No one on the Boston Celtics is particularly pleased with a 4-8 record to this point, especially considering a handful of close games that have slipped away. But when the team takes a minute to reflect on the big picture on Thanksgiving Day, coach Brad Stevens and his charges can be thankful for progress.

"I think the biggest thing is, you look at it from the record standpoint and, again, you’re disappointed in a couple of the close losses," Stevens told reporters before Wednesday's practice. "But I’m not disappointed in the progress or how we’re playing; [it's] closer to meeting our standards, which is good. Hey, we’ve gotta make up some ground as these coming months happen. But at the same time, it’s still about getting better and playing to what we’re trying to do from a day-to-day basis. I feel good about where we are headed, but we have to [win games]. And that’s a big difference."

The bad news for Boston: The Celtics are 2-5 in games that were within five points in the final five minutes of regulation. For a team that had been hoping to take a step forward in what the league defines as "clutch" games, that's an initial regression after finishing a woeful 15-34 in those close games last season.

The good news: In a less-than-imposing Eastern Conference, Boston is still only a game out of a playoff berth -- not that you put too much stock in that this time of year -- and Boston hasn't dug itself any sort of insurmountable hole while navigating a brutal November schedule.

As the Celtics returned to the practice court after a two-day break on Wednesday, one thing Stevens stressed was that he doesn't sense any overwhelming frustration among his players.

"I don’t sense the frustration level to be as high as maybe it's made out to be, because a lot of that is made out after a game where you lose close and, that soon after, everybody’s disappointed, everybody is -- you lose a little perspective immediately after a game," said Stevens. "Then when you have time to step back, when you have time to focus on what you're doing well, you have time to focus on what you’re not doing well, then you can really make strides forward and I think everybody realizes we’re making a lot of strides."

Stevens has stressed a not-too-high, not-too-low approach to November. And while he's had to remind himself at times not to get overly emotional about tough losses, he keeps going back to the progress being made.

"Anybody can be disappointed, certainly, in a close loss, right? Because when you’re on the losing end, you always say, ‘We should have won that game,’" explained Stevens. "When you’re on the winning end of that, we say, ‘We should have won that game.’ So there’s two teams playing. And no matter who loses says, ‘We should have won that game.’ The thing that we need to be focusing on is, are we playing to our standards?' And we’re getting closer to that, which is good. I feel like we’ve made better progress against Portland than we have maybe the entire first month of the season. From a standpoint of getting closer to playing how we need to play to be most consistent in attempting to win."

The Celtics played their best defensive game of the year in a loss to the Trail Blazers on Sunday. There's hope that the impending return of rookie spark plug Marcus Smart will give the team an additional defensive jolt and bring down an eyesore of a defensive rating (106.9, 26th overall).

Boston's offense has exceeded most expectations, even after turning in maybe its biggest clunker of the year against Portland. The Celtics haven't shot the 3-pointer well -- ranking 28th overall at 30 percent beyond the arc -- and have relied heavily on success with the 2-point shot (a league-high 65.8 percent of their field goals coming inside the arc). Even with the league-worst free-throw attempt rate, Boston has maintained an offensive rating of 105 points per 100 possessions, which ranked 13th in the league entering Wednesday's action.

With a more forgiving December looming, there's optimism that Boston can build off what it has endured during an unrelenting month that still features tilts with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs before the calendar flips.

"[November has] been tough," said Jeff Green. "We haven’t shot the ball as well as we want to shoot the ball, myself included. But we’ve been in almost every game, with the exception of one or two. I think we’re learning. It’s been a tough month, probably the hardest schedule of the first month through the whole NBA. I think we've bee learning and progressing slowly. But I think we’re in a good spot, I think once we come out of this month, if we continue to focus on the defensive end, continue to get better on the offensive end, I think we’ll be alright."