BOSTON — The story of this improbable Celtics playoff run will ultimately be as much about the players who were not available to play as it will be remembered for the ones who were.


 


While the healthy Celtics will be celebrated for winning game after game, series after series, as underdogs and as a group written off due to injuries, All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving — as well as key role players Shane Larkin and Daniel Theis — had to go [...]

By Scott Souza The MetroWest Daily News

BOSTON — The story of this improbable Celtics playoff run will ultimately be as much about the players who were not available to play as it will be remembered for the ones who were.

 

While the healthy Celtics will be celebrated for winning game after game, series after series, as underdogs and as a group written off due to injuries, All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving — as well as key role players Shane Larkin and Daniel Theis — had to go from main cogs on an NBA Finals contender to counselors and cheerleaders for the players able to suit up for the biggest games in the sport.

 

“Regardless if you are playing or not, you hope that your team pulls out those wins because it’s been such an unbelievable season,” Larkin, out with what he called a “sprain and partial ligament tear” in his shoulder, said prior to Sunday night’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “I’m over there trying to give those guys support, tell those guys what I see out there. Just try to be a veteran presence on the bench.”

 

That’s been especially the role throughout the playoffs for Irving as he maintained a visible and vocal presence at the practice facility, in the locker room, and on the bench after learning his season was over in late March following knee surgery.

 

“He loves the game of basketball,” Larkin said of the five-time All-Star. “He sees things that not many people see. He’s talking to our guys, telling them what he sees. Trying to get them motivated. He’s really just over there enjoying the moment. He’s loving being in Boston. He’s liking what our team has done.

 

“Every time we walk back into the locker room he’s there saying: ‘You guys are an amazing bunch of guys!’ He’s enjoying the entire thing.”

 

Hayward, who has been back and forth from Boston to Indianapolis doing rehab of his opening-night leg injury throughout the playoffs, was back in town for Sunday’s Game 7, having arrived about 45 minutes before the game.

 

“Gordon is a lot more low-key,” Larkin said. “It’s different with him because he didn’t really get to suit up. He got injured the first game. So he doesn’t have the same type of connection that Kyrie had because Kyrie was there for 60-plus games. But he’s still there, still supporting, sending text messages. It’s all good.”

 

Larkin, who was injured when he collided with Joel Embiid in Game 4 of the conference semifinals, said he spent the conference finals working toward a possible return to action in the event Boston made it all the way to the NBA Finals.

 

“I definitely feel like I am close,” he said, adding his recent rehab has included having coaches whack him with pads as he drives to the basket to test his pain tolerance and the range of motion in the shoulder. “The risk of reinjuring it is going to be there regardless for a couple of months. It’s one of those tough situations where you have to leverage what’s important. You want to be out there with your team.

 

“I am just really hoping I have that opportunity.”

 

In the meantime, he and the other injured Celtics have tried to make the most of the ride as much as possible from their respective seats on the sideline.

 

“We’re all sad that we can’t go out there and fight for our teammates,” Larkin said. “So we try to keep it light, joke around, and just try to enjoy the atmosphere because it’s not every year where you get to be in a situation like this.”

 

Green starts

 

Celtics coach Brad Stevens kept the same starting lineup from Games 5 and 6 for Game 7 even though the Cavaliers went smaller with Jeff Green in place of the injured Kevin Love (concussion protocol).

 

In a season in which the Cavaliers originally looked to have former Celtics Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas come back to Boston and haunt their former coach and team in the playoffs, it was Green who had that chance on Sunday night.

 

“We know here he was one of the best players on that first team,” Stevens said of the squad that went 25-57 in 2013-14. “He’s a guy that can score. And he’s a guy who can score on the block, or facing the goal. He’s a good player.”