The Celtics are playing a lot of close games – is that an issue?

The team hasn’t seemed to start the season in nearly as dominant a fashion as they did last year.

Last year’s Boston Celtics held more 30-point leads than they did 10-point deficits throughout the regular season and playoffs. They were far and away the most dominant team in the league, breaking records in what felt like almost every other game.

With the entire core returning this year, many people assumed that dominance would continue, and maybe even improve since they wouldn’t have to worry about gelling with new teammates. So far, that hasn’t been the case.

At this point, the Celtics have played 14 games, 7 of which have been considered “clutch games,” meaning that the game was within five points with 5 or less minutes left in the game. Of those 7 games, the team is 4-3 (57.1%), tied for 13^th in games played and 12^th in win percentage league-wide. Last year, the team played a total of 33 clutch games in the regular season, tied for 3^rd lowest in the league. In those games, they went 21-12 (63.6%), the 4^th best win percentage.

There’s still plenty of season left, and the numbers from this year aren’t significantly worse than last year given the sample size, but is the slower start to the season a cause for concern?

To keep the discussion honest, we do have to acknowledge the giant Latvian in the room, Kristaps Porzingis, has yet to take the floor this season as he’s been rehabbing from his offseason surgery. Missing a starter, especially one of Kristaps’s caliber, is usually a fair enough excuse, even for a team as stacked as the Celtics.

Additionally, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, and Sam Hauser have all missed games here and there due to their own minor injuries, or in Al’s case, load management.

Still, I’m sure many Celtics fans can agree that some of the games played have been too close for comfort. Most recently, we saw them come down to the wire and escape an overtime game with Toronto off of a Jayson Tatum game-winning buzzer-beater. The largest lead the Celtics held throughout the game was 10 points, and that came early in the first quarter. Boston may have been missing Jrue and Porzingis, but Toronto was missing Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk, and Bruce Brown. The game had 27 lead changes, and if we’re being honest with ourselves, it should not have been as close as it was, especially with the Celtics having two days of rest beforehand.

We’ve also seen them drop double-digit leads against Atlanta, Golden State, Charlotte (twice), and Detroit, with the Hawks and Warriors eventually winning. On the flip side of that, the Celtics have overcome double-digit deficits against Milwaukee, Brooklyn, and Indiana, though they lost the Indiana game. To their credit, though, each of these teams outside of Milwaukee and Indiana seem to have improved from last year. The Celtics are also seen as the team to beat, so it’s expected that opposing teams will always give them their best shot.

Now let’s be clear, Boston still has a great record at this point in the season. Despite not looking as sharp as last year, they’re still finding ways to win games. Against better teams, and especially later in the season that may not always be the case, though. That leaves us asking – is this going to be a long-term issue? Is it an issue at all if they’re still winning?

The way I see it, the answer to both questions is yes – and no.

The team is still getting into form this season, and Joe Mazzulla has been experimenting with different lineups while the stakes are relatively low. Even though Boston had pretty much the same roster last year, it takes time to find rhythm at the beginning of each season.

Additionally, the big man rotation has looked pretty different than it did last year, even with Porzingis out. Neemias Queta spent the vast majority of last year in Maine, but this year, he’s played more minutes than Luke Kornet who was the primary backup behind Al last year. We’ve also seen a decent amount of Jordan Walsh minutes, another player who was primarily in Maine last year.

That being said, Boston had a relatively healthy run to the playoffs last year. As much as we may hope for it, we can’t expect to be that close to 100% again. The team has to be prepared to win games with unusual lineups. We can’t afford to look out of sorts just because we’re missing a starter or two. In the playoffs, there are no excuses, and there are no do-overs.

As for this being a long-term issue, having these “struggles” early on should mostly help. Last year this team showed their ability to learn from their mistakes. Their longest losing streak was two games, and they only dropped consecutive games four times throughout the regular season and playoffs. They haven’t dropped consecutive games yet this season, and the hope and expectation is that they can follow a similar path as the previous year.

This is a new year though.

The league feels more competitive than it did last year. Boston had limited rest coming in to the year due to the deep playoff run coupled with the early start this year, not to mention Jayson, Derrick, and Jrue spending time in Paris for the Olympics with Team USA.

Joe Mazzulla has preached it plenty, and the team has echoed the sentiment – what happened before doesn’t matter. It’s about executing in the moment. The team can’t lose focus of that. Moreover, they’ll likely have to manage their fatigue differently than they did last year, and as silly as it may sound, not having as many 4^th quarter blowouts where the starters could rest and the reserves could takeover could ultimately hurt them in the long-run.

All-in-all, Celtics fans can still breathe easy – especially since we’re not the ones who have to check in to the games. It’s okay to keep riding the high of last year’s championship, even after tough losses like the NBA Cup game against Atlanta. In fact, I would even encourage it. While the lapses in execution are definitely worth monitoring, we don’t need to get ahead of ourselves just yet. There’s plenty of season ahead of us.