How Celtics bench players are evolving into key roles

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-bench-players-evolving-key-173226083.html



How Celtics bench players are evolving into key roles



A. Sherrod Blakely


NBC Sports Boston•Mar 22, 2018, 10:32 AM







BOSTON – It wasn't that long ago that Abdel Nader was getting what he described as "garbage minutes" which for the basketball vernacularly-challenged, means playing time at the end of games when the outcome is all but decided.

Nader approached it as an opportunity to prove his worth with the goal being for his role to increase down the road.

"Every game is a new learning experience," Nader told NBC Sports Boston. "Some games you play great, you do well and learn from them. Some you do bad and learn from them, too."

Injuries have left the Celtics little choice but to turn to Nader and guys who have played limited roles this year, to not just play but deliver in a way akin to what the players two and three-deep ahead of him on the depth chart, were doing.

Needless to say, the results have been mixed.

Nader has had games when he's made shots and his defense has been solid enough to where it was one of the keys to victory. And then there have been nights when he has struggled, the most notable being Boston's loss at New Orleans on Saturday when he missed five consecutive free throws including all four during a potential four-point play.

Semi Ojeleye and Shane Larkin, both of whom have also seen a spike in their minutes, have had some good and not-so-good performances as well.

But as we saw in Boston's dramatic 100-99 win over Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the fourth quarter was won in part by the Celtics getting good mileage from their bench guys.

Of the eight players Boston used in the fourth quarter against the Thunder, two (Larkin and Ojeleye) of the top-3 in minutes played that quarter were reserves.

"A lot of our young guys have made big plays all year," said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens.

To see no hesitation on Boston's part to call on its seldom-used reserves to make plays at both ends of the floor in tight games says a lot about the evolution of Boston's bench, as players who saw little action at the start of the year are now thrust into prominent roles.

Even before the season began, it was a given that the depth of Boston's bench was going to be tested at some point.

Little did they know the first crisis would hit only five minutes into the season-opener when Gordon Hayward suffered an ankle injury that has kept him sidelined ever since.

From there, Boston dealt with a wave of injuries that left Brad Stevens little choice but to dig deeper into the bench than he probably anticipated needing to do.

Aware of this, players from top to bottom have to stay engaged because their chance to play could come at any moment.

"Everybody has to be at the top of their game," Ojeleye said. "That's what everyone has done, do what they do best on the court and collectively we can have a good chance to win. If everybody does their part, we'll be alright."



bob
MY NOTE:  Even this late in the season, with all the injuries we've had and minutes that has gotten him, Nader has still played less than 400 minutes this year.  Larkin has played less than 600.  Semi has the most with 900.  Add those 3 players together and you have <300 more than Marcus Smart has played this season and he was out with his hand before the surgery and has missed a few games after it.  I point this out to highlight just how much we are asking of those three players, two of whom are 2nd round rookies.  And yet they are out there competing and we're still better than half the teams in the league.  We are 6-4 over this past injury-riddled stretch and there are 17 teams with whose records over the past 10 is worse than that and 5 more that are 6-4 too.  So, for all the weakness we are showing now and despite playing deeper into the bench than most teams ever do there are only 8 teams in the league that have had a better record over the last 10 games.  That's a splendid testament to Brad and his coaching staff.  These kids know their jobs.


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