Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“I told the guys in the locker room right now, ‘This should hurt.’ Brad Stevens said. “Like if it doesn’t hurt, then that’s where you would have issues. But I don’t sense that; I sense that they were disappointed they didn’t get the win.”

CSNNE: Stevens to Celtics after loss: “This should hurt”

These last three Celtics games have been tough to watch, each in their own way. First, there was the wire-to-wire ass whooping handed out by the Houston Rockets on Saturday. The Celtics shot a putrid 1 of 25 from three. Then of course came the near comeback of the century against the Mavericks on Monday. Boston gave up 40 points in the 1st quarter and were defenseless against Dallas for most of the night, despite teasing us with a memorable effort in the final 12 minutes.

Enter Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors. The C’s were back in the friendly confines of TD Garden, facing a Raps team missing it’s starting center & forward and playing on the second night of a back-to-back. When Boston got off to a quick start, outscoring Toronto 25-9 over the first 6:55 of the game, behind Rajon Rondo pushing the tempo and some good all-around defense from his mates, it looked like the C’s might cruise to their second win of the season.

But it was not to be. The Celtics once again could not play 48 minutes of good basketball. They failed to execute at crucial junctures and had lapses on the defensive end. In a game where Rajon Rondo notched his 30th career triple-double & Boston out rebounded their opponent 55-24, the only number that matters is 27. The Celtics turned the ball over 27 times, virtually handing Toronto the win. Granted-Lowry & Derozan played well, and there was some bad officiating, but the Celts were their own worst enemy last night. Jeff Green shared his frustrations with reporters post game:

“Because it’s things that we can control,” Green said. “We gave the effort but we gave the ball away too many times and kept them in the game. That’s how they got the lead to win the game. We put ourselves in that position to lose the game. That’s why we should be mad.”

Rajon Rondo says he’s been “disappointed” with the team’s play and that’s he actually been kept up at night by the recent losses.

“I’m not happy with any losses we have,” Rondo said. “So this one doesn’t hurt more than the next one. A loss is a loss. Me personally I’ve been disappointed the last three games. I don’t sleep well after losses. I play the game over and over. But the best thing bout it is we have a short turnaround and we play [Indiana] in a couple days. That’s the best thing about the NBA.”

We’ve got 78 more games to go, and unfortunately this team is far from done with it’s growing pains. With a young team, new pieces and injuries, there are simply going to be some ugly games. We can only hope that over the course of this season we see some improvement..

Related link:

ESPN Boston: Turnovers Plague Sloppy C’s

Page 2:  Gordon Hayward  has the night of his young career

The Jazz’ Gordon Hayward not only had a fantastic chase down block on none other than Lebron James, but he swished a tough, off balance jumper at the buzzer to beat James and the Cavs in Utah last night:

The rest of the links:

Herald: Rondo’s Groove Yields Triple-Double|Smart Feels Sting Of Kyle Lowry Schooling|This Time Celtics Start Fast Then Falter|Celtics.com: Rondo Adds To Reign As Triple Double King|ESPN Boston: Smart Gets Tough Lesson On Late Steal|CSNNE: Is Rondo Back? His Triple Double Says So|Smart Experiences Highs And Lows In Loss To Raptors