Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett combined to shoot 6-for-18 in the first half on Friday against the Bulls, as the Celtics fell behind by 19 points at halftime.
“It’s up to the starters, and myself, to play better basketball at the start of games,” Pierce said. “I think we started to play better defense, and move the ball a lot better, but the bottom line is we can’t dig ourselves these holes in the first quarter. It seems like it’s getting repetitive every game, the starters need to do a better job with getting better starts. The last couple of games we’ve gotten off to poor starts and half to scratch and claw our way back and exert so much energy that by the time we catch up with them our guys are tired and can’t get over the hump.”
“It’s very concerning,” Allen said. “Look at the stats for tonight, in the second, third and fourth, we picked up our scoring. It’s the five starters, we have to have better starts.”
Garnett started the game by missing his first six shots, including 0-of-5 in the first half.
“Somehow, someway we’ve got to figure out starting games with a lot more energy,” Garnett said. “You’re probably getting tired of hearing that and it’s repetitive but it’s something we have to act on and do. This ain’t perfect and we’re going to continue to work.”