It is unclear as to the angle I wanted to take with this post game recap.  It is another loss in the string of five straight, but they tried, so I want to give the Celtics some credit.  Boston played well for stretches, and horrible for stretches.  I still do not know what to make of this team, and it appears that sentiment is shared by the coaching staff, management, and players.  They showed us why we should retain some hope, with stingy defense and working for open shots, but it was so often followed with bad switching and over-passing.  But I digress:

• Rondo had another triple double.  Ho-hum.  He also scored the Celtic’s last eight points, but had some questionable roaming defense in the last minutes and gave J.R. Smith a dagger three pointer with about a minute to go.  He was far from at fault for this loss, so the over help can be forgived.
• Pierce played well, as he may have taken the talk that was all over twitter and combined it with being snubbed (was he really snubbed?) from the all-star game and used it as motivation.
• The Celtics passed themselves to death.  I was yelling “shoot the ball!” more often than usual, sorry to the neighbors.
• Boston missed a lot of open shots.  Got pretty good looks for most of the night, but still shot 31 for 76 from the field, or just under 41%.  Would like to see more shots at the rim, but the shots simply weren’t falling tonight.
• There was a moment with around six minutes left in final quarter when Rondo took the rebound, forced the issue and dished it to Avery Bradley for the open lay-up.  A collective ‘why couldn’t we do this more often’ murmur was heard from the Celtic faithful.
• Jeff Green was favored down the stretch over Brandon Bass, a move I support.  I understand the logic of starting the same starting five that made a deep run in the playoffs last year, but change needed to happen for Boston as their recent play warrants it.
• A lot of bad passes and really bad turnovers.  Including two really bad ones down the stretch, the first on a Terry to Pierce hand-off, and the second, down three, Pierce took his eye off the ball and it slipped out of bounce.
• Anthony helped Garnett off the floor, we can move now, yeah?

The losing streak is extended to five games, as the Celtics look to rebound against the Hawks tomorrow night in Atlanta.  The expectation bar will be at an all time low, Celtics hopefully can limbo below it and pull out a win.