After a tough weekend for the Boston Celtics with losses to the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks at home, Felger, Mazz, and Murray opened the show on Monday discussing their concern level with the Celtics.

• Listen to the full segment here

• Is Mazz beyond his normal level of concern?

  Felger: Alright, Joe Mazzulla’s not concerned. Mazz?

  Mazz: YUP! I’m always concerned.

  Felger: So let me rephrase…beyond the normal level of concern?

  Mazz: Yes. Yeah. Look, I think that we are now…they got hot over a year ago. They started playing better over a year ago now. And I think we’re still looking at the same kinds of problems with this team. There has not been substantial growth made in the area of closing games out. I think that that’s really what it is. I’m not telling you they’re the exact same as they were in December of 2021, but I’m telling you that they should be farther along than they are. And so, they get into these games, they get leads, and then in the blink of an eye, they go from up ten to down 12. I don’t know what the actual numbers were last night, but it was something like that. The game against the Nets, they went from up 28 to down 12, a 40 point swing in the game. And they have opportunities to close games out, close opponents out, and when I say opponents, I mean good ones. Teams that are reasonably competitive or that play hard and they don’t do it. They don’t do it with any sort of regularity. And they have these lapses where they deteriorate into isolation ball or they don’t dig in on defense, and you can tell me that Robert Williams was out last night or you can tell me that Malcolm Brogdon didn’t play, you can come up with whatever excuses you want and I will tell you that it’s still the same thing. So no matter who’s there or who isn’t, they get into these spots and they melt.

• It's now a 40-point turnaround.
  
  Nets have outscored the Celtics 77-37 in the last 23 minutes.
  
  Boston down 12 with 8:09 to play.
  
  Celtics are 8-15 this year when trailing by 10 (37-3 when staying within 9.

  — Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) March 4, 2023

• Are they easing up a bit?

  Felger: Do I sense a little bit of letting go of the rope sort of thing? Just sort of loosening. And you’ve been talking about the defense all year. I mean, that’s sort of, you know, certainly one place where it shows. We started talking about this last week, it’s like to start this year there was plenty to be motivated about. How they lost in the finals, all these individual things still on the table, max contracts, all star bursts, sort of validating what they showed last year. Validating what they flashed last year. Get back to the All-Star Game, get into the MVP conversation. So they go to the finals, come up short, the Udoka thing happens. So you’re off to this hot start, they pick up right where they left off. Even better. And then they get to the All-Star Game. They’re in their MVP conversation. It’s like, okay, now they’re the favorite. And it’s like, now they’re sort of easing up or letting go or something along those lines. That’s just what I would be worried about if I were a Celtics fan.

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  Mar 5, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) and guard Derrick White (9) react to a foul being called against the Celtics during the overtime period against the New York Knicks at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

• Is it time to be "Capital C" concerned?

  Jim Murray: What you’re seeing these last couple of nights, first of all, these last two losses, championship caliber teams don’t lose those games. They just don’t, in my opinion. So I’m “big C concerned”, “small P panicked” about this with the way that they look. But the way that they look is my biggest issue with this team in this core the last few years. Just too cool for school. Like they act like they’ve already arrived and sometimes teams punch back like Brooklyn did Friday night and they don’t have an answer or they don’t want to try. And so yeah, I’m strongly concerned about this team right now. And right now I think of it ended you’d be matched up at a first round series with the Knicks. I’d probably take New York.

  Felger: That bad?

  Jim Murray: Yeah.

• Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

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