When the Celtics engineered a second-half comeback to overtake the Sacramento Kings and win 95-90 on Tuesday night at ARCO Arena, they did more than just win one basketball game. They won their coach a very high-profile gig.
With their come-from-behind win in the finale of their West Coast road trip, the Celtics guaranteed that they’d have the Eastern Conference’s best record by Sunday, which happens to be two weeks before the All-Star Game is played in Los Angeles on Feb. 20. That means that Doc Rivers is now guaranteed to coach the Eastern Conference in the mid-February classic at the Staples Center.
The Celtics now lead the East at 37-11, three games ahead of the Miami Heat in the standings and 3 1/2 ahead of the Chicago Bulls. Neither Erik Spoelstra nor former assistant Tom Thibodeau can overtake Rivers in time to earn the East coaching gig this weekend.
This will be Rivers’ second All-Star Game as a coach — he also led the East squad in 2008, his first year coaching Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen together in Boston. The East won that contest, 134-128, holding off a late West charge in the fourth quarter thanks to 28 points from Allen and 27 from LeBron James.
Coaching against Rivers last time was Byron Scott, then at the helm in New Orleans. This time it’ll be Gregg Popovich of the NBA-leading Spurs. This will also be Pop’s second All-Star Game—he first led the West squad in the 2004 game.
Now that Rivers is in, the next question is how many of his Celtics stars he can take with him. The All-Star reserves will be introduced on Thursday, and four Celtics (Allen, Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo) are leading candidates. Shaquille O’Neal, who’s already a 15-time All-Star, has an outside shot as well.
