Celtics welcome a needed break

The Celtics have been trying to sort themselves out since late December; they have gone 9-13 after winning 23 of their first 28 games. Asked about the difficulties, point guard Rajon Rondo replied, “I don’t have the answer right now. If I did, it would probably be solved. But it’s the same thing, the same problem each game.

“I can only speak for myself. I’ve just got to do a better job leading the team, keep watching myself and trying to improve. It’s definitely both ends. Set the tone defensively, and offensively, do a better job running our sets. The ball is getting stagnant. We’re not running the same sets as the first half, we’re not running them the same way.’’

Defensively, the Celtics are seldom putting together five-plus successive stops at the start of quarters, which became their trademark in the previous two seasons. In the past, they would come out after halftime with the express purpose of shutting down opponents, and would do just that, methodically going on 10-0 runs and taking command.

The Celtics are also losing their way tactically out of timeouts in the late going. Instead of preventing 3-point attempts while protecting leads against the Clippers and Magic, they allowed open shots to Rasual Butler and J.J. Redick that overturned almost-certain victories.

The Celtics made a similar mistake against the Bulls in the playoffs last year, with Paul Pierce leaving Ben Gordon open. After that, Pierce and his teammates made a concerted effort not to repeat the error, but the lesson apparently has not stuck.

The fact that the Celtics are getting advantages and often displaying a high assist-to-field goal ratio, the offense indicates all is not lost. On defense, they lead the league in points against (93.7) and are sixth in opponents’ field goal percentage (.444).

But there is real concern about the Celtics’ half-court game. If they are not getting defensive stops, there are no “easy baskets’’ in transition. And their half-court sets, based on the simplicity of going to the post with the first pass, have become stale.