BOSTON — The Celtics will consider resting some of their players for Wednesday’s regular-season finale in Milwaukee, head coach Brad Stevens said.
“Potentially (Wednesday),” Stevens said Tuesday before the Celtics hosted the Toronto Raptors at TD Garden. “But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
The Celtics, who clinched a playoff spot Monday night, were at full strength for their matchup with the Atlantic Division champion Raptors, as Stevens hoped to continue building momentum on the heels of a four-game winning streak.
“I think we’ve really put a lot of emphasis on putting our foot on the gas and leaving it there and making sure we’re focused on playing well,” Stevens said. “I thought we played, in the last four games, three of them being on the road, I thought we had a lot of good moments, and I’m hopeful to build off of that.”
Boston recently completed a brutal stretch in its schedule that included roughly six weeks without consecutive days off. The team practiced sparingly during that span as a way to maximize rest, and several players — Isaiah Thomas, Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger — were kept off the court entirely for long stretches as they recovered from various injuries.
“There are a couple (of players who could sit), and I’ll talk about that (Wednesday),” Stevens said. “But a lot of those young guys … had 18 games or 14 games or 16 games out. And then I do think that we had that gauntlet from Feb. 22 to April 4, and that little four days (off) before we went to Detroit was really helpful.
“You (reporters) know because you cover us that we didn’t get on the practice court much. We tried to rest as much as possible. So hopefully, these guys feel pretty good right now as it is. But again, with the back-to-back and then knowing that we’re going to play our first (playoff) game this weekend, we’ll manage that (Wednesday) appropriately.”
If the Celtics lose their final two games and the Indiana Pacers win their final two, Boston would enter the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed and play the Atlanta Hawks in the opening round. Any other outcome would grant the Celtics the No. 7 seed and set up a date with LeBron James and the second-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
UPDATE (10:03 p.m. ET): The Celtics defeated the Raptors 95-93 and clinched the No. 7 seed in the East.
Thumbnail photo via Raj Mehta/USA TODAY Sports Images
