The Boston Celtics will face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night with the top spot in the Eastern Conference hanging in the balance.
The Celtics had a half-game advantage over the Cavaliers entering Tuesday night’s games, but the Cavs moved back into a tie for first with a 122-102 win over the Orlando Magic.
However, despite the high stakes, Celtics star guard Isaiah Thomas isn’t treating the game any differently.
“It’s just another game,” Thomas said, per ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. “I think we’ve got to treat it like that. I mean being No. 1 in the standings, you don’t feel different. I don’t at least. I’m treating it like another game.”
The Cavaliers are 1-9 on the road on the second night of a back-to-back, and with LeBron James playing 52 minutes against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, there is the possibility Cleveland could choose to sit its starters against the Celtics. But Thomas and the Celtics aren’t paying attention to that.
“I mean, at this point, I don’t care who plays,” Thomas said. “If they don’t play, that’ll be good. If they do, we’ll be there at 8 o’clock to play them. I’m fine with either way they go. You can’t control that decision but, if they do play, it would definitely be a really good game and, if they don’t, we’ve just got to figure out how to get a win anyway.”
While Thomas isn’t approaching the game differently, shooting guard Avery Bradley says the C’s will be feeding off the fact that they believe they aren’t respected, despite currently holding the No. 1 spot in the East.
“Guys on this team, Isaiah, myself, Jae (Crowder), we all feel like underdogs anyway,” Bradley said. “We feel like we’ve always been overlooked. No one gives us credit and as a team, that’s what we expected going into this year. We knew that a lot of people would count us out, a lot of people would say we would be on the bottom of the pack. (They said), yeah, we added Al (Horford), but we might not get over the hump. We just stuck together and used that as motivation.”
The Celtics and Cavaliers will tip off at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday night.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
