Core 5 just getting started
The starting lineup the Celtics expected to put on the court at the season’s outset — the one with Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Amir Johnson and Al Horford — played in just its 28th game together last night.
Injuries have clearly interfered with this group, especially in the cases of Bradley (23 missed games), Horford (11) and Crowder (eight). But after last night’s 117-104 win over Minnesota, the team is now 21-7 with that quintet and 22-18 without all five. It bodes well down the stretch if coach Brad Stevens can continue putting them on the floor together.
“The first unit is still learning to play with each other, and I think the sky is the limit for us,” Bradley said. “It’s only been a few games where we’ve been healthy together now.”
Said Thomas: “We definitely have to get more comfortable with each other, but as time goes on, as we practice more, play more, we’ll get comfortable. And we’ll start feeling a rhythm together. Right now we’re just feeling it out.
“We haven’t been together that much. We go together four, five games and somebody will get hurt or go down, and then we’ll go another four or five games together. So I’m glad we could get a good stretch of games together. Hopefully, everyone will stay healthy and we can finish the season off right.”
Brown: Martin will fix Illini
Jaylen Brown wasn’t surprised by reports that his former coach at University of California, Cuonzo Martin, is leaving to take over the program at Illinois.
“I think it’s a good move for him. He was at Cal for three years. I think he’ll probably turn that program around,” the Celtics rookie said before last night’s game. “I’m not surprised. Everybody had a feeling he was leaving, so we knew it was coming.” . . .
Guerschon Yabusele, one of the Celtics’ three 2016 first-round picks, was on hand last night at the Garden, and it’s clear he and fellow first-rounder Brown have made a strong connection.
Brown has no doubt the big rebounder/scorer will have an NBA impact.
“I think Guerschon’s a freak of nature — 270 pounds, accounted for, I don’t know, it might be 280, 290 — he can shoot the ball, he’s got good feet. He’s the ‘Dancing Bear,’ ” said Brown, who received a text from Yabusele upon his arrival in town Tuesday and then went to visit him.
An NCAA viewing party
Stevens isn’t above making allowances for his college basketball fix. The Celtics fly to New York early today so he can watch this afternoon’s first-round NCAA tournament game between Butler and Winthrop.
But he also sounds happily detached from the college game, four seasons into his NBA career.
“You miss the players you had a chance to go through things with, but one thing I do is really appreciate those times and (look) forward,” he said. “With the opportunity to live through that with the Final Fours and the multiple NCAA tournament wins and appearances, I feel like I lived a lifetime with just the 13 years in the college game. I’m happy for what I had a chance to experience. I don’t reminisce too much about it, but I relish the opportunities and certainly the people I did it with.”