Celtics coach Brad Stevens called attention to a weird contradiction in basketball physics last Thursday night. His team was playing hard on defense while also going through the motions offensively.
And then came yesterday’s 103-95 loss to Orlando, which moved the Magic from tied (with the Atlanta Hawks) for the bottom spot in the East up to the second-worst team.
The Celtics’ first three-game losing streak formed on the eve of a four-game road trip to the West for stops against the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, the Golden State Warriors and the Denver Nuggets.
Although Stevens and Jaylen Brown chose to praise the Magic instead of heaping any further misery on their own team, for at least one Celtic it feels like the floor just caved in.