TORONTO — Celtics coach Brad Stevens stood in a cramped enclave in the bowels of the arena after his team’s 118-95 loss to the Raptors and was asked a question that has become familiar during this topsy-turvy season: What had gone wrong this time?
“Same old, same old,” Stevens began, before launching into a recognizable refrain about how struggles to score bled into poor defense.
“We were taking a lot of shortcuts,” Stevens said, “and that hurt us.”
Stevens brought up the shortcuts two more times during his brief news conference. He said that was an issue in the humbling loss to the lowly Bulls on Saturday, and it was definitely an issue Tuesday, as Boston fell behind by a season-high 31 points.
When the locker room was opened to reporters a few minutes later, point guard Kyrie Irving sat with his legs in an ice bucket and Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge by his side. The two spoke quietly to each other for a few moments until the swarm of reporters and photographers filled the room, and Ainge stood and left.
Irving stayed, of course, and later he was asked about Stevens’s assertion that this team has been taking shortcuts, an approach that has never really been common on a Stevens-coached team.
Irving was asked if he had seen the same thing, and if he knew how to fix the issue.
“I don’t know,” Irving said. “It’s up to Brad.”
When forward Marcus Morris was asked about Stevens’s claim, he offered an even more succinct reply.
“Next question,” he said.
With this confounding Celtics team, trying to decipher the level and source of their frustrations is often complicated. Sometimes it seems as if they are unconcerned, and confident they will be able to fix this before it is too late. Other times, it almost feels as if they are accepting that this season is slipping away.
Marcus Smart, who is generally the most forthright of the bunch, said several times that this team is simply not together. But he followed that up with a belief that it will not always be that way.
“It’s going to get there,” Smart said. “It’s just taking time.”
Morris pointed out that there is still plenty of time to reclaim this season. But with each day that passes, that becomes increasingly debatable.
The Celtics, who are 0-3 since the All-Star break, now have 21 games left. They are stuck in fifth place in the East, two games behind the fourth-place 76ers.
There will reach a point when same old, same old leads to an end.
“We have to be more connected as a team,” Stevens said. “It’s been a theme for a while.”
At the start of the season, this late-February game against the Raptors figured to be meaningful in the race to the top of the Eastern Conference. But Toronto and Milwaukee have left the Celtics in their wake. Tuesday’s matchup simply gave Boston a chance to find a rhythm again. And that did not happen.
The Celtics, who were outscored 36-13 in the second quarter, shot just 38.4 percent overall and made 6 of 30 3-pointers. Irving was held to 7 points on 3 of 10 shooting. The Raptors made 17 of 36 3-pointers and had assists on 33 of 46 made baskets, evidence of their connection that the Celtics were lacking.
“For whatever reason we’re not fighting, continuing to fight at that level like in the past,” Al Horford said. “It happened in Chicago where we didn’t recover, and it happened again tonight.”
The Celtics’ first quarter was actually promising, and they led 34-30 early in the second. But the rest of their night was forgettable.
Norman Powell and Marc Gasol combined to hit three 3-pointers in a row, igniting a powerful 18-0 Toronto run. The burst started with tough shot-making, but the Celtics’ defense became timid, with players halfheartedly swiping at Raptors as they went by.
On offense, Celtics dropped their heads as 3-pointers thudded off the rim and careless turnovers piled up. The Celtics made four shots and committed eight turnovers in the period. The Raptors, meanwhile, drilled five 3-pointers and took a 66-45 lead to halftime.
“When you score 32 in the first, and you’re sitting at 38 with three minutes to go in the second,” Stevens said, “it’s not a good thing.”
Boston briefly appeared to revive itself at the start of the third. Its ball movement was better and it missed a few open shots before chiseling the deficit to 15. But it never turned into anything that gave the Raptors or their fans real concern.
Toronto regained control with a 10-0 burst and then kept going, as a Powell 3-pointer with 1:33 left gave Toronto a 95-64 lead.
“I thought we were just outplayed in every which way,” Stevens said. “I don’t want to take away from Toronto, but, am I thrilled about how we played? No.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach @globe.com.