Kevin Durant: Boston Celtics will 'be fine once the playoffs start'
The Boston Celtics seem to be sliding fast since the All-Star break.
The Celtics, who many picked to win the Eastern Conference, are just 1-5 since the break and are being led by a Kyrie Irving who increasingly looks like he doesn’t want to be a part of the team.
Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant, though, said he isn’t concerned about the Celtics’ recent struggles ahead of their matchup on Tuesday night in Oakland.
He still sees them as one of the best teams in the league.
"They're right up there at the top," Durant said, via ESPN. "They've been losing a couple games, but they've got the top talent, some of the top talent on that team, so they'll be fine once the playoffs start."
The biggest issue they have, Durant said, is that they haven’t found a rhythm amongst each other. Though, that’s not necessarily their fault — as Irving and Gordon Hayward have missed significant time both this season and during last year’s playoff run.
And even though it was a deep run in the playoffs — they were just one game shy of reaching the NBA Finals — Durant knows that doesn’t mean anything this season.
"Everybody else probably thought they were supposed to be clicking and winning 65 games," Durant said, via ESPN. "Because they had the talent and they went to the Eastern Conference finals last year, Game 7, but it's a new season. There's a lot of teams that changed their rosters to play, to stack up in the East, so it's a different team. So they're still getting used to each other, getting Gordon Hayward back and Kyrie back, and another year of experience for the guys that went through the playoffs, so it's going to be throughout the season."
The Celtics currently boast a 38-26 record, good enough for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
While there are only 18 games left for the Celtics in the regular season, and time is seemingly running out to fix their issues, there’s still a lot that can — and will — change between now and their final game on April 9.
"It's just the nature of the game," Durant said, via ESPN. "They've got a bunch of young players, they've got a couple veterans that have been through the struggle, so they're still trying to figure each other out. It takes more than just a half a year or a whole year to figure it out. They're just going to keep growing, so what you see right now is probably not the finished product."
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