Green keeps teammates positive
CLEVELAND — Just in case the Celtics needed a better idea of how far they have to go to actually be competitive on a conference finals level, the gap was starkly redefined with yesterday’s decision to shut down Isaiah Thomas for the rest of the playoffs due to an injured right hip.
So just imagine what this team now faces without him, starting tonight with Game 3 in Quicken Loans Arena. After suffering the second-worst playoff loss in franchise history with Friday night’s 44-point Game 2 dousing by Cleveland — a defeat that featured the worst halftime gap (41) in Celtics playoff history as well as a 50-point peak lead by the Cavaliers — the Celtics arrived here yesterday with a serious need to regain a little pride.
“They’ve still got to beat us two more times,” said Gerald Green, trying to sound hopeful following the deluge of Cleveland 3-pointers (19) and unguardable balance (three players with 21 or more points).
Coach Brad Stevens’ main adjustment, and something that pulled the C’s out of an 0-2 hole in the first round against Chicago, was the insertion of Green as a starter.
The shift obviously didn’t work Friday night. Green hit his first two shots — a pair of 3-pointers from the left corner within the first five minutes of the first quarter — and he didn’t score again. He also lasted only 14 minutes on the floor as Stevens began rifling through his starters and reserves in search of some solution — any solution.
But Green remains one of the most upbeat characters on the roster.
“I’m looking forward to how to respond on Sunday,” he said. “Just guys coming back to the locker room after the game, we got to talk a little bit. I’m pretty confident that I think guys understand. We’ve always done that though. We get pushed to the back, and that’s when we start fighting.
“I think we owe it to ourselves to go out there and compete for each other,” he said. “Anytime we don’t have Isaiah on the court is obviously a minus for us. You know, we need him. Just his presence, his way to compete is contagious. We need him on the floor at all times. Even if he’s not on the floor, we’ve got to have the nextman-up mentality, which we’ve had for the most part all season. We just didn’t have it (Friday).”
The kid keeps improving
Jaylen Brown, who set playoff career highs with each new game in this series, was the Celtics’ leading and most-efficient scorer in Game 2 with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting — 5-for-5 from the line.
Say what you want about rookie naivete, but Brown sounded ready to get right back on the floor following the Game 2 loss.
Brown also admitted, though, that Game 2 had a demoralizing effect.
“That’s gonna happen but you gotta stay with it, you gotta keep fighting,” he said. “You gotta hit shots. That’s one thing that we gotta do against this team is hit shots. But we can’t put our head down when we miss one. We gotta do a better job of cheering each other on and getting each other open shots. And supporting each other when we do hit them.
“I don’t think anybody is giving up. I think we still have a chance,” he said. “We have a very uphill climb but I think we can still pull things off. We just gotta come and click on all cylinders. I think we still haven’t done that.”