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Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens so rarely loses his composure that it's sometimes hard to tell when he's truly agitated. Stevens' cool and calm demeanor following Boston's 121-97 loss Tuesday to the Atlanta Hawks suggested nothing atypical, but his words told a different story. A salty Stevens ripped his team's defensive effort and challenged the now-.500 Celtics (7-7) to play better or, he hinted, that changes could occur. Whatever Stevens said in the locker room immediately following Boston's second consecutive loss was bold enough that Isaiah Thomas suggested it was as mad as he had seen Stevens since arriving last season. "We had this coming. We haven’t played well in a few days now. Even when we beat Brooklyn at home we had [only one] good quarter," Stevens told reporters after Boston's first national TV appearance of the season. "We had this coming. We’ll see how we respond to it." Stevens went on to note how Boston had to "reconnect" and, pressed on that topic, he didn't mince words. "The best way that we will be able to recognize [playing better] is if we guard somebody once," he said. Boston's defense rose to the top spot in the league after Friday's win over the Nets. The Celtics were limiting opponents to a measly 95 points per 100 possessions through the team's first 12 games. Stevens, maybe leery of what was to come, would note after Sunday's loss in a rematch with Brooklyn that despite plenty of kind words about his team's early-season defense, the team couldn't rest on its laurels.  Boston owns a defensive rating of 116.5 over the past two games -- the second-worst mark in the league in that span (in front of only the Houston Rockets).
"We’ve got to be a team. And I think that’s first and foremost," Stevens said. "It’s very subjective and it’s hard to pinpoint, but I know this: When your defense is a sieve, you’re not a team." What is obvious over the past two games is that the Celtics really miss Marcus Smart. The team simply isn't the same without Smart to anchor the first line of defense and antagonize one of the opposing team's top scoring options. The Hawks made it a point to attack Thomas early. Atlanta needed only 4½ minutes to open a double-digit lead while making seven of its first 10 shots. The Celtics spent the rest of the night trying to play catch-up, and the Hawks kept their foes at arm's length before racing away in the fourth quarter. The Celtics had encouraging moments, albeit brief, like a stretch in the second quarter during which Boston generated three consecutive steals leading to three layups and cut a 12-point deficit in half. Boston simply could never sustain that effort. After a sizzling first half, Avery Bradley was quiet after the intermission. Jae Crowder struggled on both ends early and finished a team-worst minus-20 in plus/minus. Thomas couldn't get anything going offensively (14 points on 3-of-11 shooting and five turnovers), and frustration was obvious at both ends of the floor. The only Boston player in the positive for plus/minus was David Lee at plus-4. Bradley was red hot early and finished with 25 points but was minus-19 overall. Rookie R.J. Hunter deserves more minutes after putting up 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting over 21 minutes, but that's where the positives stop. The Hawks shot 56.3 percent (45-of-80), including 50 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (12-of-24). This was after Brooklyn shot 50.6 percent overall while putting up 111 points on Sunday at the Barclays Center. "[The Hawks], they’re a really good team," Stevens said. "They put us in a lot of predicaments and binds, and they played really well. And they were coming off a tough little stretch where, you know, they [topped] the East [standings] last year, and they are a prideful group. So if you approach this game on an island, you’re going to get pounded. That’s why I said we had this coming. "We’ll see how we respond."
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