of ball clubs. Given their hard-nosed defensive style, it's even surprising that they had it going for as long as they could. 

Second and perhaps more importantly, it belied Boston's lack of quality bench play.

As Hubie Brown likes to say, you can't really count on your bench guys on the road. Still, in recent weeks—including a good chunk of the win streak—home or away, Boston's bench have been perfectly mediocre at best.

Against Portland, Allen, Davis, Leon Powe and Eddie House combined for 9 points off 3- 11 from the field. They didn't help out on the boards either (two?), as Portland lorded it over, 44 to 29. Worst of all, Allen, Powe and House were tagged for 11 fouls.  

So we can't really blame Kevin Garnett for lashing out on poor Glen Davis a few weeks back. Barring Danny Ainge winging a deal in the next couple of months, their play has to pick up if the Celtics are hoping to get a better shot at repeating.

What the bench needs is a leader, a playmaker and a little direction—all things James Posey provided as a reliable sixth man.

It might be time for Doc Rivers to tweak his lineup, borrow a trick from Gregg Popovich and have Ray Allen come off the bench in that classic Manu Ginobli role.

In place of Ray, they could start Tony instead.

There's good reason to believe that he'll flourish in that decoy role just as Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins have. At the end of the day, all Tony Allen has to do really is to keep his man in front of him.

On the flip side, Ray Allen gives the second group a lead guard and a legitimate scoring threat. Of course, this might be easier said than done as we're talking about Ray Allen, an all-star guard. While I do believe that coming off the bench isn't beneath him, it will be a process.

But if the Celtics want a better shot at repeating, having their best shooter come off the bench to star in the second unit might be one move worth their while.