BOSTON -- After watching the Cleveland Cavaliers rally from a double-digit deficit to stomp his Boston Celtics by 20 points last month, Kevin Garnett stepped to the podium and insisted things would get better for his staggering squad.

"I know you guys are tired of writing it in your columns, I apologize for all that," Garnett said at the time. "At some point there has to be some action, you're right, you're totally right."

Two days later the Celtics lost to the five-win New Jersey Nets on their home court. Again, Garnett acknowledged the problems and promised solutions.

"I'm not going to sit up here and give a bunch of excuses, that's not my style," he said. "You lose, you lose. They kicked our asses tonight. Period. Point blank. Players have to do more, including myself, we all have to dig deep and see what we're made of as a team. Seriously."

A week and a half later, Boston dropped both ends of a back-to-back, culminating with the Memphis Grizzlies' 111-91 mauling of the Celtics on Wednesday night at TD Garden.

It was never close. Memphis, a team that wouldn't even be in the postseason if the season ended today, used an early burst to build a double-digit lead in the first nine minutes and never looked back. The Grizzlies led by 15 at the end of the first quarter and Boston never got closer than 14 the rest of the way.

Again Garnett stepped to the podium and delivered the same tired spin.

"We never said it was going to be easy, we never said it was going to be perfect," he said. "It's not going to look good at times, [Wednesday's game] sure as hell is an example of that. But we'll get better. We will. We have no choice."

We assume Garnett truly believes what he says, but it seems impossible for anyone else to buy that talk at this point.

Maybe the Celtics are downright delusional about their potential. Of maybe the team simply isn't as good as it was pegged to be.

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