So: Do the C’s Care About the Regular Season Or Not?

Posted by Zach Lowe on Mar 16, 2010 67598 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F03%2F16%2Fso-do-the-cs-care-about-the-regular-season-or-not%2FSo%3A+Do+the+C%27s+Care+About+the+Regular+Season+Or+Not%3F2010-03-16+14%3A26%3A40Zach+Lowehttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D6759

I don’t assign much meaning to anything players say to the assembled media before or after games. Most of the statements are canned. Teams and consultants train players to say pleasing things that reveal little.

Boston fans have gotten frustrated lately with the C’s constant talk of “making changes” and playing with more urgency and “turning the corner” and other such clichés. I understand the frustration, but I’d generally recommend that fans not read much into the post-game platitudes.

That said, I find myself occasionally frustrated by the changing answer to a simple question: Do the Celtics care about the regular season?

Again: To expect any consistency to post-game answers on any question is unreasonable. The Celtics are comprised of more than a dozen players, each with their own individual views on the season and varied emotional reactions to the game that just took place. Some players might respond to a humbling regular-season loss (like, say, Sunday’s Cavs game) by rationalizing that a regular-season game doesn’t matter. It might be a dishonest rationalization—a defense mechanism—or an exaggerated version of the truth uttered in the heat of the moment.

With all of this out of the way, the contrast in the way a few C’s players have talked about the regular season in the past few days has irked me. Here’s Rajon Rondo after the Cleveland loss (via WEEI):

But with 17 games left in the regular season, how far away is that corner?

“I don’t know, maybe 17 blocks,” Rajon Rondo guesstimated on Friday. “It should be the same zip code.”

Red’s Army interpreted Rondo’s quote to as a not-so-subtle reminder that Boston had 17 games left in the regular season, and that the team would dial up the intensity once those 17 games were over and the playoffs started. Red’s is probably right. Rondo’s a sharp guy, and he was smarting after a bad loss.

That quote followed Kendrick Perkins’ announcement before the disastrous Feb. 27 loss to New Jersey (which followed a disastrous Feb. 25 loss to the Cavs) that the C’s might be “bored” with the regular season.

But after last night’s win? The dialogue reads differently. The C’s seemed happy to talk about the importance of a comfortable rebound win in game #66 of the regular season.

Here’s KG (via ESPNBoston):

“It is frustrating,” Garnett said of his team’s inconsistency. “I’m not even going to make up a word. It is frustrating because you know what you are — you know what you are capable of. It doesn’t matter if it’s Cleveland or Detroit, that level of defense. I feel like tonight it was like an edge. We have to play like that every night.

“Our energy has to come from the defense and let it trickle into some easy points. Tonight, I’ll take it. It was a great game for us to sit back and look at it, and say, ‘Hey this is what we are.’”

And here’s Perk:

“I think we came out with a lot of enegy,” said Perkins. “Guys were mad about the loss we had Sunday and it showed. Guys played well and we had great team energy today.”

It would be an oversimplification to say the C’s play the “regular season doesn’t matter” card after losses and not wins. The players—both veterans and young guys—are careful not to read much into any regular season victory, always reminding reporters that wins in May and June matter most. And KG cares about every game. He’ll never tell you a loss doesn’t matter because the playoffs are 17 blocks away.

But I’ll bet that if you scoured transcripts of every interview a Celtic player has given this year, you’d find the “regular season doesn’t matter!” meme uttered a little more often—and a little more aggressively—after losses, particularly to other elite teams. And you’ll find it sprinkled amid statements about how practice is crucial, about how the team needs to get its rhythm before the playoffs, about righting the ship and turning the corner and finding the mojo at home.

All of those things are not mutually inconsistent. But at times it seems like some members of the team lean on the “it’s just the regular season” crutch selectively.

That is all. Back to our normal analysis of actual basketball soon. I promise.