Guarded approach vanishes
Bradley back to 100 percent
Avery Bradley’s minutes restriction has been removed, meaning that the Celtics’ defensive rotation can return to full bore on opponents.
The guard added six rebounds, a block and three steals to his 17-point performance in a 100-80 win against the Chicago Bulls yesterday at the Garden.
Though the lopsided nature of the game kept him on the bench in the fourth quarter, Bradley admittedly likes the fact that his 26-minute run had nothing to do with the state of his healed right Achilles.
“I’m happy it’s finally done. Yeah, I’m just happy it’s done,” Bradley said. “Now it’s time for me to just focus on the game and just go out there and play as hard as I can and continue to find a rhythm so I’m a lot more comfortable out there. I just have to continue to get in the gym and get shots up. (Today) will be a good day to get some extra shots up before practice and after and just get that rhythm and confidence back. Isaiah ( Thomas), ( Marcus) Smart, those guys make it a lot easier for me looking for me on back-cuts, getting easy baskets, that helps me get a rhythm.”
Overall, with yesterday’s win one of the finest examples to date, Bradley now likes what he’s seeing from the rest of the lineup on the defensive end.
“That’s my vision for this team is to go out there and play hard on the defensive end every single night,” Bradley said. “We know if we play that way we have a chance every single game even if we’re not making shots or making mistakes. Whenever the entire team is playing with that much energy on the defensive end, good things happen, and that’s what happened (yesterday).”
Rested development
With the coaches in San Antonio and Golden State ticking off fans with their decisions to rest key players in the name of playoff health, the Celtics find themselves in a very different situation.
Coach Brad Stevens, who happily reported a healthy lineup at the start of yesterday’s game, gets to work his relatively fresh players into stretchrun form.
“One of the things we’ve known coming in is that December was going be a brutal stretch from a travel standpoint and being all over the place standpoint, and then February/early March same thing,” Stevens said. “One of the things that’s happened with our team that you don’t necessarily want to go through, is that we’ve got some rest because of injuries. Right now we’re more focused on finding the best version of ourselves, finding our stride a little bit as far as playing guys in the minutes they need to play. We haven’t had a chance to do that enough, and that’s really important moving forward. As a coach you want to be playing really well in the month. We want to be able to do well while healthy, but we also want reps over the next month in games and practice.”
Speaking for himself, Thomas knows how rest should be delegated over the final 15 games.
“I’m not resting. I don’t know what coach is going to do but I’m not,” he said.
Surfin’ the wave
Most of the starters never left the bench in the fourth quarter, and as such had time on their hands. Thomas, Jae Crowder and Al Horford all gladly joined in when the crowd broke into a lengthy round of the wave.
“It was fun. They just did it a little too long. But it was nice,” Thomas said. “It’s always nice when you got a comfortable win and the fans get into it. I mean, usually we play pretty well (because of) those fans. They show us support each and every game.”