Brown nursing sore hamstring
C’s wing expected to play in Game 1 vs. Bucks
In terms of timing, even Celtics injuries are being aided by the playoff schedule.
Thanks to their sweep of the Nets, Rob Williams has time to work on his strengthening while coming back from knee surgery.
And Jaylen Brown, whose right hamstring tightened up in Game 4 — it’s been a recurring issue this season for the Celtics wing — has time to get treatment before Game 1 on Sunday against the Bucks.
According to Ime Udoka, Brown is expected to play.
“We could say it could impact him. We’re waiting to see how he reacts to certain things this week,” the Celtics coach said after Thursday’s practice. “But expectation is yes to play. But like I said, he had some tightness in-game. He had the days off and kind of got looked back and he’s getting worked on. We’ll see how he reacts to that throughout the week.
“Had some tightness in his hamstring at the end of the game, and so we’re kind of managing that, as the week goes,” said Udoka. “He got it looked at yesterday, and he’s going to just manage it with the strength team, but that’s the only anything coming out of the last series.”
Re-guarding Giannis
You could say that Jayson Tatum has had a nice tuneup for Giannis Antetokounmpo, having successfully guarded Kevin Durant in the first round.
But even more than the Nets star, the Celtics have to guard Antetokounmpo with a rotating cast.
“Yeah. It was a good firstround test, first-round matchup, but different players, different styles of play, different teams,” said Tatum. “So can’t pay too much attention to what happened.
We’ve gotta focus on what’s next.”
As always with the Bucks star, the goal is to make him shoot rather than get into the paint. The theory sounds good, anyway.
“We all know what Giannis is capable of, what he’s doing and what he’s going to try to do,” said NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart. “For us, it’s just going to take a team effort and with those guys, he makes it really tough because of how aggressive he is and how he can get in
the lane to not only create for himself, but create for those other guys and he deserves a lot of attention and those guys are sitting there ready for him to serve it up on a platter. In a sense, it’s similar to Brooklyn, but in a sense it’s different. Where there was a lot more guys on Brooklyn we could help off of, this one, you gotta be cognizant of those shooters because they’re shooting the ball very well. He definitely has a team where we know and everybody in this league knows
that they’ve been to the championship, they’ve won it, they’re hungry, they know what it takes, they know what it feels like, and we just gotta be ready for them.”
At least one ploy remains the same regardless of how the Celtics are now switching in every situation — they still have to build a Giannis wall.
“No, I mean, it’s just when we do switch, once again, that wall still has to be there. Regardless of who’s on him, no matter who switches on
him, he’s a force, we know it, he’s been showing it,” said Smart. “Dude’s seven-plus feet, wingspan’s seven-plus and he’s athletic with it and he’s strong. So we definitely are going to need a full team effort. So it doesn’t matter who’s on him, it doesn’t change the fact that you still have to build that wall.”
There’s no running away in basketball
Count Smart among those who loved Udoka’s recent declaration that the Celtics aren’t “a track team. We don’t run away from anyone.”
“He hit the nail on the head right there. We’re not, we never have been. We’re not going to choose today or any other day to start,” said Smart. “So I love the quote, we love it, it fits perfect for us, who we are, being (an) identity. Not only that, it speaks for him as a coach, the coach he is, the player that he was when he played. He takes that into the coaching as well and when you’ve got a coach like that that has the same mentality as you, it’s always a good thing to have. Like he said, we ain’t a track team and we gon’ play whoever is put in front of us.”