Celts won’t surrender
Optimistic even with no Irving
You’d expect him to say nothing different, but Danny Ainge believes the Celtics can still make some playoff noise.
And while the club’s postseason outlook has certainly been altered with yesterday’s news that Kyrie Irving will need further knee surgery and thus miss the rest of the NBA year, Ainge has some evidence to back up his belief the Celts could last awhile.
There are four regular-season games left before they deal with either Washington, Miami or Milwaukee in the first round, and they will have homecourt advantage in the first two series if they get that far.
“We’re not giving up on this,” the Celtics president of basketball operations told the Herald. “Absolutely not.
“We’ve competed with the best teams in the league with all the injuries we’ve had to Marcus (Smart) and Kyrie and Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis. We beat a hungry Oklahoma City team. We beat Portland on their home court. We beat Utah, who’s one of the hottest teams in the league fighting for their lives, on their home court. We beat Toronto last Saturday.
“We’ve played some fantastic basketball in spite of the challenges that we’ve had from a physical standpoint. So I like watching these guys play, and they’re going to fight.”
The first example of the Celtics’ refusal to succumb to major injury came when Hayward went down just minutes into the first game of the season. They lost that one and the next night, as well — then ripped off 16 straight wins. Of course, that team had Kyrie Irving.
“We didn’t give up then, and we haven’t done that now since Kyrie’s been hurt either,” Ainge said.
“Our team has played really well. I feel like these last couple of games (losses in Milwaukee and Toronto Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively) were not the team that we are. In a long season, you have these stretches, but I thought we played terrific on the West Coast, and we came back home and had a big game with Toronto. Our team looked good. Then we head right back out on the road, and I felt like we weren’t ourselves. We were a little fatigued and just didn’t play well.
“But I’m excited about the playoffs. I really am. Like, Terry Rozier and Shane Larkin, this is their opportunity. And Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson (Tatum) and Marcus Morris and (Al) Horford and (Aron) Baynes and Greg Monroe, I mean, the whole group. These guys are looking forward to playing in the playoffs. And we have the luxury to give them a little bit of rest without taking them completely out of rhythm in these last four games, which is very rare to be able to do heading into the playoffs.”
And lasting awhile in the postseason is about much more than selling more tickets. Tatum, a rookie, and Brown, in his second season, can be better next year for this.
“The experience that they’re getting right now and going into the playoffs is huge, no doubt about it,” Ainge said.
Even as Irving first discussed whether to have the March 24 procedure to remove tension wire in his left knee, the overriding Celtics imperative was centered on making the team healthy and whole for the start of next season. The club did not want to put that at risk for anything that might improve their more immediate fortunes but still leave them as a long-ish shot to challenge for this year’s championship.
“Of course, we were hopeful that the first procedure would work and that Kyrie could play at some point in the playoffs,” said Ainge. “And then unfortunately we won’t have him now. He’s a huge part of our team and a huge part of our future. The good news is we feel like he’ll be better than ever come training camp.”
He’s hoping there are no more medical matters in this campaign’s remainder.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this,” said Ainge. “I mean, I remember when Kevin (McHale) got hurt. I remember when Larry (Bird) got hurt. I remember Charles (Barkley) was hurt. I remember when Danny Manning got hurt. Those things all cost teams I was on opportunities in the playoffs. I remember when KG (Kevin Garnett) got hurt.
“I’ve been in the NBA a long time and I’ve seen some traumatic injuries for our team, but never as many to as many key players as we’ve had this year.”