The Celtics are on a four-game losing streak, with their most recent defeat coming Sunday to the Spurs. 

It was a bleak offensive outing for Boston as Marcus Smart led the team with just 14 points. But despite the current skid and the lackluster performance over the weekend, Smart likes what he is seeing from the fifth-seeded Celtics.

"We got a lot of guys back, and we're all trying to figure out exactly what everybody's favorite things to do and what spots that everybody excels at and make sure we get everybody in the right position," Smart said, via ESPN. "We're still fooling with it. But I see great progress, and I'm excited, I'm ecstatic, and I'm happy with what we're doing.

"Yeah, we've been losing, and it's been frustrating, but that's the beauty of this game. We get to go play another one and we get another chance to go out there and work on things we need to work on."

Smart will take his positive approach into Boston's last eight games, which include matchups with both the Pacers and Nets, who sandwich the Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings.

“We’ve just got to take a deep breath,” Smart said, via the team's website. “We’ve just gotta take a deep breath and calm down. We’re anxious, we want to get some wins, and we want to get back on the track of winning, but we really got to take a deep breath and get back to the team that really got us the reputation that we upheld into this season.

"... Right now, teams just feel like they can do whatever they want against us. That’s on us, we gotta fix it. We will.”​

Boston will be making its fifth straight playoff appearance this season and has the talent of Smart and other stars like Kyrie Irving to support it. 

In fact, Irving easily shook off Sunday's loss and is putting his focus on his teammates and their eventual postseason run.

"I'm used to gearing up for something bigger than myself around this time, and what it takes, and I have to do a better job of communicating that to my teammates and being a better listener and kind of figuring out how to best communicate with those guys that point," he said, via ESPN.

"There's light at the end of all this. That's probably where my patience will always lie, is knowing that something's beyond this. This challenge is happening for a reason, and I've got to believe in that."