Celtics Won’t Prioritize NBA Playoff Seeding Over Health Of Players

This season presents a unique set of challenges, and the Boston Celtics certainly have run into most of them.

The latest one on the horizon? The potential of falling out of a guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings and having to keep their season alive via play-in tournament.

As things stand, ahead of the Celtics game against the Portland Trail Blazers, Boston sits 28-26 at No. 7 in the East. Play-in games will be held between the seven through 10 seeds for each conference, allowing bubble teams a margin of error for games lost due to teams dealing with COVID-19.

The Celtics happen to be the team whose players collectively have missed the most time due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols. Not to mention, they’ve had a slew of injures that have impacted usage of certain players out of caution.

That won’t change, Brad Stevens shared. Even if it means being forced into the play-in.

“We will not prioritize our seed over our players’ health, that’s for sure,” the Celtics head coach said before their game against the Portland Trail Blazers.

“If there’s somebody that needs to sit, or if (Jayson) Tatum, Jaylen (Brown), whoever (needs to sit, they will). And I think we’ve been pretty consistent with that with Kemba’s (Walker) year as well.”

Well, that settles that.