WALTHAM, Mass. — The Celtics have made an impressive statement during their six-game win streak about how they can still beat playoff teams, and potentially be a force in the postseason, as they await the hopeful return of Kyrie Irving and Marcus Smart from their respective surgeries.
They can make an even bigger statement over the next couple of days when they hit the road for a pair of possible Eastern Conference playoff previews at Milwaukee Tuesday night [...]
WALTHAM, Mass. — The Celtics have made an impressive statement during their six-game win streak about how they can still beat playoff teams, and potentially be a force in the postseason, as they await the hopeful return of Kyrie Irving and Marcus Smart from their respective surgeries.
They can make an even bigger statement over the next couple of days when they hit the road for a pair of possible Eastern Conference playoff previews at Milwaukee Tuesday night and at Toronto on Wednesday.
Boston left for the two-game trip in second place in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the Raptors with six games to play in the regular season.
“I feel like we’re the No. 1 team and the No. 1 seed would be fitting,” Jaylen Brown declared prior to Monday’s practice. “There are a lot of teams that think otherwise. Toronto is one of those guys. Milwaukee is probably one of them too. We’re playing those two guys and we’ve got to go out and show (we are No. 1).”
Brown said while he believes “we can get it, for sure” when it comes to the No. 1 seed, the bigger focus is to “not beat ourselves” when it comes to the shorthanded playoff push.
“Injuries happen,” Brown said. “People miss games. And people come back. We’ve just got to continue to push forward. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. As long as we continue to get better, and the guys who don’t normally get to play continue to get better, it just makes us better as a unit.”
The depth of that unit was tested again in Monday’s practice as Shane Larkin remained out with flu-like symptoms, which briefly caused him to be hospitalized over the weekend, and Terry Rozier sat with ankle pain.
While Rozier was officially termed “questionable” for tomorrow night with the injury he said he suffered going to the floor after a hard foul with 3:54 left in Saturday night’s victory against the Raptors, the third-year point guard insisted he will extend his season-long streak of not missing a game.
“I am playing (Tuesday), for sure,” he said. “I’m not a guy who just wants to sit out if I don’t have a legit reason. I’m fine. I can play. My ankle is not super bad.
“Al (Horford’s) been bringing the ball up a lot of us. I was just talking to him and he said he hopes I’m not injured because he doesn’t see how he’d do it (the whole game). He’d get tired.”
Larkin will not travel on the trip.
Coach Brad Stevens said the team will play it cautious with Rozier given all the other injuries and with the postseason set to begin in less than two weeks.
“It’s to get to the playoffs healthy with this group,” the coach said. “We don’t have a Kyrie timeline, officially. We don’t know a Marcus (Smart) timeline. We can’t necessarily think that those guys are going to be back anytime soon. This is why with, like a Terry injury, we want to be very, very smart about bringing him back (at the right time).
"This will certainly be the group that starts it. We’ll see when those guys (Irving and Smart) are able to get back out on the court. But we’re focused on this group on the court right now. This is the group that’s going to have to do that.”
Stevens reiterated that group will not include Gordon Hayward — although Hayward released a video on The Players’ Tribune website of him jogging on his own at the practice facility for the first time Monday as he rehabs his left ankle and leg.
“It’s good to see him now that he’s continuing to get better,” Brown said. “I know the one thing he wants to do is to get back out and play basketball right now. As an athlete, a competitor, that’s one thing you love doing.”
In the meantime, Brown said Stevens will find a way to make it work with whatever cards the coach is dealt over the final two weeks of the regular season and into the start of the playoffs.
“Brad, I think, is the Coach of the Year,” Brown said. “He will figure out a way to make everything flow the way it’s supposed to flow.
“I give tremendous credit to the team that we have (for the 53-23 record), and Danny Ainge for putting it together, but Brad also leading out us with the scheme, the plan that we want to execute each and every day.”