BOSTON — The Cleveland Cavaliers have enjoyed the luxury of being able to treat this past week as a de facto preseason to the postseason.
With Cleveland’s seeding already secured, coach David Blatt has freedom to limit or — as was the case Sunday in Boston — outright eliminate his star players’ minutes in preparation for the looming grind of the NBA playoffs.
That will not — or, at least, should not — be the case for the Celtics.
Even though Boston’s 117-78 beatdown of what amounted to Cleveland’s JV squad all but assured the Celtics of a playoff berth (any Boston win or Indiana or Brooklyn loss the rest of the way will seal it), it should be business as usual for the C’s over the final two games of the regular season.
Sitting down stars for the home stretch benefits immensely talented title contenders like the Cavs, who want their big guns to be as fresh as possible come playoff time. But doing so for a team like the Celtics, who will need every ounce of available momentum to even have a chance in the opening round, actually could be detrimental.
“We don’t have the players that (the Cavaliers) have to really receive those type of benefits,” Celtics guard Evan Turner explained. “(On Sunday), they played Mike Miller, (James) Jones, Shawn Marion, Kendrick Perkins — those were some big-time players in this league at one point. They’re loaded. Out here, we really have to keep competing, keep on learning and building our chemistry.”
Chemistry is key for this Celtics team, which lacks a bona fide superstar and had to adjust to yet another roster shakeup when forward Jared Sullinger rejoined the fray last week. And at the moment, the Celtics are rolling. They’ve won four in a row, six of their last seven and 18 of 29 since the trade deadline.
“We try to worry about ourselves,” Turner said. “That’s the biggest thing: worrying about ourselves and trying to play basketball the right way. We have a lot of stuff to gain and lose if you don’t come out mentally prepared. Once again, we’re just trying to get the right flow and keep giving ourselves the opportunity to keep playing longer. And if we do so, we want to go into any situation prepared and confident.
“We have to get prepared for Toronto, to come out and once again play hard, and play the right way and compete. We’ve got 82 games, so there’s two more games that we have to come out fully focused and fully ready to rock.”
Coach Brad Stevens, for one, doesn’t sound like he has any intention of doling out days off.
“If (team trainer Ed Lacerte) tells me they need it, or if the players, you know, if somebody comes up and says, ‘I don’t feel good,’ (they’ll sit),” Stevens said. “But we’re going to keep gaining steam here.”
The Celtics will need as much steam as they can muster, especially with all signs pointing toward a matchup with the (full-strength) Cavs in the first round.
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
