Boston Celtics

Celtics Deserve Our Attention, Win Streak Ending Meaningless

Published

4 months ago

November 23, 2017

Tanner Rebelo

The Boston Celtics won 16 straight NBA contests after starting their season 0-2. An impressive streak that made a young team the talk of the entire NBA and started to turn heads of the Celtics faithful. The streak, however, came to a close in a loss against Kelly Olynyk and the Miami Heat. The loss though shouldn’t deter anyone from flipping to the Celtics though. In fact how they respond to this loss will be a telling point on what could be a championship contending season.

It was easy to write this season off after the injury to Gordon Hayward, but players like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum won’t let that happen. The young players in Boston backed up by stars in Kyrie Irving and Al Horford have helped fuel a team that looks on the cusp of multiple championship caliber seasons. The issue is, in the NBA, the team with the best player usually wins.

This rule almost always turns out to be true in the playoffs. And if Boston goes up against Cleveland, LeBron is still better, Golden State? Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are better than Irving. At the moment though all of this is speculation. Who knows how Tatum or Brown will play in the spring. Boston has a lot to figure out still despite coming off of their win streak. How they bounce back against the Magic is huge. They need to show that they are bigger than those 16 games, that they are a team that can compete.

Beating Orlando on any given night isn’t a big deal, but doing it after losing a winning streak is huge. Brad Stevens has done an amazing job getting the best out of his players. But it is easy to see that almost everyone on his team still has yet to reach their potential in his system.

Toe-to-toe it still looks like Boston will be just short of their lofty goals of winning banner #18. But they continue to inch closer and closer.

Boston Celtics

Brad Stevens Gives Updates On Irving, Horford, And Theis

Published

4 hours ago

March 14, 2018

Tanner Rebelo

Prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Washington Wizards Boston Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens issued several injury updates.

Stevens’s updates included ones on Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, and Daniel Theis.

Theis who has already been ruled out for the season with a torn meniscus is going to have surgery to repair it on Thursday.
Irving had tests on his knee and they came back clean. Stevens says there is a chance that he plays on Sunday and will travel with the team. He is unlikely for Friday but there is a chance he plays.
Horford is expected to return to action on Friday.
Jaylen Brown is progressing but hasn’t started the NBA concussion protocol yet. The team is hoping that Brown will start that process at some point this weekend.

There is still a lot of uncertainty with Jaylen. But the updates on Horford and Irving are promising with both expected to be fully back in the rotation by the weekend.

Boston Celtics

Celtics Starting 5 Against Washington Sort Of Murky With So Many Injuries

Published

5 hours ago

March 14, 2018

Tanner Rebelo

With Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis, Gordon Hayward, and Jaylen Brown all out tonight against the Washington Wizards the lineup and rotations for Brad Stevens are going to be fairly interesting, to say the least.

Many of the injured like a Theis, Hayward, and Smart are expected to be out for the foreseeable future with only Smart potentially coming back this season. So the lineup challenge will be something Stevens has to deal with on a game-by-game basis. But Wednesday nights game against Washington will likely be the most challenging with two all-stars out in Irving and in Horford.

#NEBHInjuryReport for tonight's game vs. Washington:

Brown (concussion) - OUT
Hayward (left ankle rehab) - OUT
Horford (illness) - OUT
Irving (left knee soreness) - OUT
Smart (right thumb sprain) - OUT
Tatum (low back tightness) - PROBABLE
Theis (left knee meniscal tear) - OUT

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 14, 2018

So what exactly will the starting five look like for Stevens against the Wizards? Well here are the players who are expected to be available.

The #Celtics are EXTREMELY shorthanded going into tonight's game vs @WashWizards.

Who is your Starting 5?

Available are:
Tatum (probable)
Rozier
Morris
Monroe
Baynes
Larkin
Nader
Ojeleye
Yabusele
Jabari Bird
Kadeem Allen

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 14, 2018

Chances are Shane Larkin will slot in at point guard with Terry Rozier at the shooting guard position. Then you will have the rookie Jayson Tatum at small forward, Marcus Morris at power forward and either Aron Baynes or Greg Monroe at center.

Larkin

Rozier

Tatum

Morris

Baynes/Monroe

With many key scorers out you could potentially see Tatum and Rozier lead the team in points with the chances of the pair launching up 20+ shots a piece an actual possibility. The emergence of Morris as a scorer should also help fill in the gaps for the Celtics.

The big question for tonight is who off the bench will step up and make key shots for Boston. A part of me believes it will be Abdel Nader. Either way, it is going to be a challenge Stevens will have to manage going forward with the second best team in the Eastern Conference having some serious injury concerns all of a sudden.

For those of you that though a potential Hayward return was crazy, these injuries may force it with the star wing reportedly close to running and all reports saying he looks close to 100% at practice.

Update: It appears that Guershon Yabusele will make his first NBA start for the Celtics tonight.

So to make it official:

Boston Celtics tonight vs. Washington…

Starters: Rozier, Tatum, Morris, Yabusele, Baynes

Bench: Larkin, Allen, Nader, Bird, Ojeleye, Monroe

Out: Irving, Smart, Brown, Hayward, Horford, Theis

Not walking through that door: Bird, McHale, Parish

— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) March 14, 2018