Inconsistency has been consistent

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2010/04/10/inconsistency_has_been_consistent/


For the first time, Doc Rivers, optimistic throughout his team’s inconsistent play this season, sounded slightly uncertain.

His team had lost to Washington three days after losing to New York, and he posed a question that even he couldn’t answer.

“If we make a run in the playoffs will you forget all this?’’ he said. “That’s my point. And if we don’t then it was probably who we were all year. We were an inconsistent team — in the second half at least — and we’ll find that out.’’

The Celtics, sitting on 49 wins, had a chance to be the fourth team in the Eastern Conference to 50. The Wizards looked like easy pickings until they ran up a 28-point first-half lead and cruised from there.

“Losses like this, you hate,’’ Rivers said. “Let’s just be honest. You hate losing to any team with a bad record. We had a chance to win 50 games again, which is a lot of games. I think before the year if you polled all the teams, ‘Can you win 50?’ I would say all of them would have said we’ll take that. We’re going to be one of those teams — hopefully — and even through that we can still say we were inconsistent. I don’t know how many other teams can take a 50-win season and say they were inconsistent at times, but we would be one of them.’’

The same team that fell behind big, outscored the Wizards by 11 in the second half. The same team that lost to the Wizards, Knicks, Grizzlies, and Nets, has also beaten the Cavaliers, Lakers, Magic, and Mavericks.

“The one thing that always concerns me about this team is the inability to do it for 48 minutes,’’ River said.

The team that started the season 23-5 has gone 26-25 since.

“That’s been frustrating, that we have not gotten back to the form that we started the season with,’’ said Rivers. “But I think we’re closer now than we were a month ago.’’