Celtics will try to bounce back against 76ers

After kicking away leads of 18 and 28 points in home losses, the Celtics play in Philadelphia on Tuesday night without the injured Kyrie Irving.

BOSTON – They went from winning 10 of 11 games to blowing big leads in back-to-back losses at home.

The Celtics went through a frustrating 48 hours with forward Marcus Morris letting loose with pointed criticism about his team following Saturday night’s stunning 123-112 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers.

He tore into the Celtics for being individualistic, said the team hasn’t been having fun for a while and was lacking toughness.

On Monday, Morris and the Celtics got together for a practice session at the Auerbach Center, where his late-night comments to the media were a central topic of conversations.

“One of the things that we say at the very beginning of the year is that we don’t want to be a team quoted of unnamed sources,’’ coach Brad Stevens told reporters. “So if you’re going to say something, you’ve got to put your name next to it.

“Marcus’ frustrations were obvious and evident, and you know what? In a lot of ways, I thought he said a lot of stuff that you can’t really argue in the last two games (against the Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers). As long as we can put our name next to it, I’m good.’’

The Celtics, who kicked away games after leading by 18 and 28 points, respectively, have a major challenge on their hands as they try to bounce back. They play the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center (8:05, TV: TNT; radio: WROR-105.7 FM), looking to move into a fourth-place tie in the Eastern Conference with the Sixers.

The task has been made even more difficult with Kyrie Irving remaining at home due to a strained right knee.

Morris again met with the media after practice and said he was just getting his feelings out in the open after the loss to the Clippers.

“For the most part,’’ said Morris, “everybody agreed with me. Coach, he thought it was the right thing to say, more (that) I could have basically kept that in house and talked to my teammates, but you guys (in the media) caught me at a good time. I was hot.

“I just spoke what was real. I didn’t take it out of context or point anybody out. I just felt like we’ve got to enjoy the process. Obviously to be that caliber of team, that championship team, you have to really buy in. You have to enjoy what’s going on.

“As I look around the league, like I said, those top teams, it seems like they enjoy what’s going on. You’re going to have some ups and downs, but you’ve got to have fun with it.’’

It has been a frustrating season for the Celtics (35-21), who were the consensus favorites to win the Eastern Conference but have four teams ahead of them in the standings.

Just when it looked like the Celtics were on the right path, going 10-1 with the lone loss to the Golden State Warriors, they couldn’t hang on to double-digit leads at home twice in three nights.

“I never thought I could win a championship with the teams I was on,’’ said Morris, speaking about his time in Phoenix and Detroit. “This team, I feel a lot different about and I just want to push us to that position.

“I want to win a championship. I understand what it takes to get there. I think that’s why my teammates accepted (his comments) because they see that I’m a guy that comes in here and puts my hard hat on and comes to work.’’

It will be interesting to see how the Celtics react after all of this as they try to deal with a Sixers team that is 2-0 since adding Tobias Harris last week.

“I think that sometimes you just need a wake-up call,’’ said Al Horford. “As good as we’ve been playing, we’ve got to put things in perspective. I felt like we have been playing good basketball and the past two games have not been what we want to be.

“I do feel like when we’re playing like we need to play, our team clicks great. We just need to stick together. It’s frustrating for us. We don’t want to be losing. We’re going to figure this out.’’

Jim Fenton may be reached at jfenton@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFenton_ent.