Stevens walks off strain
Coach on bubble life coping method
Brad Stevens’ feet are his vehicle to calmness. The Celtics coach laughed prior to Game 4 against Toronto when recounting that he phones in to his weekly radio guest spot while walking.
It probably comes as no surprise that Stevens says he paces off stress on something in the Orlando bubble he calls the “walk of sanity.”
“I do the same walking path every day. I call it the ‘walk of sanity.’ And I’ve found that a lot of other people do it too,” he said. “I saw Nick (Nurse) out there riding his bike today. I see Spo (Eric Spoelstra) all the time. I’ve seen Frank (Vogel) jogging. Doc (Rivers’) whole staff. We all run into each other a lot.”
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
They’re all trying to escape a common enemy — the sense of boredom and isolation that increases with each day in the bubble.
“We have a great deal of respect for everybody that’s been here and everybody that’s spent a lot of time here,” said Stevens. “Among other things when you’re in coaching, or when you’re in the game. Just being in the arena and putting yourself out there and giving it your all and coming up in a win or a loss, you have that to already relate to everybody with. And now we have an experience that can best be described as unique to all relate with each other with.”
You could even say that this kind of human contact is vital under these conditions.
“You feel isolated. We’re in a small area, so there’s only so much you can do,” said Stevens. “You do have to find time for yourself, you have to take care of yourself the best you can.
“Can’t get holed up in your room all day, which is very easy to do. You have to make sure you do anything you can to take care of yourself. We’ve tried to put a large priority on that with our coaching staff, our players, everybody else, because we recognized all along this was coming. This was not unpredictable by any means once you started looking at all that was coming with this experience. But our guys have done a great job of managing it thus far, but we just have to stay on top of it every day.”
No rush on Hayward’s return
Gordon Hayward is expected to join the team Sunday night, roughly two-and-ahalf weeks into rehabbing a badly sprained right ankle. Once back in the bubble, Hayward will have to quarantine for four days before returning to the gym and pool.
But there’s nothing new about the timeline. The Celtics would likely have to reach the conference finals before Hayward could return.
“He’s not going to play anytime soon,” said Stevens.
Big men putting in work
Stevens has tried a little bit of everything with his big men over the last seven playoff games, including, in Game 3, subbing in Enes Kanter as a means of fighting Toronto’s zone coverage.
At different points all three big men — also including Daniel Theis and Robert Williams — have benefited offensively. That part is to be expected, says Theis, considering all of the weapons the Celtics have on the wing.
“We have so many guys who can score — stars on the team like Kemba (Walker), JB (Jaylen Brown), JT (Jayson Tatum), Gordon — so maybe it’s good for the bigs that we don’t get as much attention as those guys,” said Theis. “Especially on the court, too, They get so much attention that we can find an open spot. In pickand-rolls they get doubleteamed, so our job is get them open, be there whenever they need us. We don’t need much attention. We know our staff and players appreciate the work we do as bigs.”