For Celtics, time to be tough

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For Celtics, time to be tough
SAN ANTONIO — Since the 2007-08 season, the Celtics [team stats] have never had trouble picturing the end game.
But the way they have played since the Feb. 24 makeover, the C’s may need a lens adjustment.
“The main goal right now is a little blurry,” Rajon Rondo [stats] admitted after Monday night’s 107-100 loss at Indiana.
Like their other six losses in the last 12 games, the fourth quarter was strewn with red flags, but especially a failure to execute.
The Celtics shot 4-for-14 over the last 12 minutes, when they also shot 6-for-12 from the free throw line. Even [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
No one, obviously, is immune to what is now eating away at the team’s signature mental toughness.
As a perplexed Paul Pierce [stats] noted, the Celtics picked the wrong time to lose their ability to make plays with the game in the last five minutes.
“We have to make up our minds right now,” said the Celtics captain. “It’s a weird time to be talking about this with nine games to go in the season. That’s the kind of thing you talk about at the beginning of the year. We’re about to go into a playoff run. We shouldn’t be talking about this stuff.”
They’ll have a little time to talk and work out their problems with a practice in San Antonio today. Jermaine O’Neal will take part in his first practice in more than two months, and may even play tomorrow against the Spurs, who will be minus Tim Duncan (ankle) and possibly Manu Ginobili (thigh contusion). But those marquee absences shouldn’t give the Celts any solace. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
They have lost to too many teams missing important players this season to feel good about that opportunity.
Instead, the enemy, as always, is within.
“It’s frustrating,” said Kevin Garnett, repeating Monday night’s most popular word. “But we put ourselves here, and just as we put ourselves here, we’re going to take ourselves out of it.
“Every team has their issues. Everyone wants to be playing well going in. We’re going to deal with our issues. Either you quit and go home, pack and move on, or you do something about it. We’ve always been that team to do something about it. We have a couple of days for practice time in San Antonio, we’re getting a couple of guys back, and we’re going to get this team right.”
And just like last season, it couldn’t be happening with a smaller margin of error.
It’s a bad time for that blurriness to settle in[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
“They see the light,” said coach Doc Rivers. “They may be looking at the light instead of going through the tunnel. But I don’t think that’s a problem with these guys at all. They absolutely understand where they have to go. We’re struggling getting there right now. I’m not concerned about getting our rhythm, but I don’t like losing games, and I don’t like the way we’re losing games.