BOSTON – Eighty-two games. Fifty-five wins. Too many injuries to count.
It’s all led up to this for the Celtics as they closed out the regular season with a 110-97 victory against Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night, and will now turn their sights toward the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs this weekend.
"This is what it’s all about," said [...]
BOSTON – Eighty-two games. Fifty-five wins. Too many injuries to count.
It’s all led up to this for the Celtics as they closed out the regular season with a 110-97 victory against Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night, and will now turn their sights toward the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs this weekend.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Celtics center Aron Baynes after his career night in the regular season finale. “This is what the season has been about – getting to this point. Now it’s time to lock in and focus in on the task at hand. We’ve had some good matchups with them this year. It’s going to take a lot from us, but it’s going to be a fun one.”
The Celtics last faced the Bucks just last Tuesday when they came up on the short end of a 106-102 final in a game they played without any healthy, experienced point guards due to myriad injuries and illnesses. The Celtics also lost to Milwaukee in the home opener – the night after Gordon Hayward’s devastating injury – but swept the middle two meetings this season.
“It will be fresh in our minds what we need to do,” Baynes said. “It brought to light a few things that we could do differently. But at the end of the day it’s about us, and building from the defensive end. When we do that, we play well, and we look good.”
While Celtics coach Brad Stevens said it was “weird” and “strange” to play so many games of so little consequence late in the year, that all ended with Wednesday night with eyes now on Giannis Antekounmpo and the Bucks.
“When I was coaching in college it was everything for March,” Stevens said. “It was what you got up early for to work out in the summer. It was what you went to every recruiting event for. It was what you always thought about. Here it’s an absolute blast to get a chance to compete in the playoffs. It’s what you work for. It’s what you work for as a staff. It’s what you work for as a team. The players put in an incredible amount of time and energy throughout the season. And they had a great regular season.
“So now they get to (continue). Some of them are going to play bigger roles than they thought and they get to enjoy the opportunity to compete at the highest level.”
The Celtics will only have 11 healthy players entering the postseason with Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart and Daniel Theis out of action from the 15-man roster.
With Stevens resting Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Marcus Morris, Terry Rozier and Jayson Tatum on Wednesday, the regular season finale turned into Australia Night at TD Garden as Baynes treated the Nets like a JV team stepping on the floor with the varsity for the first time. He scored 26 points with 14 rebounds in just 21 minutes – putting up a career-high 23 shots – before taking a seat for the night with 6:21 left in the third quarter.
“I appreciate the guys on the team getting me so many good shots and open looks,” Baynes said. “It’s a lot of credit to them. It’s about trying to get that rhythm and trying to capitalize every time we step out on the floor.”
Shane Larkin also had a big bounce-back night after a recent bout with the flu, which caused him to be briefly hospitalized and that he said caused him to lose 10 pounds following the Western Conference trip, as he threatened a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in 25 minutes.
Guerschon Yabusele had a career-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Jonathan Gibson delivered 18 for the Celtics.
Baynes scored 18 points with 10 rebounds in the first half as the Celtics built a 53-43 lead. Baynes then scored another eight points with four rebounds in the first 5:39 of the third quarter before taking a seat for the night as the Celtics took a 69-50 lead on Yabusele’s 3-pointer.
The Celtics hit the fourth quarter up 83-70 before stretching the lead to 91-72 early in the fourth and shifting the full attention toward the playoffs.