“My take is simple,” Ainge said. “My take is that we do a lot of things right. We’re getting leads against top teams on the road and at home. And then we’re doing a lot of things consistently wrong to let those leads go by the wayside.

“If we were not getting the leads, it would be a simpler conclusion. But we’re playing good basketball.”

And then the Celtics do not play good basketball.

“We’re somewhat consistent in how we respond to adversity, and that’s a big problem,” Ainge said. “When things start going in the other direction, we’re not doing a good enough job of stopping the bleeding.

“(Thursday) night was a good example,” he went on, referring to the Cavaliers game in which the C’s led by double figures before losing by 20. “We were ready to play. We came out and we were playing good basketball. We didn’t play great in the first half, but we were playing good. Then in the second half we looked bored. We gave up four layups, and it’s like, where is the urgency?”

I really like the line “We’re somewhat consistent in how we respond to adversity, and that’s a big problem.” 

We blame the Celtics’ inconsistency for a lot of their bad losses, but if you do the same thing every time it’s consistent.  The Celtics are consistently inconsistent.

Ainge then goes on to give a fair share of the blame to the starters. (same Herald story)

“There are always little things you can point to,” Ainge said. “We didn’t shoot the 3 (well), we didn’t make free throws, or the bench didn’t come in and play well. But the one consistent pattern is that our starters have to come out and set the tone and they have to play better down the stretch of games, and that hasn’t happened.

“Our starters have been together three years, and age is not a factor. They have to do a better job of finishing games and playing better as a unit. But they haven’t, and that’s the pattern that has developed. I do believe that pattern can be rectified, because I’ve seen it. But that has been the theme song the last month and a half – not getting it done when we have to.”

Everything sounds about right, but it’s nothing you haven’t known if you’ve been watching the Celtics play basketball over the last couple months.