Doc Rivers arrived early to his postgame press conference. That was in direct contrast to his team who showed up late again. For the fourth straight game, the Celtics began play as if they were still going through shootaround. There was little energy, less rhythm and most importantly, few points.

They fought back valiantly in the second half -- the first positive sign they’ve shown in over a week -- but this was the Bulls and Derrick Rose they were playing and when Rose went supernova in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 of his 25 points it was just another loss, 88-79.

“We’ve got a road game tomorrow,” Rivers said with a sigh. “We get a day off then we have another game and another game …” His voice trailed off.

“It’s been frustrating,” he said. “I’d rather have it now. If you’re going to go through adversity or stuff I’d rather have it right now. If you get through this it will make you a hell of a basketball team. I always use the word, ‘if’ because you have to fight through it. I love what I saw in the second half, my question to them is why did it take so long?”

The Celtics have lost three straight games and their four-game winning streak can now be seen for what it was: Four wins against the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. They’ve played five games against teams with winning records and lost them all. They start slowly and get killed on the boards. They play great defense for 20 seconds and have a breakdown. They shoot jumpers, so many jumpers flat, short jumpers.

It’s not a mystery as to why they barely resemble the Celtics teams of the past. Whether it was the lockout, old legs, injuries or a combination of all three, they’re not in shape (a few notable exceptions, aside). They look, frankly, like a team of Rasheed Wallace’s.

“I didn’t know,” Rivers said when asked if he expected this. “I really didn’t know early on. I told you guys, I didn’t think we were in great shape, so I was concerned with that and I knew we had a heck of a lot of games out of the box. I hate looking at 4-6. I’m always concerned, but I like our team. I’m just going to say that, I do. And we’re going to be better.”

Of all the Celtics issues, that’s the key question. Will they get better, or is this is the long, painful end to a five-year run of upper echelon basketball? There’s honestly no way of knowing right now. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett’s track record are too distinguished to write them off as lockout casualties 10 games into the season, but there’s always that nagging feeling in the back of everyone’s minds that when it ends for real, it will end badly.

For all the calls to BLOW IT UP RIGHT NOW, that's simply not realistic. The two players who have the most (any?) trade value are Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo and they’re part of the solution. What would anyone give them for Garnett, who went scoreless in the first half missing six shots and grabbing only two rebounds? Or Pierce, who got torched by Luol Deng and had three of his first-half shots blocked?

“I’m not going to say I’m 100 percent,” Pierce said. “I didn’t come back 100 percent. I’m getting back in basketball shape, obviously. The heel isn’t all the way where I’d like it to be. At some point in the season it will be. I know I’ve got to play better basketball for us, bottom line.”

Rivers is also resigned to this reality. He’s playing Pierce heavy minutes in an effort to get him back in shape because that’s the only way he can do it.

“Is it the best situation for all of us? No,” the coach said. “We just have to endure through this until it gets right.”

They’re frustrated. They’re angry, but they’re not passing blame.

“We’re all going to stick together,” Rondo said. “We’re all in this together. No one’s pointing a finger at anyone. When we get it we’ll be tough to deal with.”
Rondo is the single best thing about this team. He took it upon himself to will the Celtics into something that resembled a cohesive offensive team in the first half and was responsible for 15 of their first 17 points, via assists and his own scoring.

Time and again he drove to the basket and more often than not he was sent crashing to the floor by the Bulls mammoth front line for his troubles. When he looked to pass, there was no one there because so many of his teammates simply can’t finish at the basket right now and again, the question is whether ‘right now’ actually means, ‘ever again.’

“I’m being a lot more aggressive this year,” Rondo said. “That’s what the sidelines and coaching staff is telling me. Make something happen, I don’t want to try and do it by myself because it’s a team effort, but at the same time, just trying to get easy looks. That’s what we need as a team is to get an early rhythm.”

Like everyone else Rondo didn’t have any answers for why they continue to come out flat at the start of games. Once again they said the shots were there and that the shots were ones they normally make, but they are a painfully unathletic jumpshooting team with no post presence to speak of and 5-for-26 to start the game doesn’t lie. 

“In the past we’ve had easy layups, getting Paul and Ray on the break so that way they start their rhythm,” Rondo said. “We’re not getting to the foul line. There’s a lot of different things. It’s not just one thing in particular. We have to find a way to go back to the drawing board and we have to do it quickly.”