Celtics brace for wild stretch run
In a crowded Eastern Conference, C’s have little margin for error
As a sign of last summer’s bubble trend repeating itself, it appears the team that catches fire last will reap the biggest rewards.
Heading into Sunday’s games, six of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference were on winning streaks of three games or more, including four each by Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Atlanta.
The Celtics went into Sunday’s game in Houston off a loss to the Nets, though they had run off four straight wins prior to the All-star break.
The stretch run promises to be, well, wild.
“You’re going to have your moments where you can string a few together, and you’re going to have your moments where you know you’re going to have to navigate losing a couple,” said Brad Stevens. “That’s just the way it goes often. I think the more you can be resilient… the more you can focus on staying in the moment, playing that game in hand without anything else affecting your focus on that game is the most important thing.
“I think we have 35 games left. It feels in a lot of ways like this season is longer than a normal season just because of some of the stuff we’ve talked about before but the reality is it’s not and that margin for error decreases with every game that passes by,” said the Celtics coach.
“It’s one of the things we’ve talked about a lot. Every game is worth one. To say that the Brooklyn game is more important than the Houston game, more important than Utah or whatever, right now they’re all worth one. We’ve got to get as many of those as we can to have a chance to a) make the playoffs and b) be a competitive team when you get there.”
Nesmith odd man out in rotation
After a fruitful stretch prior to the all-star break, Aaron Nesmith found himself back on the bench Friday night in Brooklyn.
Though Stevens has said he’s still looking for separation among his reserves, he’s also starting to shorten his rotation with Marcus Smart back on the floor. Players like the rookie guard will continue to experience fluctuating playing time.
“I just shortened it. I mean, when we came back from that trip, we were 15-17 and we talked about being at home,” Stevens said of when Nesmith’s role increased. “I thought (Jeff)