As the postseason creeps closer and closer, teams are fighting to stay alive in the eight seed playoff brackets. For the Boston Celtics, winning number fifty (50) down at the Madison Square Garden is a hopeful sign of trying to outperform the Cavaliers to lock in the first seed of the tight knit Eastern Conference.
Coach Stevens has elevated his coaching each and every year, consistently working with new roster shake ups. For the 50-27 Celtics of the 2016/17 season thus far, it has been quite the journey. In the 110-94 victory down in New York City, playing yet again without star guard Avery Bradley, who has missed 26 games this season including today’s matchup against the Knicks, it has been a challenge. Overcoming the injuries of star players like Bradley is not foreign to Coach Stevens, as he has worked with the loss of Al Horford toward the beginning of the season and the six games Isaiah Thomas has missed due to injuries.
According to ESPN, the Celtics now have tied the Los Angeles Lakers for the most 50+ win seasons in NBA history with 32. In today’s match up, star point guard Isaiah Thomas dropped a mere 19 points, not where his usual statistics land, but enough to get the win in New York. Along with Thomas, who was the lead scorer, rookie small forward Jaylen Brown once again had himself a great performance with 16 points and going 5-6 from the field. Earning the trust of Brad Stevens and the hole of Avery Bradley gave Brown the opportunity to crack into the starting lineup once again and utilize he minutes he received (27). Although Brown was quickly subbed out in the 1st quarter, he eventually went back in and was a two way threat for the rest of the time he played. Not to mention Brown had a sweet dunk that defied the law of physics along with Marcus Smart’s one hand lob.
Celtics next play the Cleveland Cavaliers this Wednesday night, as this will be a highly anticipated match up for the battle of the Eastern Conference.
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