Stevens now diehard Red Sox fan
Brad Stevens was at Game 1 of the Red Sox-Astros series, and although he didn’t see his desired result, he thoroughly enjoyed the game-night experience.
“I think that it’s just special to get a chance to do that here with all these teams,” said the Celtics coach. “Certainly, the Red Sox have had a historic year. They’ve always rebounded when something tough has happened. And we’ve used those guys as examples quite a bit.”
Indeed, one particular example came in quite handy as Stevens prepared his club for the regular season.
“The Brock Holt example last week of going for the cycle and getting a DNP the next day is how you win, right?” he said. “And being willing to take on those roles, both as the guy that did it and the guy that replaced him the next night in (Ian) Kinsler, those things matter. They’ve set a great example for us as we move into a new year.
“We talked about it a little bit in film, but everybody knows it. Everybody’s paying attention to what’s going on. All of us, whether we’re transplanted or not, become fans of the teams here. And for me, my first year here, the Red Sox won the World Series. And that was a couple months after we moved, and ever since then I’d say our whole family has been hooked. It’s just a blast to go over there and watch them work. Coach (Alex) Cora and their whole organization has had a heck of a year. We hope it lasts a few more weeks.”
As for manager Cora, Stevens said, “I was at their first practice of the year, so I spent some time with him there and talked to them down in Fort Myers a little bit. And then I’ve just watched, admiring him from afar. He’s got a great pulse on people.”
Looking at the Boston sports experience, Stevens added, “It’s just unique. And I think that we’re really lucky. We’re all really lucky, the four major professional sports teams, to get a chance to represent Boston. That’s just a really, really unique, unusual opportunity.”
Good news
Rookie Robert Williams was back practicing after missing two days with illness. And Stevens had a good report on Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward as they make their way back from surgeries.
“I thought Kyrie and Gordon had a really good week last week, and probably not all that surprising after both dealing with little setbacks injury-wise,” the coach said. “They both had three good days of practice, and I thought those two and Daniel (Theis, another who had surgery) stood out as the guys that probably made the biggest jumps in one week.”
On how those people looked better, Stevens said, “I just thought they were all probably more comfortable in knowing when to be aggressive, but also much more aggressive. And we played Daniel a lot with our second team and kind of rotated (Aron) Baynes and (Al) Horford so Daniel would get more reps. I think sometimes you just need more reps, so all three felt like they made good strides.”
Totally different
It’s not shocking that Jayson Tatum is more comfortable now than he was a year ago heading into Cleveland as a rookie on opening night.
“It’s like night and day,” he said. “You know, last year, we were playing the Cavs, playing LeBron (James). This year, we’re not playing LeBron, so I’m not as nervous.”
Tatum touched on some of the changes Stevens is making when he was asked about the challenge of fitting in with the other wings now that Hayward is back.
“I think it’s just a challenge for everybody,” he said. “We kind of have a different team than we did last year, so guys are having to play different positions, learn different spots and different plays that you necessarily weren’t used to last year. But practice is real good for that.”