Without some worry, it wouldn’t be a defeat, would it?

Whether your worries about the Celtics are murmurs behind a wall of confidence in the back of your mind or maybe a devil on your shoulder, they most likely made their presence known on Monday.

I detested seeing this setback to the Hawks, and I was not happy when Vit Krejci, who I had never heard of before, scorched the Cs for 16 points to lead Atlanta to a 30-point comeback. It’s peculiar. This season, the Cs have looked amazing, but every time they lose a game—which only occurs around 21% of the time—the fan base loses it online. Several of the posts following the defeat gave the impression that this team had just suffered five straight losses.

It doesn’t feel all that crazy, though. I sense it. The whispers become a little louder when I realize what I saw yesterday. Everything is reconnected.

I imagine Bobby Portis winning Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2022 with a putback.

After the Cavs go cold in the fourth quarter, I see Steph Curry lighting up to end the team’s chances of winning the NBA title.

In Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, I envision Caleb Martin putting an end to Boston’s postseason journey.

The same queries are raised once more.

“Huh, it’s really going to be the same again this year, isn’t it?”

“Have they learned nothing?”

“Can they not close games?”

The Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown version of the Celtics have two persistent problems that contributed significantly to their downfall on Monday. Every time their team blows a sizable lead, Boston’s supporters undoubtedly experience some form of PTSD. It’s the worst way to lose a basketball game and it stinks. It hurts even more when you consider that they were outplayed by the 10th-place Hawks in the final seconds of the game despite still managing to give themselves a chance to win.

The Celtics’ struggles over the last two and a half seasons seem to have been mostly self-inflicted, similar to what transpired in Atlanta.

Just earlier this month, Dean Wade singlehandedly brought the Cleveland Cavaliers back from the dead to beat Boston. His hot shooting erased a 22-point fourth-quarter lead from the Cs that night and set the alarms off, much like they went off on Monday.

The alarms don’t go off very often, though. Boston put up a stunning 9-1 run in the 10 games that separated that evening and yesterday, with their only defeat coming at the hands of the defending champion Denver Nuggets (you can definitely feel a certain way about that one). That’s what matters most. This season, the Celtics have accumulated numerous large leads. They have actually taken 30-point leads in 16 games, which is more than their total number of losses this season (15). They rarely lose them without making a full recovery.

Even in the Hawks defeat, they bounced back, extending their lead to double digits as soon as Atlanta cut it to three points in the third quarter. The issue stems from their inability to complete the game when it was near. With this team, this problem is more noticeable. Past results indicate that more closely contested games than 30-point blowouts will occur during the playoffs.

Then, what will the Celtics do? For sure, it’s better than what we all saw on Monday. In the closing minutes of close games, Boston’s offense frequently becomes one-dimensional. When the ball reaches Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, the team can count on them to create scoring opportunities.

This is fine… sometimes.

Talk of the Celtics discovering their “curveball” in the postseason has been prevalent. As of right now, Tatum and Brown appear to be the only seams that are used to pitch the two-seam fastball to opposition defenses.

Mix it up

Run some actions away from the ball.

Make the defense have to adjust from possession to possession.

The iso stuff actually worked a bit against the Hawks. Both Tatum and Brown managed to create points for themselves down the stretch with Tatum throwing down a monster dunk and then sinking a fadeaway and Brown getting a fader of his own to drop.

But the Hawks were able to adapt and put pressure on these two players. With less than a minute remaining, they forced Brown to settle for a terrible stepback three after they forced Tatum to turn the ball over late. Perhaps one of the poorest defenders in the league couldn’t have put together a string of crucial stops against its best offense if the late-game game plan had more levels.

I’m not sure how significant the loss is. It is currently late March. With 10 games left (it was 11 when they clinched), the Celtics have already claimed the top spot in the Eastern Conference. For the rest of the regular season, the outcomes are not very significant. At this point, Boston doesn’t have much to play for other than to secure the top record in the NBA.

Do not misunderstand me. As a huge proponent of winning every game because you’re superior to the opposition, I believe that tying the franchise record most victories in a season would have been insane. Despite my disappointment with what I saw last night, I don’t think it will matter in a month. Perhaps it will. Hopefully not. It doesn’t, however, take away from the Celtics team’s incredible start to the season.