Latest loss wakeup call

If we’re looking at larger snapshots here, the worst thing that could have happened to the Celtics [team stats] yesterday wasn’t the 90-89 loss to the loathed Lakers.

The worst thing would have been playing as shaky as they did in the last quarter, bleeding out a win and believing that everything is right with their world.

If the Celts had overcome their amnesia and throttled Kobe and crew for 48 minutes - and, more importantly, followed it up with similar performances - it would constitute the sea change that is needed for this team to again speak seriously about a run at the title.

But there has been far too much sound and fury signifying mediocrity of late. And worse.

Paul Pierce [stats] said after Friday’s loss in Atlanta, “It’s not something where you’re going to just be able to turn it on once the playoffs start.”

And coach Doc Rivers said recently his lads sometimes play as if they think they can flip the switch and go back to playing the right way whenever they please.

A win over the Lakers on national television may have confirmed that belief to some in sneakers. It may have let the Celts conveniently forget what’s been happening to them lately, and that would be dangerous.

The Celtics need to be rubbing their own noses in these last three games as they wake up in Washington this morning. They have to rediscover the edge that’s been missing for most of this season.

“And when you get that edge,” said Ray Allen, “you’ve got to remember that you’re always on it.”

Even in many of their wins, the Celts haven’t played with the kind of energy and commitment that will be required when the weather gets warmer.

It’s best that the Celtics are angry. Perspective - saying there is plenty of time left to get things right - has yielded six losses in the last eight games.

Every coach will tell you that you play like you practice, and if the regular season is the workout for the playoffs, the forecast is shaky at best. The Celtics have to know this.

“It’s nothing to be happy about, I’ll tell you that,” said Kevin Garnett of the last three results. “It’s motivation and we’ll figure a way to come out of it.”

“Yeah, we’re not sitting here on cloud nine floating around saying we’re the best, we’re the greatest,” said Allen. “No. We still love who we are as a team, but I think we’re back where we were at the start of the season. We’ve got to build back who we are. I thought tonight overall we played a solid game, but still there are things we can clean up on.”

Like defense. The Celtics’ overall numbers on that end of the floor still look decent on average, but even a cursory examination exposes that fallacy. They came into this season planning to be the basketball version of the 1985 Chicago Bears, but in crunch time they have been more like the Bad News Bears.

“We haven’t been able to get timely stops to end games,” said Rivers, “and if anything bothers me over the turnovers and the offensive part . . . we’ve been able in the past to lean on our defense when we go cold offensively. The Atlanta game down the stretch, they scored every time. The Orlando game down the stretch, they scored every time. And (yesterday). The biggest quarters over the last three games for the most part have been the fourth quarters by the other teams. That we have to reverse.”

That, we would add, is an understatement.

“Hopefully we can learn from these last three games against the top teams and move forward,” said Pierce.

The lessons should already be known. The question is whether the Celts feel bad enough to do something about it.