Kristaps Porziņģis blames luck for some of Celtics' issues, but it's more than that

BOSTON At shootaround Wednesday morning, Kristaps Porzingis blamed some of the Boston Celtics recent issues on sheer misfortune.

When asked why they have encountered so much trouble at TD Garden, where they have already lost more than twice as often as they did last season, Porzingis listed among his reasons that luck hasnt been on our side for most of the season.

The 7-foot-3 center referenced a tweet from the Boston Heralds Zack Cox, who listed 12 players who have set a new season high or career high in made 3-pointers against the Celtics since Christmas.

Since Christmas, at least 12 players have set or tied their season highs for made 3-pointers in games vs.

the Celtics: HOU: Dillon Brooks 10-of-15 LAL: Gabe Vincent 4/7 LAC: Derrick Jones Jr.

4/7 NOP: Trey Murphy 5/10, Dejounte Murray 6/9 SAC: Keegan Murray 5/8 DEN: Russell...

Zack Cox (@zm_cox) January 28, 2025 I just saw a tweet of the amount of players who have set their 3-point records just (since Christmas), Porzingis said.

So I think, at the end, everything will even out a little bit and well go on a nice run.

And as I keep saying, well peak at the right moment.

Have the Celtics actually been unlucky? Dating back to Dec.

19, when their worst stretch began, they rank eighth in offensive efficiency, third in defensive efficiency and third in net rating.

Though those numbers show some slippage from Bostons early-season performance, they also suggest the Celtics have been one of the leagues best teams lately and should have piled up plenty of wins during that time.

Instead, they have posted a mediocre record of 12-10, including a 122-100 win against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.

Advertisement The Celtics have also fallen short of their expected win-loss record (based on point differential) throughout the full season.

Entering Wednesday, they had one of the NBAs worst discrepancies between expected win-loss record (35-12) and actual record (32-15).

That doesnt matter! you might be shouting at your computer screen.

Or maybe youre recalling Bill Parcells old saying: You are what your record says you are.

You would be right in that the NBA wont reward the Celtics additional wins just because they could have (or should have) captured more victories by now.

Still, a teams net rating has proved a better indicator of future performance than its record.

Over a larger sample, the wins tend to follow teams that outscore their opponents by more significant margins.

Even during this stretch of inconsistent basketball, the Celtics probably have not been as average as their record suggests.

They havent always been great or even good, either, especially at home.

They have lost nine games already at TD Garden, five more than they did all of last season.

Six of those defeats have come since Dec.

19.

Most of last season, except for maybe a few exceptions, we looked like a lion, Porzingis said.

Some of these games weve cruised a little bit too much.

And then somebody can steal one from you.

And then maybe at home were not quite as invincible anymore.

But well get it back.

Were on our way to getting it back.

And of course its a little bit frustrating, and of course everybody expects us to win every game, which we also do.

But its just the reality.

And were going to get it back.

Were fighting to get it back.

Simply shooting better would help.

Many of the Celtics best players have been stuck in outside shooting slumps.

Jayson Tatum (32.8 percent on 3-point attempts), Jaylen Brown (30 percent), Derrick White (33.5 percent) and Al Horford (30.8 percent) have been cold since the beginning of December.

Regression to the mean for those players would go a long way toward completing Bostons offense and some of that improvement might have begun.

White, who has drained eight 3-pointers over his past two games after scoring 22 points against Chicago, might be snapping out of a long drought.

Advertisement I dont want to say Im on a roll, White said, smiling.

Its been two games.

But just trying to be consistent with my attitude and effort, like (assistant coach) Phil Pressey says.

And just trying to go from there.

And when Ive got opportunities, just shoot it with confidence and just try to stay in the shot.

So just trying to take it one game at a time, and I think its all a part of the process.

Porzingis, one of the few Celtics players in a rhythm lately, continued to shoot it well from outside while tying a career high with eight made 3-pointers against the Bulls.

He scored 26 of his 34 points in the first half to lead a well-rounded outing from his team.

Though Chicago didnt have any notable performances, the Celtics defense has been stunned by some outlier games recently.

After the Houston Rockets Dillon Brooks splashed home a career-high 10 3-pointers against the Celtics on Monday, Tatum and Brown sounded like they were still in disbelief.

Brooks hot night, which helped the Rockets beat Boston by 2, was just the latest in a long line of surprise shooting performances against the Celtics.

As frustrated as the Celtics must have felt after some of those outings, coach Joe Mazzulla pointed to another problem area when asked why his team has failed to perform up to its expected record recently.

He believes late-game issues have held back his team.

To me, in this league, the difference between winning exponentially more than not is close games, Mazzulla said.

And we lost a couple of those in different ways (recently).

The Celtics handed away a win against the Atlanta Hawks with a series of crunch-time errors.

They broke down twice over the final 12 seconds of a 114-112 loss to Houston.

They were tied entering the fourth quarter of a Christmas showdown against the Philadelphia 76ers before falling 118-114.

They had a chance to pull off a comeback against the Bulls on Dec.

19 before imploding after a technical foul on Mazzulla midway through the fourth quarter.

Advertisement And so I think that can be a separating factor between a five-game win streak or losing three out of five is how you close out the last two minutes of the game, Mazzulla said.

So that, to me, is the biggest thing there where it can be a separating thing.

It comes down to close games.

You see those all the time.

The difference between winning and losing is very small.

Youve gotta work to fight to get those details.

You can have a really good process over the course of a long (stretch) or 10 games, but I think closing out games is the difference between sometimes eight to 10 extra wins in a season.

Even during some of their recent wins, the Celtics have been wobbly late in games.

They tripped all over themselves before barely closing out a win against the New Orleans Pelicans.

They almost coughed up another win against the LA Clippers before prevailing in overtime.

The Celtics have folded late in crunch time too frequently.

They already have nine losses when tied or leading after three quarters.

They dropped only six such games last season.

Their fourth-quarter net rating (plus-0.5) is far behind what it was last season (plus-7.0).

And since Dec.

19, they have been outscored by 4.0 points per 100 possessions in fourth quarters.

Thats a good formula for squandering winnable games.

The Celtics need to execute better, especially during fourth-quarter possessions.

They need to sharpen up on offense and defense.

Maybe they will also find a little more luck over the rest of the season.

They could even make their own.

Its just building habits, Brown said.

Its just building great habits.

Its a journey.

Growth doesnt always look like a straight, linear line.

Sometimes its ups and downs.

So weve just gotta navigate that, and its all tests.

Youve gotta stay with it.

Cant complain, dont let it break your spirit.

Because in the end, you just want to be playing good basketball going in towards the playoffs.

So Im not discouraged.

I feel good about our guys in the locker room, our coaching staff, our front office.

Weve just gotta keep building the right habits, keep being versatile and keep learning from these experiences, and I think well be OK.

(Photo: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images).

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