Brad Stevens Hints At Changes To Celtics’ Starting Lineup As Playoffs Near

Brad Stevens, for the most part, has pressed all the right buttons throughout his tenure as head coach of the Boston Celtics.

Unfortunately for the C’s, that hasn’t been the case for the bulk of the 2018-19 NBA season.

Stevens’ attempts to create sparks for Boston largely have gone for naught over the course of the season. While the Celtics’ struggles, of course, can’t entirely be put on the head coach’s shoulders, the team’s inability to create consistent momentum and unresponsiveness have become increasingly concerning as the regular season winds down.

Boston dropped its fourth straight game Sunday night, leaving just eight contests on the docket before the playoffs begin. Something needs to change for the Celtics if they are to have have any hope of making a deep postseason run, and those efforts very well might be aided by a change to the starting five.

“The one thing as we move forward, we are going to need, based on our matchup, to settle on the best things for each series,” Stevens said Sunday, per The Athletic’s Jay King. “But I don’t know that that will be our starting lineup that we’ve been starting. But I’m more worried about the last 42 minutes than the first six, so I do think that’s another factor in that.”

The Celtics’ most consistent starting lineup this season has been Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris and Al Horford. An obvious tweak would be swapping Jaylen Brown for Morris, as the former has been on a tear of late and the latter has struggled mightily after a hot start to the season. But as Stevens notes, Boston’s starting five often will be predicated by matchup. If the C’s are trying to go big, for example, don’t be surprised if Aron Baynes is promoted to play alongside Horford in the frontcourt.

A lineup change likely won’t fix all of the Celtics’ current issues, however, and  they have more than a few of them as the playoffs inch closer.