It would have been foolish to think that the Boston Celtics were going to run roughshod right from the start of the 2017-18 season.
The Celtics experienced a nearly complete overhaul of their roster from 2016-17 campaign, as the team only returned four players from the unit that reached the Eastern Conference finals a season ago.
Boston’s chemistry was going to take time to build, but the process wasn’t expected to be painstakingly slow given the supremely talented roster. Unfortunately for the Celtics, recent events undoubtedly will make this mission tougher to achieve.
The C’s lost an integral piece of their team Tuesday night, as Gordon Hayward suffered a horrific ankle injury in the season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Hayward is expected to undergo surgery Wednesday night, but there still is no timetable for his return.
Boston showed impressive resiliency against the Cavaliers following Hayward’s injury, but couldn’t hang on during the home stretch, ultimately suffering a 102-99 loss. The tale of the tape was eerily similar in the Celtics’ home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, as Boston had the wheels fall off late in the fourth quarter in its 108-100 loss at TD Garden.
A colossal weight seemingly fell on Kyrie Irving’s shoulders following Hayward’s injury. The star point guard now is Boston’s only elite scorer, expanding his already large role within the team’s offense. Irving appeared to play with this notion in mind against the Bucks, as poor shot selection and excessive ball-handling led to 28 percent shooting from the field and three turnovers.
The Celtics have the personnel to be one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference, even with Hayward out of action. Al Horford still provides one of the more versatile offensive skill sets in basketball, and youngsters Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have displayed considerable promise through the first two games of the season.
Outside of the starting lineup, Boston’s bench is littered with rookies and inexperienced players. Celtics head coach Brad Stevens hasn’t shied away from turning to these players thus far, providing deep bench players with considerable minutes. The C’s have shown great flashes through two games, but now it becomes a matter of making them more consistent.
“We have a lot of young guys, I’m hopeful that we can find the right combinations,” Stevens said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics postgame coverage. “Obviously didn’t anticipate going this far into this bench this early, but I thought some of those guys did a pretty good job. (Abdel) Nader did a good job, I thought Semi (Ojeleye) provided some good minutes defensively and then I thought (Daniel) Theis did a pretty good job. The part that we’ve got to find is a combination that works all together, especially when we go to the bench. We’ll find it.”
Here are some other notes from Celtics-Bucks:
— Jaylen Brown led Boston in scoring for a second consecutive game, scoring 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
— With Marcus Smart vaulted into the starting lineup, Terry Rozier could become the C’s sixth man. The third-year guard was strong against the Bucks, scoring 15 points to go along with seven rebounds and six assists.
— Giannis Antetokounmpo kickstarted his MVP campaign in a big way, scoring a game-high 37 points while pulling down 13 rebounds.
— Nader and Theis both made their Celtics debuts against the Bucks. Nader posted four points and an assist over 11 minutes, while Theis notched six points and two rebounds in only four minutes of action.
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
