In Brad They Trust

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4718961/in-brad-they-trust




In Brad they trust







Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports



Chris Forsberg, Celtics reporter, ESPNBoston.com




WALTHAM, Mass. -- The day before the Boston Celtics turned around their 2014-15 campaign, Avery Bradley saw it coming when virtually no one else did.

The Celtics were 13 games under .500 in late January and had just dropped the first game of a six-game road trip out west that most expected would ensure Boston, which had already overhauled its roster with in-season trades that shipped out Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green, would swim in a vat of pingpong balls by season's end.

Bradley, ever the optimist, pleaded that Boston could turn things around. During an offday workout during a three-day break in the schedule, Bradley said, "We’re almost there, but we have to continue to be positive and believe in Brad Stevens."

That next game, the Celtics stunned the Portland Trail Blazers when Evan Turner hit a last-second 3-pointer off a crazy scramble. One night later in Denver, it was Bradley hitting a series of clutch late-game jumpers for another one-point victory over the Nuggets.

Three months later, after a furious late-season surge delivered the Celtics to the playoffs and a first-round matchup against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bradley smiles now reflecting on Boston's surge. He can admit that he might have been more positive vocally than he felt inside, but stresses that the key for Boston never changed.

Believing in Brad Stevens.

As the seventh-seeded Celtics enter the postseason as heavy underdogs against the second-seeded Cavaliers, Boston players have adopted their coach's calm and focused demeanor. They are aware they don't possess the pure individual talent or the playoff experience of the Cavaliers, but the Celtics do have a coach that simply won't allow his players to believe they are not capable of competing against the team favored to win the NBA title.

For much of Boston's rebuild, fans have rallied around the mantra of "In Danny We Trust." When Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge ushered in the rebuild during the summer of 2013 by trading away Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, then continued the overhaul with 11 trades during the 2014-15 season, Celtics supporters maintained faith that Ainge would eventually deliver the Celtics back to contender status.

There's still work to be done to get there, but Boston is back in the postseason ahead of even the most optimistic schedule and, despite the long odds it faces to stick around, Celtics players are rallying around a similar mantra: "In Brad We Trust."

If the 38-year-old Stevens has proved anything over his coaching career, it's that he can get the most out of his players and exceed expectations on the biggest stage of the season. Celtics players are confident heading into the playoffs because they believe so firmly now that their whiteboard-clutching leader will put them in position to succeed.

"It’s going to be his first playoffs, but he had two great runs at Butler," Jared Sullinger said. "At the end of those seasons, they were playing their best basketball and got to the national championship games. I think he’s kinda built for these moments, the way he prepares throughout the season. On top of that, to see a team possibly for seven games, he’s going to pick you apart. That’s where he’s at his best."

Stevens swears he hasn't changed the way he prepares. In fact, his biggest challenge in these days leading up to Sunday's Game 1 (3 p.m., ABC) has been making sure he doesn't overload both himself or his players. Stevens wants his charges to build off their late-season progress, play with clear minds and perform with a confidence that's been building since those one-point wins out west.

Stevens has embraced the challenge of game planning against James -- whom he calls the "best player in the game" -- and a Cleveland squad that has been the best team in the Eastern Conference in recent months. Peppered with questions in recent days about being able to really focus on one team for the first time in his coaching career, Stevens has maintained his sense of humor about the task in front of him.

"I think that, as a coach, you look forward to it," Stevens said. "But prefer your opponent wasn’t like the best team ever assembled."

But Stevens also admits that it's challenges like this that ultimately attracted him to the Celtics.

"I think, as a coach, you look forward to participating in events like the playoffs," he said. "As a college coach, what I look back most fondly on and what I enjoyed the most was all the people I got a chance to work with every day, but the one kind of outside driving force that drives you every single minute or every single day was the NCAA tournament.

"It’s the same way when you’re a professional coach or a professional athlete. You get a chance to participate in the playoffs, you get a chance to play against the best. We’re getting a chance right out of the gate to do both. It’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for all of us to see where we stand."

Stevens is eager to engage in the playoff chess match, the chance to tinker with rotations and schemes from game to game. He has tried to downplay his impact in how the series will play out, noting that, "players are always the one that ultimately make the plays."

What Stevens has sought to control entering the series is his team's demeanor and confidence. By maintaining a sense of normalcy about the process, he's trying to prevent his team from becoming overwhelmed by the challenge in front of them.

"He doesn't really show any type of emotion," Turner said. "I wouldn’t know, but I think he seems pretty excited. He’s pretty hyped. At the same time, you’d never know. He has no emotions. I’ve got great confidence in him, I think he has full confidence in himself."

Added Turner: "He’s a great leader. Especially with the type of season we’ve had and what we knew we were going to go up against, I don’t think he ever jumped off the ship. He kept his poise, kept his mind on the bigger picture -- even when we started off 4-11. I think, had he been a panic-type of leader, we probably would have never been in this situation. But he always had this silent confidence and he always believed in the bigger picture. The biggest thing is he found people that would do the same with him."

In two days of practice before Sunday's Game 1, Stevens has exuded poise and confidence. Asked Saturday if he's worried that his players might be overhyped at the start of the series, Stevens calmly replied, "They might be; I won't be."

Stevens said the best teams he's ever coached had a laser focus at the end of the season. The Celtics ended the season winning a season-high six straight games and also won their final seven games on the road. Stevens believes his team is locked in and wants them to stay there.

He's repeatedly implored his team to "stay in the moment" during its playoff push and now into the postseason. That leaves Stevens unable to truly savor what the team has accomplished to simply get to this point, but that's just part of being a coach.

"I’ll do that when it’s over -- and probably not until whenever my coaching career is over," Stevens said. "You always want what’s next. You’re always looking at what’s next. My expectations are that we can go out and perform well. You’re always striving to do that. Maybe that's a negative in a lot of ways, because even after the Final Fours, it was like recruiting and figuring out a way to try to get back. That’s just what you do in coaching, unfortunately."

The Celtics face long odds against the Cavaliers in this series. Virtually everyone is betting against them. But the voice they trust most is telling them they can compete.

So, in Brad they trust.



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