Hell Month Has Hardened The Celtics

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Surprising Celtics still standing after tough early schedule





By Scott Souza/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Nov 26, 2013 @ 06:44 PM



WALTHAM —
The Celtics have given themselves a puncher’s chance at making the playoffs this season in what could have been a first-round knockout type of year.

With a new coach with no NBA experience, with a dramatically revamped roster, and without their All-Star point guard, the Celtics were charged with playing 19 times — 11 times on the road — with six back-to-backs in the first 32 days of the season.

Brad Stevens thought it would be punishing. And those he spoke with in an effort to ease his concerns only reaffirmed his initial belief.
"Everybody that I’ve talked to who has been a part of this before," he said, "has told me this is as tough a month as they’ve ever been through."
Yet — despite one four-game losing streak and one six-game losing streak —– the Celtics are on the verge of emerging from the opening gauntlet still standing. Back-to-back victories in Atlanta and Charlotte have them at 6-10. They entered Tuesday night’s action just 1.5 games out of first place in the Atlantic Division and a half-game out of the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"One thing I can say about this month is that we’ve gotten better as a team," Avery Bradley said. "We’ve learned a lot about our team throughout this month. We played a lot of games. I feel like every single game, even though we had our ups and downs, we’ve continued to improve."
Asked if the Celtics had "survived" the opening barrage of travel and back-to-backs, Bradley took a bit of umbrage to the term, but agreed with the sentiment.

"Survived? I wouldn’t use that word," he said. "But it definitely makes us feel good knowing what we came from the first game. We can feel good about ourselves."

A big reason for that prevailing optimism is Stevens. Over the course of the first month, the coach has made the tough choices when it came to sitting veterans and changing rotations. He has been able to manage a roster of decent, yet hardly exceptional, players — typically a recipe for disaster in the NBA — into one where he is increasingly getting contributions from different players each night he’s needed it.

"They know there’s a lot of evenness on this team," said Stevens, who held only his sixth full practice of the season Tuesday heading into Wednesday night’s home game vs. Memphis. "It’s not hard to see. Anyone who follows this team knows that any day one through 10 can be flipped. It’s really been good that they understand that and have been very supportive of each other.

"(Monday) night, I thought, was a great example of that (in Charlotte). It’s helped that we’ve had veterans who have really accepted it — specifically a guy like (Kris) Humphries, who did not play in some games, and is now playing a meaningful role for us."

Humphries was a plus-17 in 16 minutes off the bench in Tuesday’s 96-86 victory at Charlotte. Courtney Lee was plus-18 in 15 minutes, while rookie guard Phil Pressey was plus-14 with eight assists and three steals in 20 minutes.

Starting point guard Jordan Crawford (21 points, 5 assists) and Pressey kept the ball moving both in transition and in the halfcourt against Charlotte, which has been a theme in Boston’s better efforts early this season.

"The point guards are going to get our offense going," said Gerald Wallace, who benefited from the ball movement for a season-high 17 points on Monday. "Once we get that ball going from one side to the other, where it doesn’t stick, our offense flows a lot better. We get better shots, better rhythm shots. Our bigs get better post-up position. We make defenses move.

"If you take the worst team in this league, if you keep the ball on one side of the court, they’re pretty good defensively. If you make them move, and they have to guard one or two pick-and-rolls, it’s tough even for the best of teams."

The Celtics have hardly been one of the best of teams in the first month of the year. But with the schedule now easing considerably into December — where they have only three road games and two back-to-backs — they could be a surprise factor in the Eastern Conference playoff race as they near the expected return of Rajon Rondo sometime in the next month.

"It’s been encouraging," Stevens said, "because we’re toward the end of this stretch, and we’ve gotten better as the month’s gone on."



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