Change of seasons renews focus
At some point today, the Celtics will leave their homes and head to the Garden to play the Nets, and they should take the opportunity for a long goodbye to their families.
After taking yesterday to put their feet up and gather themselves, the C’s now begin the long and uninterrupted march to the end of the season. There are just two games left on the regular slate, tonight and Wednesday’s game against the Bucks, but the playoffs will follow immediately and, even when not on the court, they will have to be engaged.
So kiss the wife and kids, because they may see you physically at times, but mentally you’ll be gone until the end of the playoffs.
“For real,” Avery Bradley said. “For real.”
Isaiah Thomas relishes the big stage, but he knows there’s a grind — one the Celts hope lasts more than a round — so he had to make the most of yesterday by maybe doing the least.
“We need the off day to get some rest,” Thomas said, “but we know once we get back on Monday, it’s full head of steam, and we’ve got to be ready for it.”
Brad Stevens will get ready first by looking at the standings and charting the possibilities. The coach wants the Celts to land in the best seed available, but even if they get locked in at No. 2, he is loath to pull the plug on anything. There may be some managing of minutes over the next two games, but likely he won’t go full Gregg Popovich and put his stars in street clothes.
“I’m going to look at where we are and figure out what we’re going to do as far as minutes and those type of things,” Stevens said. “But I want our guys to stay sharp. That’s the most important thing. You want to be playing really well. There’s no question about it. There were a few years there where like three out of the four the Super Bowl champs limped in and won it, but it all restarts after Wednesday, and we need to find our rhythm and we need to play well.”
In any case, the Celtics will be able to try to get things together in familiar surroundings. They know they will be home for a while, with the visits by the Nets and Bucks and the first two playoff games guaranteed to be at the Garden.
“We were home for six games (before the trip to Atlanta and Charlotte), and we’re in the Eastern time zone for our last 16 games,” Stevens said. “We’ll have every reason to feel fresh when it’s all said and done. There should be no excuses with that. We get a chance to sleep in our own beds quite a bit. And even though we were playing three out of four with two on the road, we weren’t out west or anything like that.
“We just have to take advantage of it. We need to prioritize all those things that really add up — nutrition and sleep and off-days and recovery days and getting in and getting one more massage, all that stuff. We just need to prioritize those things.”
After getting injured in the first game of last year’s opening round elimination at the hands of the Hawks, Bradley is up for all these outings, even these last two.
“I’m just enjoying every single game,” he said. “For me personally, I’m using all these games as games for me to get going for the playoffs. You have to look at it like that. We still want to win every single game. You can’t lay down. I feel like that’s the mentality that gets you over.
“All the great teams, they want to win every single game, no matter who’s on the floor. Obviously at this time of the year, some teams may have a game plan of where they want to land, but as of right now for us, we’re using every single game to get better as a team and win.”
After being frustrated in last year’s playoffs by a bad ankle that clearly hindered his performance in the firstround loss to the Hawks, Jae Crowder doesn’t believe the sore left elbow he’s been nursing will be a similar issue.
“This injury, my elbow, is much different than the one with my ankle,” he said. “I had trouble just moving last year, but this isn’t as bad as that. I think I can play through it. I think I’ll be fine come playoff time. If I can find a day to take off, I’ll take it off. We’ll see how it goes.
“I’m not worried about it. Injuries happen. But I feel like I’m more toughminded than I was last year with the whole injury thing. Hopefully it doesn’t hurt me come playoff time.”
The biggest problem with his elbow may be with his head, so to speak.
“I was thinking about should I sit the Cleveland game? Should I play? I think that was in my head the whole time we were playing Cleveland,” Crowder said. “I played more freely (in Atlanta), just trying not to think about it as much as I did against Cleveland, and that helped.”
Combined against the Hawks and Charlotte in the past two games, Crowder made 15-of-23 shots overall and was 5-of-9 on 3’s.