The Boston Celtics dropped had two ugly losses against the Atlanta Hawks this week. On Monday, they surrendered a 30-point lead before falling in overtime a few days later. The Celtics are still 57-16 on the season at the time of this writing, but the two losses have nonetheless brought on a bit of hand-wringing from fans and media. Are Boston’s struggles this past week a sign of things to come?
For the Celtics players, however, the losses are an opportunity, and not a cause for concern. Veteran guard Jrue Holiday explained why these experiences can help Boston grow as a team and learn more about themselves. Holiday was guarding Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray on the final play of Thursday’s loss, so he has as an intimate experience as anyone with this past week’s action.
“A lot of games, they’ve kind of been blowouts,” Holiday said. “Or we knew we were going to win. But these are learning experiences where we can come down to crunch time and make plays and just see what we’re made of.”