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Why can't the Celtics beat good teams?

Winslow Townson / USA TODAY Sports

The last couple nights have been a perfect embodiment of the Boston Celtics' season thus far.

On Wednesday, they pulled away down the stretch to beat the Wizards, but 24 hours earlier, they blew a 16-point second-half lead in Toronto, failing to capitalize on an opportunity to pull even with the Raptors in the standings.

The results are more of the same for a slightly improved Celtics team that just can't seem to solve the league's elite.

While teams like the Raptors, Rockets, and Clippers need to prove they can compete with true contenders in Cleveland, Golden State, and San Antonio, they've at least achieved some measure of recent postseason success. The Celtics, on the other hand, haven't won a playoff series in the post-Pierce era, and still need to prove they can even compete with those second-tier contenders.

Injuries have played a part - their injury impact on team VORP ranks second - but the Celtics are 1-10 against teams in the top nine of the overall standings, while boasting a 23-5 record against teams ranked 10th through 30th.

"We have to get a lot better," head coach Brad Stevens said when asked about his team's inability to beat top teams after Tuesday's loss to the Raptors. "I probably saw more encouraging signs than negative, but at the end of the day, they had their way in the last six minutes in each of the last two quarters."

To Stevens' point, Toronto outscored Boston 23-6 over the game's final six minutes, with the Raptors frustrating Isaiah Thomas and Co. on one end, and scoring almost at will at the other end.

"Teams get more aggressive with me," Thomas said when asked if there's a repeating trend he's noticed in Boston's plethora of losses to elite teams. "(The Raptors) had two guys on me, even when I didn't come off pick-and-rolls. They had guys full out denying me. We've got to figure out how to play when teams do that. Other guys gotta make plays."

Therein lies one of the pressing concerns when it comes to the Celtics' playoff hopes. While Boston has one of the league's deeper rosters, they don't have a clear-cut No. 2 offensive creator after Thomas, and if good teams can expose that in January, you can bet they'll do the same in April, with even more time to prepare for a single opponent.

Signing Al Horford gave the Celtics a second All-Star-caliber talent. His abilities as a passer, defender, and from the midrange are undeniable, but he's not going to carry an offense in Thomas' stead (though his passing and Boston's shooting help), and for a star big man, he doesn't address Boston's desperate need for rebounding help.

"We've got to shore up the rebounding. That's a big part of our defensive issues," Stevens said Tuesday.

After climbing to fifth in defensive efficiency last season, the Celtics have plummeted to 20th this year, allowing 105.8 points per 100 possessions. A fair chunk of that regression can be attributed to the boards, as while the Celtics rank 10th in opponent effective field-goal percentage, they rank dead last in defensive-rebound rate (73.8%).

As anyone who's paid attention to the NBA the last couple years will tell you, the Celtics own the league's most enviable collection of trade assets (thanks, Brooklyn!), so upgrading is never out of the question. But Danny Ainge didn't stockpile those assets to make a minor move in order to incrementally improve on the glass - he did it to eventually make the type of blockbuster deals that brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to Boston a decade ago.

If reports out of Sacramento and Atlanta are to be believed, and DeMarcus Cousins and Paul Millsap are truly off the market, then it's tough to see the Celtics landing a third star this season (unless you believe names like Carmelo Anthony, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, and Blake Griffin might become available). And another year of sitting on that aforementioned stockpile could mean another year of tantalizing lures like "unprotected Nets pick" turning into more modest realities like "Jaylen Brown."

Brown is a fine young player, but likely worth considerably less in trade discussions than the unrealized, teasing potential of an unprotected top pick.

The Celtics have built a perennial playoff fixture that will flirt with 50 wins this spring, and they still possess the asset capital to make a significant leap in the future. But halfway through the season, as signature wins remain hard to come by and the big-name trade market seemingly dries up, there's little to believe that leap is coming this year.

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