Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“You always hear about the last couple of teams battling to try to get into the playoffs, but this is crazy,” Celtics swingman Evan Turner said. “I’ve never seen it where five or six teams are bunched that close together. That’s kind of crazy.”

And woe be the team that produces an inopportune loss under these conditions.

“It’s psycho,” Turner said. “But with teams so close like that, our mindset is that what’s supposed to happen will happen.”

A team such as the Celtics, who thrive on an emotional edginess, and who collapse when they play anywhere under that level, could go either way. The last three dates will clearly be swing games for the Celtics as well as Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami.

Herald: Tightly bunched conference has teams on edge

This was part of our discussion on the new Rainin’ J’s podcast… we are heading for an awesomely intense ending to the regular season. Let’s revisit our breakdown… first by looking at standings going into today…

How tight is everything? With six games left, the Celtics still haven’t clinched a playoff spot. They could be anything from the third seed to out of the playoffs. However, that’s just a technicality (we hope) as the Celtics will have to lose all six to miss out.

Anyway, back to reality…

The Celtics can take control of their own destiny by running the table… which is obviously easier said than done, but possible. Here are the schedules…

* = back to back
Boston: @LAL, NO, MIL @ATL*, CHA, MIA
Miami:  DET, CHI, @ORL*, ORL, @DET, @BOS*
Atlanta: PHX, TOR, BOS, @CLE, @WAS
Charlotte:  @CLE, @DET*, @NYK, @BK, @WAS, @BOS*, ORL

The key thing here is Boston plays all of these teams once more. If Boston wins all six, then all three opponents are guaranteed another loss. Boston would end up with 50 wins but Miami and Atlanta would have 49. Charlotte would end up 50 wins as well, but they’d lose the tiebreaker to Boston.

And along those same lines, the Celtics can afford a loss to one of those other three teams IF Miami, Atlanta, and Charlotte also lose one of their non-Boston games. While a six-game winning streak might be too much to ask, a three-game winning streak to close the season is imperative for playoff seeding. Miami could lose a couple of those games to Detroit.. Atlanta at Cleveland could get interesting if the Cavs don’t rest anyone, and Charlotte has a couple of tough ones coming up. The Celtics might not NEED to win all six games coming up, but they could erase all doubt by doing so.

Regardless, this is going to be an awesome finish to the season with the final seeding in doubt going into the final night of the season.

Page 2: #FirstTeamAllDefense

Even before Friday’s game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he agreed with Lillard’s assessment that Bradley is the league’s best perimeter defender.

“He just puts a lot of pressure on the ball. He’s got long arms, very quick feet and good anticipation. He knows what people are doing and he oftentimes jumps plays as they’re happening or before they happen,” Kerr said. “So, I agree with Damian. I think Avery Bradley’s as good of an on-ball defender as there is in the league. I think that’s a fair assessment.

[…]

But Bradley’s teammates want to make sure he’s rewarded at season’s end when the league’s coaches vote for the All-Defensive honors. They know how important Bradley is to a team with the fifth-best defensive rating in the league.

“[Bradley] deserves [the honor],” Sullinger said. “[His defensive efforts] might not show up in the stat sheet, but the way he defends, the way he does so many things on the ball, how he affects the ball, he deserves first-team All-Defense.”

ESPN Boston: Peers stumping for Bradley’s #FirstTeamAllDefense campaign

This also happened to be a huge topic on this week’s podcast… What Avery Bradley has done this season defensively, especially lately, is impressive. If he’s not on that first team All Defense, then someone’s not watching basketball.

What makes Bradley’s efforts this year more impressive are…

A) He slipped a little defensively last year as he switched his focus more to the offense. But now he’s really gotten back to being the locked in AB we always knew. And…

B) His offense has gotten better as his defense has improved. By almost all metrics, Bradley is having his best overall season to date. He’s grown into a true 2-way player with the potential to both drop 20 points on you while also shutting down your best player.

What Bradley has done this year has been fun to watch. He’s rounding out to be a really nice overall player whose $7.7 million this season is a damn steal (not the steal that Isaiah Tomas, who makes $6.9 million this year and LESS in each of the next two seasons, is… but still…).

Let’s get him on that All Defense team.

And Finally…

Chuck Cooper… the first black player drafted by an NBA team… might be headed to the Hall of Fame. There’s now a question as to whether the Celtics will retire his #11 if that happens.

I think that would be the appropriate thing to do. When you look at some of the numbers up there, there are guys who haven’t had the impact on the NBA that Cooper has on the league. Just ask Paul Pierce

“Why not?” Pierce, now with the Los Angeles Clippers, told The Undefeated. “There are probably a lot of numbers up there that shouldn’t even be retired. You’ve done something groundbreaking, and you changed the course of history of bringing black players to Boston.

“His picture should be up everywhere, and his number should be retired. It’s surprising it’s not.”

I know the counter-argument is “how many damn numbers will we retire?” The Celtics have so many numbers up in the rafters that guys like Jae Crowder decide to just take number 99 and move on. Maybe there’s a solution to change things and put some retired numbers back in circulation.

If they want to get a few numbers back, they can add zeroes in front of single digits. If Avery Bradley can wear 0 while Chief’s 00 is retired, then why can’t someone come in and wear 01, 02, 03, or 06? I know that’s only four numbers but it’s four more than they had before.

Maybe the Celtics will create their own Hall of Fame like the Patriots did and stop retiring numbers (after 34 and 5, of course). Maybe they’ll do a ring of honor and get around things that way. But Chuck Cooper deserves something big. Read about his life in the NBA and he went through f’ing hell to break this ground and help create the league we see today. Time to properly honor him.

The rest of the links:

Globe: How did the Warriors get so good?  |  Kerr offers high praise for Stevens  |  CSNNE: Celtics-Lakers preview: One game at a time  |  Thomas stayed aggressive to lead Celtics  |  Herald: Focus remains on winning… and Kobe  |  Celtics seize the moment as asked  |  Boston.com: No Foolin’, Friday night was special for Boston fans