The players were barked at as they headed down the tunnel at halftime. By the time they finished losing to a team that won for only the sixth time in 58 games, there weren’t enough fans left to heckle.
            “You obviously hear it,” Rajon Rondo said. “You just continue to play. You understand that’s how it is.”
            Fortunately for the Celtics, that wasn’t how it was on Wednesday when they obliterated the Bobcats. There was more discomfort when they nearly blew another double-digit lead. But when Boston pulled away in the second half there was a rush to welcome back old friend Gino, and perhaps more importantly a sense of relief from 18.624 folks who got what they thought they were paying for when they bought tickets last summer.
            The week showed there is still plenty of love for the men in green. There is still a brimming hope that this team will ultimately play much more like the squad that started 23-5, and closed out Detroit and Charlotte in fourth quarters this week, rather than wilt like a dozen supermarket roses the night after Valentine’s Day.
            But it’s clear any excuses the club might have – valid or otherwise – for it’s marginal showing since Christmas are falling on deaf ears. The Celtics don’t have to have rabbit ears to recognize they’ve run out of mulligans.
            For the first time since the tortuous end to the first-round playoff debacle against the Pacers in 2005, the Celtics are feeling a backlash.
The following two years, most understood the perils of a youth movement. While many simply stopped paying attention, those who stuck with the team were very passionate and understanding, and formed a “develop the kids” mentality that still surfaces whenever there’s a perception an intriguing diamond-in-the-rough prospect like Bill Walker doesn’t get a fair shake from the coaches.
            The next year, there was so much enthusiasm about the trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen there was little room for dissenting voices among the masses. There may have been some apprehension when the Hawks and Cavaliers pushed the Celtics to a seventh game in consecutive playoff series, but the team pulled through in the end, and the adoration followed it and the Duck Boats right down Causeway Street.
            Even last year, there was plenty of understanding. Some rightfully questioned how the club handled the Garnett knee injury, but mostly everyone understood that he couldn’t play. And if he couldn’t play, the Celtics couldn’t repeat.
            But this year the expectations ramped up again with a seemingly successful offseason and a searing start. Only when the injuries mounted this time around, many blamed some of it on the make-up of an older team more than another bout of bad luck.
            Then as the team lost one double-digit lead after another – adding up to 11 losses since Christmas in which it was well ahead – confusion among the paying public turned to frustration, then to anger.
            The blame game began. Rasheed Wallace – who has been hearing it at the Garden for the better part of a month – was a popular target. Doc Rivers was also on the receiving end of growing ire.
            But, mostly, it was a collective raspberry hurled at a team that held the promise of being a title contender, but often played second halves with the attention span of a cast member from Jersey Shore.
            “It’s all about fight and pride,” Kendrick Perkins said. “We have to play hard on both ends. Not just when we get down, or (rely) on the crowd to get us into it. Sometimes you have to provide your own energy."
Fans want to believe this team will pull it together for a big final push in the spring. They want to embrace the nucleus of Paul Pierce, Allen and Garnett as one that isn’t in its twilight months together. They want to accept what they’ve been told from the players and coaches that all the pieces and game plans are there, and the execution isn’t far behind.
            But the blind faith is gone. They now have to be convinced.
            Wednesday night against Charlotte was a start.
            But it’s going to take more than just one dozen supermarket roses to fully buy back their hearts.

(Scott Souza is a staff writer for the MetroWest Daily News. His coverage can be found at www.metrowestdailynews.com. For updates and analysis, check out the “Courtside View” blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/Celtics.)