In the aftermath of a brutal, self-inflicted loss to a Charlotte Bobcats team that featured the likes of Dominic McGuire and Kwame Brown in its starting lineup, Celtics coach Doc Rivers could have played it a number of different ways.

He could have downplayed the latest defeat (83-81, click here for a full recap). He could have offered up the standard litany of explanations and rationales and moved on. Instead, Rivers got right to the heart of the matter. 

Asked if he was shocked by the loss, he began a soliloquy that sums up everything about his team right now.

“No, the way we’re playing shocks me. Our attitude, shocks me,” he began. “We’re just not ready to win any games right now the way we play, the way our approach is to basketball games. I told them that with about five minutes left. I said, ‘If we win great. You find your own way.’ Right now I just think we’ve become very, very selfish.”

He had already called them “soft” in New York, which didn’t go over very well with his players, but had the desired effect as the Celtics rallied to beat the Knicks. Now he has called the most unselfish team in the NBA – the one that prides itself on helping the helper on defense and making the extra pass on offense – selfish.

He continued:

“Not just as far as trying to get our own, but everything is about how we’re playing individually, instead of how the team is playing. You can see it. A guy struggles, he pouts, he moans. Everything is me, me, me on our team right now.”

So, the coach has finally called them out. This is not about new players or schemes or adjustments. This is not about injuries or minutes or health. There are no more outs. No more excuses.

This is also not at all like last year.

“Nothing like this,” Rivers said. “Last year I shut them down. They were injured. They’re not injured. They’re not playing well.” He paused a beat and then dropped another bomb. “Last year we lost Game 7 on the road.”

There won’t be many Game 7’s at the Garden this year. They remain a game behind the Bulls and now have the Heat breathing down their neck for second place in the Eastern Conference.

If this continues they will be right back where they were last year with the hardest road a legitimate contender can have through the playoffs – having to win three series without the benefit of homecourt. The very thing they all said couldn’t happen way back in October is happening.

Just three short weeks ago the Celtics were in the driver’s seat and now they are letting it slip away with losses to the likes of the Clippers, Nets and Bobcats. That’s the big picture predicament they find themselves in with a four-game road trip and two sets of back-to-backs staring them right in the face.

More importantly, there is something very wrong with the Celtics right now. Rajon Rondo has been in the worst slump of his career. He’s not making shots. He’s not getting others involved. He’s not being Rondo and there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of explanation other than he’s either beaten down mentally or physically or both.

He had no assists in the first half. Not one. And while he played better in the second half, his malaise seems to have spread over the rest of the team.

Nenad Krstic is a mess right now. He’s thinking instead of playing and reacting instead of knowing.

“It’s paralysis by analysis for him,” Rivers said before the game. “He’s a pleaser. He wants to do everything well. When he first got here he was just playing. It happens all the time when you see guys got a team they play well right out of the gate. Then all of a sudden they think and they no longer can play. I’m not concerned about him. It’s just going to take him some time to unlock his brain.”

Those are the two most obvious examples, but it’s everyone right now and Rivers wasn’t about to offer an out.

“I could care less about their slumps right now,” Rivers said. “It’s not hard, you keep playing. You’re not going to play well every night, but it can’t be about you. It’s got to be let me do something else to help our team.”

Asked who could get them out of their funks, Rivers responded, “Themselves, not me or any coach. Themselves. They have to be honest with each other first. Until that happens, we’re going to have these results.” 

As an 11-point lead dwindled and ultimately evaporated, Rivers sat on the bench with his hand over his mouth. He would let then figure it out and they almost did.

Pushed to the brink they finally recaptured their defensive energy. Kevin Garnett drew an offensive foul on Boris Diaw and on the other end, the ball stopped sticking long enough for Garnett to drain a wide-open 20-footer to give the Celtics the lead.

But Dante Cunningham answered for Charlotte and while the Celtics got two great looks at game-winning 3-pointers – one from Ray Allen and the other from Garnett – neither would fall. If they had somehow found a way to win this game on their own, it wouldn’t have validated their prior work.

“It has to come from all of us,” Paul Pierce said. "One player can come out here and say it and 'hoo-rah' around the locker room, but it has to come from everybody. We’re all veterans, we’ve all been here before, and we all know what it takes. It’s got to come from each individual to take a look in the mirror, and look inside and decide if that’s what they want to do. We can talk about it everyday, but until we look at ourselves in the mirror, that’s what it’s going to be."