Celtics Title Town

“This loss definitely hurts us, not only because it killed our run, but, I mean, we had the momentum and we had the lead in the fourth quarter coming down the end of the stretch,” said Lee. “We were up four with a minute to go, and we lost the lead. So that hurts more than anything. I would say it was more mental down the stretch, because we had the lead. We did all the physical work that we needed to do to get the lead. (But) we didn’t get back on defense.

“We had a winning steak going. We had momentum going. We wanted to finish out the rest of these games going into the break. It’s definitely a letdown.”

The Celtics had mental, and physical issues to close out the game. They had defensive breakdowns that shouldn't have happened, and they had poorly executed offensive sets at the end of the game. The Celtics have a great chance to erase some of the bad taste from this loss with a win over Chicago Wednesday night in Boston. Momentum is huge in sports. The Celtics need to get back up, and get back to work. The other teams don't give a crap that the Celtics don't have Rondo, or that they keep losing guys. Teams want to compete, and beat the Celtics. So the Celtics need to show up, and take back the momentum they lost in Charlotte. Or this season will get even darker.